Nuclear power links to 'sham' energy review

Article worth bookmarking. What I found even more fascinating was this series of revelations about recent developments germane to the debate.

Since the review, nuclear power has suffered a number of set-backs. The Finnish government announced that construction of the first of a new generation of nuclear power stations in Europe, seen as an important forerunner for the UK, would be delayed by a year. During the recent heatwave nuclear reactors in mainland Europe have had to be shut down, and others allowed to release harmful hot water into rivers. The US-based Nuclear Information and Resource Service opposition group also reported uranium prices have risen 600 per cent in five years, threatening nuclear's traditional operating cost advantage.

Now, I seem to recall the shut-down thing happening last year too, so it's not a flash in the pan thing here but an issue that is clearly not going away. So much for security of supply.
The Observer | Business | Nuclear power links to 'sham' energy review:
Filed in: nuclear_power, UK, environment, review

ID card data -now proposed to put it in private hands!

Looks like, for from dampening ardour, the recent questionning of the practicalities of the national identity register has only led to a search for partners in the folly; come on down private sector. Don't know about you, but I find the prospect of greater sharing of my personal data with the private sector even more worrying; the more people in the loop the more abuse is likely and statistically I -or you- are more likely to be a victim of the abuses than to win the national lottery (naturally in my case since a don't enter!). In fact, i seem to recall mentioning that I thought it likely that the NIR data would be sold off to help government finances because I didn't think that the temptation would be resisted for ever. I didn't realise that they'd succomb to temptation even before the scheme was off the drawing board. What price assurances now?
I'm also distressed to find myself agreeing with a Tory on the matter -or at least hoping he's right in the first instance and fearing he's right in the final.

'This is an admission that the government's ID card system as it stands is destined to fail without something else to prop it up. It is regrettable that what the government is proposing will actually worsen the assault on privacy without materially improving security.'

The Observer | UK News | Brown to let shops share ID card data:
Filed in: ID_cards, UK, expansion, government, private_sector

Gays flee Iraq death squads

Whatever we as Christians might come to think about homosexual practice, I would really hope that we could agree that this kind of response is not compatible with Christian ethics.

Homosexuality is seen as so immoral that it qualifies as an 'honour killing' to murder someone who is gay - and the perpetrator can escape punishment. Section 111 of Iraq's penal code lays out protections for murder when people are acting against Islam.

It is worrying too because, if that interpretation of the penal code is correct and generalisable, then it would protect those who kill others because they 'apostasize' from Islam.
The Observer | World | Gays flee Iraq as Shia death squads find a new target:
Filed in: homosexuality, Iraq, Islam, honour_killing

House churches in the USA

I have to admit that I find this deeply encouraging; it seems that in the USA home churching is growing as well as home schooling. And it is helpful not only to have that reported but also a bit of useful projective analysis...

New leaders are emerging to represent and guide house churches – people whose names are unfamiliar to the bulk of the country, but whose ministries will become more mainstream and well-known as time goes on. A new body of spiritual resources is being developed and utilized by the expanding house church community. House church adherents make greater use of Christian radio, Christian books and online faith experiences than do people engaged solely in a conventional church. In addition, new patterns of faith participation are being implemented. The traditional ways of thinking about and experiencing ‘church’ are rapidly being revolutionized by a form of ‘religious choice’ in which people are taking greater personal responsibility for their spiritual experience and development.”

I feel very drawn to church in this way, but I'm also keen to keep the links with the tradition and wider church -the catholic dimension. I feel that the house-church movement in the UK in the 70's was blown off course by the seductions of big church and the raft of issues around neo-pentecostal experience. I hope we can learn from the experience and not repeat the secessionist and numbers-game mistakes of the past.
Welcome to The Barna Group!:
Filed in: church, participation, USA, housechurch, research, Barna

Goodbye, for Now, to a Successful Traffic Congestion Tax?

The vote is 17 September. I will be watching it like a hawk, because if even highly educated Swedes -- living in green-city Stockholm, in a country with a whole Ministry for Sustainable Development and a national policy of becoming fossil-fuel free by 2020 -- won't vote "Ja" for a demonstrably effective policy that has obviously improved their quality of life ... well, we will all have go back to the sustainability strategy whiteboard.

WorldChanging: Tools, Models and Ideas for Building a Bright Green Future: Letter from Stockholm: Goodbye, for Now, to a Successful Traffic Congestion Tax:
Filed in: congestion, Stockholm, tax, pollution, traffic

Colours of prayer

Just a flagging up that a new series of entries has begun on the Abbey Nous blog giving ways in to reflecting on the symbolism of the Lord's Prayer Shield. Linkages to Rublev's 'Trinity' icon and the liturgical year.
Abbey Nous: Colours of prayer
Filed in: Lord's_prayer, paternoster, colour, prayer-shield

Parasite May Affect Cultural Traits

We may not like the idea, but there is a logic to it: it could be that this parasite does affect the brain chemistry of hosts to increase its chances of being able to pass to its preferred host by making risky behaviours more likely.

Toxoplasma is associated with different, often opposite, behavioral changes in men and women, but both genders exhibit guilt proneness (a form of neuroticism). Lafferty's analysis found that countries with high Toxoplasma prevalence had a higher aggregate neuroticism score, and western nations with high prevalence also scored higher in the 'neurotic' cultural dimensions of 'masculine' sex roles and uncertainty avoidance.

I'm doubly interested in the guilt prone-ness thing and wonder whether a medieval preoccupation with guilt and guilt management could have had some biological drivers. And the mirror of this of whether a loss of preoccupation with guilt in our culture may have some roots in greater hygiene ... more information needed, but it's an intriguing possibility. Note that I'm not saying anything about the objectivity of guilt, just the prone-ness to feeling it.
ScienceDaily: Cat Parasite May Affect Cultural Traits In Human Populations
Filed in: toxoplasmosis, culture, personality, aggregation