Religious Doctors No More Likely To Care For Underserved Patients?

Actually this is another of those headlines that mislead. In this case the headline figures about religious and non-religious hide a variety of issues about adherence, identity and culture. So it may be significant that when the study corrects for 'more conventional' religion we find a slightly different picture emerges. "Physicians who strongly agreed that their religious beliefs influence their practice of medicine were more likely to report practice among the under-served. However, physicians who were more religious in general (as measured by their intrinsic religiosity or their frequency of attending religious services) were not more likely to practice among the under-served. Even the more religious physicians who reported that their families emphasized service to the poor and that, for them, the practice of medicine was a calling, were no more likely to practice among the under-served.
Curlin and colleagues also noted that those who identified themselves as very spiritual, whether or not they were religious, were roughly twice as likely to care for the under-served as those who described their spirituality as low."
We should perhaps also recall the Barna (I think it was) survey of USAmerican "evangelicals" which showed a remarkable lack of churchy-faith translation to key convictions or action.
It seems to me the scientists involved in the study would do well to inform themselves better of the realities of the interaction of social status, religion and culture ... ?
ScienceDaily: Religious Doctors No More Likely To Care For Underserved Patients:

Affluenza Quiz

Okay, so it's a promo for a book, but makes you think. In my case it gave me a nice sense of proportion. I got 12 out of 50 -so not affluenzic. And yet they can't leave me to be smug: "You are not distressed . . . yet!
Make sure the virus does not take hold - read Affluenza today!"
This is one area where faith-based intervention really does make a difference.
Affluenza Quiz

The Gospel whispers to J.K. Rowling

Interesting musings are going on ... "When C.S. Lewis started out to write The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, he didn't have Christianity in mind. 'Some people seem to think that I began by asking myself how I could say something abut Christianity to children; then fixed on the fairy tales as an instrument, then collect information about child psychology and decided what age group I'd write for; then drew up a list of basic Christian truths and hammered out 'allegories' to embody them,' Lewis once wrote. 'This is all pure moonshine. I couldn't write in that way at all. Everything began with images,' Lewis continued. 'A faun carrying an umbrella, a queen on a sled, a magnificent lion. At first there wasn't anything Christian about them. That element pushed itself in of its own accord.'
Something similar seems to have happened to J.K. Rowling. She began writing about wizards and quidditch and Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans, and somewhere along the way, Christ began to whisper into the story."
I think, myself that it's probably down to the kind of thing Lewis said about the way that Christ is echoed in pagan mythology; that the reality of the Christ event imprints on the whole of creation (okay so that's my take, but I think it's one that corresponds to Lewis'). That said, when someone writes, as Ms Rowling does, about love, good and evil and does so in truthful ways, there's no avoiding the Christ-echoes, they are indeed part of the deep magic of creation and nothing can avoid them that deals with real reality.
That's the big story. Not a metanarrative, I think; but (pace John Drane in 'What is the New Age saying to the Church?') it is a vital fulcrum of understanding that enables us to lever cultural weight for Good and break open forces of ill-ideology ...
The Gospel According to J.K. Rowling | Christianity Today | A Magazine of Evangelical Conviction:

What does it mean: 'personal relationship with Jesus'?

'cos I'm blowed if I know anymore. That's not a statement of a personal crisis or loss of faith; just that while I once knew what I meant and my evangelical confreres meant when we said that (and the author of the referred to blog entry largely has it right), I have a real sense that not only is the meaning stretched too thin nowadays, but that it may even now be hiding all sorts of evasions of the real business of following Christ. Here's the heart of the difficulty, I think:

What do you do when witnessing to a Mormon or Jehovah’s Witness who also claims to have a personal relationship with Jesus? In the shifting landscape of post-Christendom’s rampant individualism, a “personal relationship with Jesus” can mean many things, too many things I’m afraid.

And I'm not even sure that the component of some kind of experience of God which was certainly what I understood by the phrase is even there now. In any case I'm unsure how far that was a good guide anyhow, since I have had to reflect on the apparent lack of experience of others and at times myself who nevertheless are showing fruit of the Spirit, not to mention the reverse case of experiencers who seemed to go way astray.

And then there's this issue too:

The other problem with the phrase is the way it sounds to men. When I’m witnessing to another guy, it seems weird to ask them if they want to have a relationship with Jesus. It’s not because I’m embarrassed by the concept or by the gospel. It’s because the terminology sounds, well, feminine. How many men want to talk about relationships? That’s why I think it is wise to find other phrases to get across the same message – a life of discipleship, following Christ, serving his kingdom, submitting to his lordship, etc.

Good point, I suspect. Though maybe changing.
Question now is: is there another vocabulary to use?
Rethinking our Vocabulary: “Personal Relationship with Jesus”

Blow to Brown plan to extend detention beyond 28 days | Terror threat to Britain | Guardian Unlimited

A parliamentary committee seems to evidence that there is still some sense about civil liberties being talked in some of the corridors of power. "Andrew Dismore, the committee's Labour chairman, demanded: 'Where is the supporting evidence to extend the detention period? As far as we've heard there has not yet been a case where 28 days was inadequate.'"
Blow to Brown plan to extend detention beyond 28 days | Terror threat to Britain | Guardian Unlimited:

Living Lightly 24:1 - a simpler, greener lifestyle commitment from A Rocha UK, the Christian environmental charity

Having done a session a couple of weeks back with summer school students on rules of life with environmental and justice concerns in mind, I come across now a further resource which I wish I'd known about then ...

Welcome to Living Lightly 24:1, a simpler, greener lifestyle commitment from A Rocha UK. There must be more to life than working, consuming, acquiring and being sucked into a value system that we know is wrong.
There is more! Living Lightly 24:1 offers a renewed vision of the world and alternative way of living; a virtual Christian community to be part of! It is not a long list of "dos" and "don'ts", but a journey of discovery, seeking to live with delight and gentleness in God's World.
The 24:1 Commitment - believing - 'The Earth is the Lord's and everything in it' (Psalm 24:1)
The 24:1 Challenge - behaving - Living lightly in God's World
The 24:1 Community - belonging - Caring for God's World together.

Ah well, at least I can commend it to you! The advantage of it seems to be, like Greenbelt's 'Generous' project, that it offers a community facility where people can discuss pros and cons of actions and commitments and exchange good practice.
Living Lightly 24:1 - a simpler, greener lifestyle commitment from A Rocha UK, the Christian environmental charity

Watch that space

In a prison cell south of Cairo a repentant Egyptian terrorist leader is putting the finishing touches to a remarkable recantation that undermines the Muslim theological basis for violent jihad and is set to generate furious controversy among former comrades still fighting with al-Qaida.

There are hints, however, that it may be a matter of tactics rather than principle... we shall see. I'm hopeful but cautiously so.
Violence won't work: how author of 'jihadists' bible' stirred up a storm | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited:

Cultural creatives chez France

Just found this handy little résumé of the characteristics of 'cultural creatives' on a French emerging church website.

"Les <>
* Sont pour l’écologie et le développement durable.
* Reconnaissent l’importance du rôle des femmes dans la société.
* Sont dans l’être davantage que dans l’avoir et dans le paraître.
* Sont pour la connaissance de soi et ont une sensibilité pour ce qui touche la spiritualité.
* sont ouverts sur le monde.
* Sont défavorables au développement économique à tout prix et s’impliquent au niveau collectif."*

It's interesting that this list pretty much corresponds to a list I use for teaching about post-modern spirituality which draws a lot on John Drane's writings about New Agery. It reminds me quite a lot of the characters in Les Particules Elementaires.

(*which being interpreted for the non-Francophonic is:
-are for ecology and sustainable development.
-recognise the importance of the role of women in society.
-are into being more than having are image.
-are for self-knowledge and have a spiritual sensibility
-are open to the world
-are against economic development at all costs and see themselves as part of a whole.)
www.temoins.com - La culture chrétienne interconfessionnelle: See also here and here -both in English.

Try stuff

As I get my head around being a course leader and thinking about the way the course may develop, I find this nugget of wisdom from Tom Peters encouraging, partly because it fits my own instincs. "I often say ... that I've learned but one thing in 40 years, since I began my management career as a military (Navy) construction engineer in Vietnam in 1966. And that is ... 'try stuff' ... faster than the next guy. ('We have a 'strategic plan.' It's called doing things.'—Herb Kelleher, Southwest Airlines.) And keep on tryin' stuff."
On a recent conference explaining what I did one of the things I said, only half jokingly, was that I was hoping to out-innovate other courses ... hope I'm not setting myself up for a fall, but I've got some ideas ....
tompeters! management consulting leadership training development project management:

How To Green Your Electronics

How To Green Your Electronics (TreeHugger): "In this guide we’ll tell you how to stop wasted energy, what gizmos are greener than others, and what to do about e-waste and electronics recycling. We’ll also show you some of the newest green gadgets coming over the horizon."

Thought for the century

This is thought provoking:

nef's (the new economics foundation) analysis also looks back over the last 40 years and comes to surprising and worrying conclusions. In an age of climate change, when it is more important than ever that we use our resources efficiently, nef's Index, published in association with Friends of the Earth, reveals that:

* The UK comes a poor 21st in the league of 30 countries. Only transition economies, and Portugal, Greece, and Luxembourg do worse.
* Europe as a whole has become less efficient, not more, in translating fossil fuel use into relatively long and happy lives. In fact, the Index reveals that Europe is less carbon efficient now than it was in 1961.
* Across Europe people report comparable levels of well-being whether their lifestyles imply the need for the resources of six and a half, or just one planet like Earth. The message to politicians is that people are just as likely to lead satisfied lives whether their levels of consumption are very low or high and therefore they should not be afraid of policies to reduce demand

The rest of the article is worth a read.
UK 21st in European league of carbon efficiency and well-being

Climate Engineering Is Doable, as Long as We Never Stop

"Climate scientists Damon Matthews of Concordia University and Ken Caldeira of Stanford ran the numbers on atmospheric geo-engineering through a climate simulation and found that while cranking out carbon dioxide at business-as-usual rates we can geo-engineer our way back toward pre-industrial temperatures in short order, reaching 1900 levels in about five years. Not only that, it would be fairly cheap and easy to do. Pumping 20 to 25 liters of aerosols per second to keep enough particles in the stratosphere would cool temperatures, causing the planet's carbon sinks to suck more carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. 'That kind of flow rate can be handled by a single fire hose,' said Caldeira. 'For something like $100 million a year you could probably keep a hose in the stratosphere suspended by an array of balloons with pumps along the way. The problem is what happens if we stop short or screw it up."
Climate Engineering Is Doable, as Long as We Never Stop:

Obesity Is 'Socially Contagious'

My interest here is the mimetic one. I heard this on Radio 4 this morning. "If a person you consider a friend becomes obese, the researchers found, your own chances of becoming obese go up 57 percent. Among mutual friends, the effect is even stronger, with chances increasing 171 percent." One of the presenters asked a pertinent and disarmingly simple question: 'why don't you get thinner among skinny friends?' This is partly answered by this explanation: "Consciously or unconsciously, people look to others when they are deciding how much to eat, how much to exercise and how much weight is too much." I say 'partly' because we need to say also that because eating is generally pleasurable and sometimes social, and because exercise is hard work and so there is a tendency to avoid it, the mimetic drives are stronger in directions that lead to overweight. However; "It's important to remember," Fowler said, "that we've not only shown that obesity is contagious but that thinness is contagious." But, if I'm right, thinness can be contagious but more factors need to be in place for it to be so.
ScienceDaily: Obesity Is 'Socially Contagious':

Less Muslims support suicide bombings

This is encouraging "In Lebanon, Bangladesh, Jordan, Pakistan and Indonesia, the proportion of Muslims who support suicide bombing has declined by half or more since 2002. ... There is also declining support among Muslims for Osama Bin Laden. In Jordan, just 20% express a lot or some confidence in Bin Laden, down from 56% four years ago." I wonder whether it reflects a kind of life-cycle of ideological conflict: at first people applaud because they feel relieved that something seems to be happening in relation to an issue they feel strongly about; 'baddies' are getting their come-uppance. However, over time, reality sets in and the costs and inconsistencies come to the fore and it no longer seems as justifiable. I suspect that the bit I left out actually corroborates that hypothesis:
"But in areas of conflict, the results are different - 70% of Palestinians said that suicide bombings against civilians were sometimes justifiable." Why? because the critical distance provided by the relative disengagement is less easy to come by, understandably.

BBC NEWS | World | Americas | Few Muslims 'back suicide bombs':

Hand Gestures Dramatically Improve Learning

I'm wondering whether this is transferable to other kinds of classroom learning. "Kids asked to physically gesture at math problems are nearly three times more likely than non-gesturers to remember what they've learned." The figures look like this: "Of those children who had learned to solve the problem correctly, only a third of the speech-only students remembered the principles involved, but that figure rose dramatically for the speech-and-gesture, and the gesture-only group, to 90-percent retention."
Also wondering: what kind of gestures? Is this transferable to other subjects? (probably it is).
It may have something to do with recent research and hypotheses which implicate gesture in communication, and this is significant because of the increasing likelihood that language/representation is fundamentally metaphorical and the metaphors are based in bodily experience (see Philosophy in the Flesh and Metaphors we Live By), indeed the lead researcher almost says as much: ""My intuition is that gestures enhance learning because they capitalize on our experience acting in the world," says Cook. "We have a lot of experience learning through interacting with our environment as we grow, and my guess is that gesturing taps into that need to experience.""
ScienceDaily: Hand Gestures Dramatically Improve Learning:

How to be a genius

Yep, this article really does tell you, and you get a much better idea of implication of why it's easier said than done. "a clear-eyed analysis shows that 'genius' is really a set of exceptional skills cultivated through disciplined study". Useful as an educational bracer.
How to be a genius:

Brains and minds: not a direct connection

Report of a brain scientist who experimented with electro-stimulation of brains while patients were conscious (and before you think something unethically Nazi, recall the scene from Hannibal was somewhat based on fact in terms of the fact that the brain itself does not feel pain). There was an interesting set of results in terms of sense of agency.

He found that he could elicit all kinds of things from electrically stimulating the brain- memories, emotions, movements of the body, etc. The mental processes elicited were remarkably vivid.Yet in all instances, patients knew that the evoked response was not caused by their own will. Penfield called it 'double consciousness'. Patients always saw the response from a third person perspective, as well as experiencing the response in the first person. Patients always knew that the response was done to them, not by them. Penfield noted that patients always experienced their own responses as observers, as well as participants, and they could always distinguish their own coincident experience from the simultaneous induced response. There always remained a first-person subjectivity that was untouched by electrical stimulation of the brain.

I'm still thinking about this, but I don't think it poses any basic problem to the emergentist account I suspect is about right: that mind is an emergent property of socialised and embodied brains and as such is non-linear and dynamic and perhaps even 'holographic'...

Filed in:

Why dolphins won't rule the earth/seas

“Dolphins have a superabundance of glia and very few neurons… The dolphin’s brain is not made for information processing it is designed to counter the thermal challenges of being a mammal in water,”

The Technium

Interesting thought: that a technology is like an organism so what is the ecosystem of technologies? This article from the Edge explores a bit further
"Specific technologies are like individuals, or species, and the society or ecosystem of these individuals is the technium. I'm especially interested in how the technium works at the system level — how it operates as an ecology of technological species, as a complex web of interacting agents each with their own biases and tendencies.

The emergent system of the technium — what we often mean by 'Technology' with a capital T — has its own inherent agenda and urges, as does any large complex system, indeed, as does life itself. That is, an individual technological organism has one kind of response, but in an ecology comprised of co-evolving species of technology we find an elevated entity — the technium — that behaves very differently from an individual species. The technium is a superorganism of technology. It has its own force that it exerts. That force is part cultural (influenced by and influencing of humans), but it's also partly non-human, partly indigenous to the physics of technology itself. That's the part that is scary and interesting."
It is actually strangely redolent of Walter Wink's characterising of the Powers and definitely links to the thinking I'm attempting on emergent structures in human social interaction.... And a bit later on is a quotable bit which pretty much sums up why I like scifi and counterfactual novels: "Hollywood and science fiction authors are the new theologians. They've been asking these essential existential questions way ahead of the rest of society."
And here's a really intriguing thought about the way that technology has been 'symbiotic' with human culture for ages and its been positive because it has opened up freedoms and opportunities: "These opportunities, these freedoms, are a very powerful force. Imagine a great artist like Mozart born before the possibility of a piano, or orchestra — what a loss that would have been. Or if Hitchcock had been born before the technology of film had been invented. Or Van Gogh before cheap oil paints. Undoubtedly those giants would have done their best with whatever they had — perhaps Beethoven on drums, Van Gogh with charcoal. But we honor them in part because in some unfathomable way they were able to realize their true genius by finding a perfect match with their tools — tools that are possibilities and choices manifested."
Edge 217:

Taliban leaders: honour the code

You may or may not have heard of the kidnapping of Korean aid workers in Afghanistan by Pushtun Taliban. Apparently this act actually violates a very important cultural principle in Pushtun culture which could even lead to difficulties for the kidnappers among their own people-group. "The Taliban are guided by the Afghan Pashtunwali code, a principle that requires “hospitality to all, especially guests and strangers” – and this kidnapping is a clear violation of the code, offending the weary people of Afghanistan on whom they depend."
You may wish to add your name to the petition ...
Taliban leaders: honour the code:

Meat production 'beefs up emissions'

One of the things that we can do effectively to reduce our carbon footprint is eat (far) less meat. And, given figures that have been around since the 1970's at least, when Ron Sider wrote "Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger", it is perhaps no surprise to discover beef is the worst culprit of all the meats. "Most of the greenhouse gas emissions are emitted in the form of methane from belching cattle, but the meat production process also releases fertilising compounds that can wreak havoc in river and lake ecosystems. The study, which is published in today's New Scientist magazine, shows that the production of 1kg of beef releases greenhouse gases with a warming potential equivalent to 36.4kg of carbon dioxide. The production process also led to fertilising compounds equivalent to 340g of sulphur dioxide and 59g of phosphate, and consumed 169 megajoules of energy. Over two-thirds of the energy is spent on producing and moving cattle feed." (Emph mine).
So I continue to press for Christians to add vegetarianism or a substantial move in that direction to their rules of life.

Meat production 'beefs up emissions' | Climate change | Guardian Unlimited Environment:

Losing my irreligion

Hmmmmmm

God’s tentative return to Europe has scholars and theologians debating a hot question: Why? Part of the reason, pretty much everyone agrees, is an influx of devout immigrants. Christian and Muslim newcomers have revived questions relating to faith that Europe thought it had banished with the 18th-century Enlightenment. At the same time, anxiety over immigration, globalization and cutbacks to social-welfare systems has eroded people’s contentment in the here-and-now, prodding some to seek firmer ground in the spiritual.

Some scholars and Christian activists, however, are pushing a more controversial explanation: the laws of economics. As centuries-old churches long favored by the state lose their monopoly grip, Europe’s highly regulated market for religion is opening up to leaner, more-aggressive religious “firms.” The result, they say, is a supply-side stimulus to faith.

“Monopoly churches get lazy,” says Eva Hamberg, a professor at Lund University’s Centre for Theology and Religious Studies and co-author of academic articles that, based on Swedish data, suggest a correlation between an increase in religious competition and a rise in church-going. Europeans are deserting established churches, she says, “but this does not mean they are not religious.”

Well, I've seen that used as the explanation as to why the USA has a rather vigourous religious scene in comparison to Europe, and it does seem to have the merit of plausibility. But then the difficulty with that is just that: plausibility. How far is a 'market' created by lots of competitors and how far is it a mere consumer-led potentiality? In other words, can a market be stimulated into being merely by having deregulation or is a deregulated market for, say, Victorian piano-leg covers always going to be a niche market?

So while I'm intrigued by the suggestion, my basket of explanatory eggs will continue to be supplemented by a chicken-run and a kitchen egg-tidy.
In Europe, God Is (Not) Dead:

Losing My Jihadism

I've come across non-Muslims reflecting on the need for Islam to undergo some kind of reformation, not so many Muslims. So it is very intriguing to read this from Muslim Journalist Mansour al-Nogaidan "Islam needs a Reformation. It needs someone with the courage of Martin Luther. This is the belief I’ve arrived at after a long and painful spiritual journey. It’s not a popular conviction — it has attracted angry criticism, including death threats, from many sides. But it was reinforced by Sept. 11, 2001, and in the years since, I’ve only become more convinced that it is critical to Islam's future"
Of course, the issue is about who listens, agrees and does something about it ...
Losing My Jihadism:

Islamic Creationism

More years ago than I now care to recall I was at university. Actually it was not long after the Iranian revolution, and we had at the university I went to (htt Reading University) a number of avid pro-revolutionary Iranians (no doubt the anti-revolutionaries would not get an exit visa). I was at first surprised when some of them were very interested in one end of the Christian Union bookstall. You see, that CU in the late 70's had a number of influential 6-day, young-earth creationists. Our Iranian acquaintances were interested in picking the Chrisian creationists' brains for arguments against evolution that could be used from a Qur'anic perspective. I'm not able to comment on how well the cross-over can be managed, but I am interested that it is clearly still and issue and likely to continue to be so.

Support for creationism is also widespread among Muslims, said Dr. Edis, whose book “An Illusion of Harmony: Science and Religion in Islam” was published by Prometheus Books this spring.“Taken at face value, the Koran is a creationist text,” he said, adding that it would be difficult to find a scholar of Islam “who is going to be gung-ho about Darwin.” Perhaps as a result, he said, Mr. Yahya’s books and other publications have won him attention in Islamic areas. “This is a guy with some influence,” Dr. Edis said, “unfortunately for mainstream science.”

Islamic Creationist and a Book Sent Round the World:

How the Government tests for faith

This is a bit worrying; how the government assesses whether someone is genuine in a claim of conversion. For example one Afghani; "In court he was required to name Jesus’s 12 disciples to prove his conversion was genuine. He answered this and other questions correctly, but was unable to name 'Advent' as the run up to Christmas."
While I'd be okay on Advent, I'm not sure I could name all twelve apostles off the top of my head: after all a big chunk of them don't really crop up again and so end up not in active recall. There are sensible ideas for tests in the rest of the article, but really: is this an illustration of government education policies: only what's susceptible to a standardised test of pub-quiz is worthy or of value ... ? It's a shame people's lives literally are at stake in some of this.
How the Government tests for faith -Times Online:

Nothing to hide, nothing to fear -nothing of the sort.

Professor Daniel Solove examines the nothing to hide argument. When asked about government surveillance and data mining, many people respond by declaring: I've got nothing to hide. According to the nothing to hide argument, there is no threat to privacy unless the government uncovers unlawful activity, in which case a person has no legitimate justification to claim that it remain private. The nothing to hide argument and its variants are quite prevalent, and thus are worth addressing. In this essay, Solove critiques the nothing to hide argument and exposes its faulty underpinnings.

So goes the introduction to this pdf paper written in a USAmerican context but with lots of transferable principles to this side of the pond. In fact he argues

that the “nothing to hide” argument—even in its strongest form—stems from certain faulty assumptions about privacy and its value. The problem, in short, is not with finding an answer to the question: “If you’ve got
nothing to hide, then what do you have to fear?” The problem is in the very question itself.

Towards the end of an interesting discussion of what privacy might be, the issue is restated.

the problem with the nothing to hide argument is with its underlying assumption that privacy is about hiding bad things. Agreeing with this assumption concedes far too much ground and leads to an unproductive discussion of information people would likely want or not want
to hide. As Bruce Schneier aptly notes, the “nothing to hide” argument stems from a faulty “premise that privacy is about hiding a wrong.”

Take the effect of surveillance on society as a whole.

Surveillance can create chilling effects on people’s conduct by chilling free speech, free association, and other First Amendment rights essential for democracy.78 Even surveillance of legal activities can inhibit people from engaging in them. It might be that particular people may not be chilled by surveillance – indeed, probably most people will not be except those engaging in particularly unpopular speech or associating with disfavored groups. The value of protecting against such chilling is not measured simply in terms of the value to those particular individuals. Chilling effects harm society because, among other things, they reduce the range of
viewpoints being expressed and the degree of freedom with which to engage in political activity.

Good read if you're concerned about dataveillance and things like the National Identity Register.

Alcohol, aggression and working memory

If the speculation about why the following is so is right, it has wider ramifications. "It appears that alcohol has the potential to both increase and decrease aggression, depending on where's one's attention is focused. The psychologists speculate that working memory is crucial not only to barroom behavior, but to all social behavior, because it provides the capacity for self-reflection and strategic planning. Activating working memory with salient, non-hostile, and health-promoting thoughts, in effect reduces the 'cognitive space' available for inclinations towards violence."
That would presumably go for other things too ...
ScienceDaily: The End Of Barroom Brawls: Study Shows Alcohol Can Reduce Aggression:

Just so you know

"A new analysis of data on the energy radiated from the sun over the last 25 years shows that solar activity has been decreasing, not increasing, during that time – which is exactly the same time as the Earth has been getting hotter, with ten of the last twelve years the hottest on record.
The idea that rising emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases are being caused by rising temperatures from increased solar radiation – rather than the other way round – is now as dead in the water as Alistair Campbell’s literary pretensions."
The Great Global Warming Swindle (Jonathon Porritt):

Technology and worship: video -again!

In this Leadership Journal piece, there is a useful intro to McLuhan's approach which is really helpful.
"...four questions he believed were crucial to understanding media.
First: What does the medium enhance and extend? For instance: The wheel is an extension of the foot.
Second: What does the medium obsolesce? And 'obsolesce' doesn't mean get rid of. It means change the function of. So, for example, the automobile extends our speed of transportation, but it obsolesces the horse-drawn carriage. The horse-drawn carriage doesn't disappear; it simply changes its function. It's now used for romance and entertainment, but it is still used.
Third: What does the medium retrieve from the past? This is the conviction that nothing is new under the sun. And so every new medium retrieves some older medium. For example, security cameras retrieve the medieval city wall which simultaneously protects and imprisons its citizens.
Fourth: What does the medium reverse into? This means that every medium will always reverse into some form of its opposite when it is overused. So for example, when the automobile, which is designed to increase speed, is overextended or overused, it actually reverses into traffic jams and even fatalities."

So far, so good. However I'm not sure about the following: whether it stands up to brain science (for example the rather old and inaccurate right brain thing) and whether it isn't more reliant on a particular set of cultural practices from the late twentieth century. "The messages that are best conveyed by video or multimedia are almost exclusively emotional and entertaining. The bias of these media is that they exercise the right hemisphere of the brain, which evokes emotions, impressions, and intuitions." One of the reasons I doubt that is that it is increasingly the case in education and training that the visual is being used to extend abilities to process information rationally and to make connections. I suspect that the bias against appreciating the visual as a thinking tool and consigning it to the 'feelies' says more about entrepreneurship in the twentieth century and peoples' desires for entertainment through the dominant aspects of our sensorium. That said, because of the cultural background we inherit, we can't ignore the push towards entertainment values that such media give. However, I don't think that they are as intrinsic as the author thinks they are. And when he says; "We need to understand that we're dealing with an incredibly powerful medium that all too easily leans towards manipulation—a subtle form of coercion" I feel that it is a little unfair to do so as if what already goes on does not contain its entail of manipulation and coercion. It's just that the unfamiliarity foregrounds the matter. Let's face it; all communication is manipulation; just not all of it is with ill intent or negatively coercive. All of the criticisms that follow about the use of connotative meaning bypassing 'argument' are simply the visual equivalent of the tricks of rhetoric in the verbal and written media. It may be, in fact, that what visual media do is extend our rhetorical vocabulary.

Is Video Technology in Church Manipulative? | Out of Ur | Following God's Call in a New World | Conversations hosted by the editors of Leadership journal:

Culture Influences Brain Cells

This is certainly intuitively believable for many of us, and so it's another example of the science confirming what we strongly suspected. And it's down to the mirror neuron system again from an experiment testing responses to people from differing cultures and racial backgrounds gesturing at a USAmerican test audience. The conclusion based on the results is stated in the article in this way: "it appears that neural systems supporting memory, empathy and general cognition encodes information differently depending on who's giving the information--a member of one's own cultural/ethnic in-group, or a member of an out-group, and that ethnic in-group membership and a culturally learned motor repertoire more strongly influence the brain's responses to observed actions, specifically actions used in social communication."
Culture is more deeply embedded in who we are than some might think. Taken with what I picked up and blogged yesterday, it amounts to recognising that different cultures produce different minds and brains. It indicates that in some, perhaps many, areas, culture plays a determinative role in behaviour, even seemingly unreflective behaviour.
ScienceDaily: Culture Influences Brain Cells: Brain's Mirror Neurons Swayed By Ethnicity And Culture:

The joy of being wrong

In teaching it becomes quickly evident both that we learn a great deal from mistakes and that it is hard to create and environment where mistakes are seen merely as a stage on the path of learning. But it is essential that learning facilitators work at creating a 'free to fail' culture /environment. Just how important is highlighted by some new neural/brain research. "'It's a bit of a clich�to say that we learn more from our mistakes than our successes,' said psychologist Professor Andy Wills of the University of Exeter, 'but for the first time we've established just how quickly the brain works to help us avoid repeating errors."
The way the mechanism works also seems to indicate that someone making a mistake should be given an opportunity to rectify it. Thus also underlining the need for immediate feedback as well as opportunity for correct performance.
ScienceDaily: Why We Learn From Our Mistakes:

Culture, empathy and moral development

At one level it is no surprise, but it is good to see confirmation of the notion that culture may affect moral development and even national or regional characteristics. "Although studies of children have shown that the ability a person to appreciate another person's perspective is universal, not all societies encourage their members to develop the skill as they grow up."
One of the things that this suggests for me is that the Christian idea of being salt and light in society has value in the potential to influence a culture towards a situation where a greater proportion of its members think and act in ways that respect the rights and perspectives of others, for example. It's not just wishful thinking; it can be achieved. Of course, historically speaking there is evidence to support this, but to realise that acculturation affects people at very profound levels which have direct daily entails is quite significant. Different cultures really do involve different brain structures in a sense.
ScienceDaily: Americans Trail Chinese In Understanding Another Person's Perspective:

Emotional Memories Can Be Suppressed With Practice

Further evidence of the plasticity of the brain, in this case enabling people to deal with difficult memories. It could also end up feeding into the repressed memories debate.

"These results indicate memory suppression does occur, and, at least in nonpsychiatric populations, is under the control of prefrontal regions," the researchers wrote in Science. The most anterior portion of the prefrontal cortex highlighted in the study is a relatively recent feature in brain evolution and is greatly enlarged in humans when compared to great apes, said Depue.

The study showed the subjects were able to "exert some control over their emotional memories," said Depue. "By essentially shutting down specific portions of the brain, they were able to stop the retrieval process of particular memories."

More Jewish Zen

"Breathe in. Breathe out.
Breathe in. Breathe out.

Forget this and attaining Enlightenment will be the least of your problems."

Mindful Hack: Thinkquote of the day: Attaining Enlightenment through breathing:

Oh, bollards!

I was just sent this by a friend. The workmen are just installing the bollards to prevent people parking in the demarcated space ...

They would say that, wouldn't they

Well, there may be a bit of a furore about the Pope's latest restating of Roman catholic doctrines on church: "

'It is nevertheless difficult to see how the title of 'Church' could possibly be attributed to [Protestant communities], given that they do not accept the theological notion of the Church in the Catholic sense and that they lack elements considered essential to the Catholic Church.'"

... but what else did we expect him to say? Basically official RC positions define 'church in a way that the RC fulfils and others don't, so we're bound to come off as poor substitutes, aren't we? The point is the definition, that's why there are protestants: we don't agree with the RC's about certain matters. It's a shame that this indicates no further movement, but it is a summary of where 'we' are up to. Unless someone changes position ... is that what the furore is really about? That actually it makes clear that there has been no substantial change in RC theological/ecclesiological self-definition? That must be disappointing, and arguably may not be the mind of the church, but it is hardly surprising, really. It's a tight circular argument: "we are the true church therefore these things X, Y, Z are the marks of the true church. And when we use these marks to assess who is the true church, oh look; it's us." The real progress would be a recognition that one or other of those terms may not be quite all it's cracked up to be.
Of course, many RC Christians aren't so convinced: so whose mind and which church are we talking about?
Dismay and anger as Pope declares Protestants cannot have churches | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited

Paper was pants

Rags from discarded pants and knickers led to a 13th century breakthrough in the making of cheap paper, undercutting expensive parchment.

How discarded pants helped to boost literacy | The Guardian | Guardian Unlimited

Jewish zen?

I enjoyed these, maybe you will too?

"If there is no self, whose arthritis is this?
_____

Be here now.
Be someplace else later.
Is that so complicated?
_____

Wherever you go, there you are.
Your luggage is another story.
_____

Accept misfortune as a blessing.
Do not wish for perfect health
Or a life without problems.
What would you talk about?"

I feel that it should be noted how they are all interogatively structured. Reminds me of the story of a rabbi who was asked why it was that Jewish people seemed to answer questions with other questions: "Why not?" was his reply.

Mindful Hack: Back at last!: Jewish zen?:

Muslim group declares 'Terrorists are the enemies of us all'

In the past, a number of Muslim responses to terrorist acts in the name of Islam have seemed at times a little equivocal and sometimes seemed to be using words in a slippery sort of way (not all, and it is worth comparing with the way that Sinn Fein used to respond to IRA attacks). However this does seem pretty robust and I am glad.

"Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari, secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), said it was the 'Islamic duty' not only to utterly and totally condemn such actions, but to provide all the support necessary to prevent such atrocities from taking place."

And similarly encouraging is the website of the new 'not in our name' campaign from a new umbrella group called Muslims United. On it we find a clear statement about the matter and on a further page, a brief setting out of the mainstream (?) Muslim approach to war and violence. However, I do know that the points made are contested by Jihadis and I suspect that to equip Muslims to deal with them in their homes and masjids a more focussed and careful approach is needed. Given that this section is on a page dealing with an introduction to Islam, I suspect the target audience for it is people who are not Muslim and from personal experience I know that glossing over certain issues in favour of good PR is not unknown (hey, most religions and anti-religious organisations have people who do that).
Muslim group declares 'Terrorists are the enemies of us all' | the Daily Mail:

Move to cut methane emissions by changing cows' diet

The title gives hope of action that means many people won't have to change their eating habits. However, I think that a little more thought gives us, in fact, another reason for not eating (much) meat if one is at all concerned about reducing your global-warming quotient. "Farmed ruminant animals are thought to be responsible for up to a quarter of 'man-made' methane emissions worldwide though, contrary to common belief, most gas emerges from their front, not rear, ends."
It goes like this; less meat eaten (and dairy products too) translates to less ruminant-born methane production and so less of a huge contributor to global warming (like it's massively more insulating than carbon dioxide).
So don't wait for the technical fix: it'll be years in coming; reduce or eliminate your meat and dairy intake straight away and you'll help save tons of the stuff.
Move to cut methane emissions by changing cows' diet | Climate change | Guardian Unlimited Environment:

Powerpoint in worship; medium and message?

Actually it's good to find an article that takes seriously the insights of McLuhan and cultural studies in relation to worship. "PowerPoint in worship reproduces the same 'stacking' of information, the relentless sequentiality that divorces content from context, the disposition toward consumption and commercialism, and the ethos of a sales pitch. When the text of a hymn (or, more likely, a 'praise song') is projected onto the big screen, it can only be experienced as fragmentary and incoherent. The narrative arc of a great hymn cannot be communicated when only a few lines of text can be accommodated on each of the 30-some frames it takes to display the entire hymn."
Now actually, I do affirm that these are true tendencies. However, I would also contend that the downsides offered here are to do as much with the adaptation of presentation software and kit (nb there are other software alternatives, and I commend open source projects such as Open Office.org in order to help prevent M$ ruling the world). The scenario outlined is where the medium has been bolted on to existing formats and ends up amplifying (as McLuhan says) certain aspects of what is already there. However, if you creatively reconceptualise the worship acts the downsides can either be largely avoided or reframed so as to make the critique redundant. It may require those with an artistic soul to explore the capabilities and limitations a bit more, but it can be done.

The article disappoints in the paragraphs after that quoted above; the scenarios seem to norm a 'conventional' church experience and so amount to 'my regular way of doing church is better than yours' by not comparing like with like (eg by not telling the tales of the cock-ups or downsides of 'normal' worship). And the crit of 'sensory overload' betrays a cultural formation that doesn't necessarily work for all of us. That said, I still 'agree' that the problem is the way it is used; without a deeper exploration of the effects and affects of the medium or a willingness to change to make sure that it is used to its best effect. And the recognition of the history of adoption of technology is welcome but somehow ends up missing the lessons and serving a luddite agenda. So it was good to read the counterpoint:

there may be occasions or circumstances when computer-generated visual aids might be used meaningfully in worship. For instance, prior to the start of a service, projecting scripture verses or art appropriate to the day's themes may help to settle and center worshipers, discouraging the chatter and fidgeting that often persist up to the start of the service, and encouraging the whole community's focus on the worship to come. For churches already heavily invested (monetarily and otherwise) in computer technology in worship, moving toward this kind of limited use may be a first step in recognizing the effects of PowerPoint in worship and in generating meaningful conversation.

So I end up agreeing with the conclusion while being suspicious of the nature of the engagement with the cultural (self-)criticism shown.
The Christian Century:

Games Are Serious Business

Justification for a theology of play?

'Games should not be seen as just being a pastime, but rather should be seen as encapsulating the desire to challenge ourselves and learn something new', says Jesper Juul. He explains that all games are about learning. “When you play a new game, you begin with little knowledge, but you gradually develop game skills and strategies. Learning is one of the core pleasures of all games - from card games to computer games”.

My main question, I guess, is whether and how far it may be true to characterise the pleasure of game-playing in this way.
ScienceDaily: Games That Fit Into Daily Life Are Serious Business:

Hearts and minds of young Muslims ...

It sounds like, perhaps, that many Muslims in the UK are getting past the denial stage of reaction to the jihadi 'crisis' and beginning to face the questions that some of us have been trying to puzzle over, viz. if Islam is peaceful in essence, where are these folk getting their (Islamic-sounding) justifications from? And, how can their justifications be delegitimised in Muslim terms? And, what steps are being taken to do so? While I can understand the sometimes tetchy responses to this basket of questions, it just won't do to refuse entirely to engage with them. As a Christian I am more than happy to explain the answers to similar questions that could be posed from time to time about people using the label 'Christian' to underpin murderous activities. So the article from which this following quote is taken is a welcome sign of moving further on. The worry has been that there may not be adequate answers to the questions in Islam.

In the past few days, key Muslim community activists have admitted to me that what worries them is how certain theological issues have not been properly clarified, and can be used to justify extremism. The most important is the age-old distinction between dar al-Islam (the land of Islam) and dar al-harb (the land of the other, of unbelief - or of war, according to the literal translation from the Arabic). This demonisation of all that is not Muslim is the "paradigmatic, instinctive response that people fall back on in a moment of crisis", I was told. Extremists such as Hizb ut-Tahrir use this dualism, as do jihadis, to justify their contempt for the rights - and lives - of the kufr, the unbeliever.

The article hits all the right buttons and even givens the following encouraging news.

Britain is now the arena for one of the most public, impassioned and wide-ranging debates about Islam anywhere in the world.

It's a shame some of those who comment on the articles fail to engage the issue as cannily as the Metropolitan police:

following a strategy of working with Islamist- and Salafi-dominated mosques such as the one in Brixton, well aware that their best chance of drawing extremists away from violence is through those who know how to argue the case on Islamic grounds and redirect the religious fervour of hot-headed young men.

Some comments are atheists who can't really imagine what it is like to hold a different point of view and how hard it would be to push through their preferred strategy of religious deprogramming. Guys, it ain't going to happen: the Met have the better argument.
Hearts and minds of young Muslims will be won or lost in the mosques

Desertification, Climate Change and the Developing World

"In particular, it seems like the Sahel could prove fertile ground for such efforts. For one thing, we suspect the changes in the Sahel to be particularly extreme; for another, there are already some amazing pilot efforts underway there to build greenbelts and preserve farmland. Research into turning hard-hit fallow lands into carbon forests shows promise. In addition, many of the world's future refugees are expected to come from the region, so working now to preserve people's livelihood has an air of preventive medicine to it. Why plant a billion trees to help refugees, when we might plant a billion trees to save communities... and cool the planet in the process?"
WorldChanging: Tools, Models and Ideas for Building a Bright Green Future: Desertification, Climate Change and the Developing World:

The Redding Shahada saga

You may recall my commenting on the case of Ann Holmes Redding, and Episcopalian priest who has professed Islam alongside her Christian faith. Having dialogued with Doug over it a bit, I suspect that this is the best outcome after meeting with her own bishop: "After meeting with her I issued a Pastoral Direction giving her the opportunity to reflect on the doctrines of the Christian faith, her vocation as a priest, and what I see as the conflicts inherent in professing both Christianity and Islam. During the next year she is not to exercise any of the responsibilities and privileges of an Episcopal priest or deacon. Other aspects of the Pastoral Direction will remain private."
The Lead:

The Newest Artificial Intelligence Computing Tool: People

It was only a matter of time before the wisdom of crowds was made a practical strategy. "A USC Information Sciences Institute researcher thinks she has found a new source of artificial intelligence computing power to solve difficult IT problems of information classification, reliability, and meaning. That tool, according to ISI computer scientist Kristina Lerman, is people, human intelligence at work on the social web, the network of blogs, bookmark, photo and video- sharing sites, and other meeting places now involving hundreds of thousands of individuals daily, recording observations and sharing opinions and information."
The trick is, of course, as the book points out, to make sure the conditions are met. Otherwise you merely get the stupidity of the influential.
ScienceDaily: The Newest Artificial Intelligence Computing Tool: People:

You Can't Make Up For Lost Sleep

For those who have ministered among students, and even ministered overlong weekly schedules, this research calls us to honour sabbath in the daily as well as the weekly routine. "Chronic partial sleep loss of even two to three hours per night was found to have detrimental effects on the body, leading to impairments in cognitive performance, as well as cardiovascular, immune and endocrine functions. Sleep-restricted people also reported not feeling sleepy even though their performance on tasks declined."
It's that latter that is concerning: those who have charge of organisations that could affect the welfare of many or even the country definitely should not be working under sleep deprivation conditions. Yet the machismo of our working culture seems to encourage it to happen... Even worse, it infects some church leadership circles.
ScienceDaily: Chronically Sleep Deprived? You Can't Make Up For Lost Sleep

UK could be 100% green leccy by 2027...

... but is there the will to take on powerful lobbies to make it possible? George Monbiot comments; "a new study by the Centre for Alternative Technology takes this even further. It is due to be published next week, but I have been allowed a preview. It is remarkable in two respects: it suggests that by 2027 we could produce 100% of our electricity without the use of fossil fuels or nuclear power, and that we could do so while almost tripling its supply: our heating systems (using electricity to drive heat pumps) and our transport systems could be mostly powered by it. It relies on a great expansion of electricity storage: building new hydroelectric reservoirs into which water can be pumped when electricity is abundant, constructing giant vanadium flow batteries and linking electric cars up to the grid when they are parked, using their batteries to meet fluctuations in demand. It contains some optimistic technical assumptions, but also a very pessimistic one: that the UK relies entirely on its own energy supplies. If the German proposal were to be combined with these ideas, we could begin to see how we might reliably move towards a world without fossil fuels."
The German proposal is for a European+Iceland+North America electricity grid ...
Guardian Unlimited | Comment is free | Stop doing the CBI's bidding, and we could be fossil fuel free in 20 years:

Temperature rises 'not caused by sun'

The rearguard action of denialists still has to be dealt with, particularly as a recent UK poll had just over 50% denying that global warming was anthropogenic (though the good news seems to be that it is recognised to be a fact; it's the cause that is disputed). "Mike Lockwood, a physicist at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in the UK, said: 'It is absolutely clear that the sun is nothing to do with the recent warming. This doesn't rely on models, it uses real data and it shows that all the solar trends have been going in the opposite direction for the last 20 years.'"Temperature rises 'not caused by sun' | Climate change | Guardian Unlimited Environment:

Linguistics' new buzz...

I've been following this story for a few weeks now, and this article, though long, seems to be the best at explaining what the big buzz is in linguistics with the Piraha language. The interesting thing for me, not a convinced Chomskyan, is this. "In a comment on Everett’s paper published in Cultural Anthropology, Michael Tomasello, the director of the Department of Developmental and Comparative Psychology at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, in Leipzig, endorsed Everett’s conclusions that culture can shape core grammar. "
In part it interests me because it seems to put Sapir-Whorfe hypothesis into reverse, despite the Whorfian perspective of the linguist at the centre of the debate. And that is important because a lot of academic post modernism seems to be linguistic-determinist in approach, whereas this seems to actually turn that on its head.
A Reporter at Large: The Interpreter: Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker:

Co-spousal presbyterisation complete!

Well, now I am married to an Anglican priest. And so is my wife. On Saturday afternoon she was ordered to presbyteral ministry, and I got to have a hand in it too: lovely. I wrote a proper preface for her first presidency yesterday. A long preface to go with Prayer E. It goes like this:

It is good to praise you our God,
you made humankind to be priests of your creation.
And when we refused our role,
in your love you sent Jesus to offer the sacrifice of himself
and reveal the new creation by rising from death.
So he redeemed our priesthood
and renewed your calling in us.
We give thanks that we have the hope of the Day
when all priesthood will be fulfilled.
In your intimate closeness to all you have made.
and so we gladly thank you,
with saints and angels praising you, and saying:
All Holy, holy, holy Lord,

My best beloved is fourth from the left just in front of Bishop Tom's rights shoulder.
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