Jottings on science, religion, technology, pop culture and faith from the Antipodes.
Vampires appear to be the order of the day, starting off with:
And then all the recent religion and popular culture posts about Twilight and Mormonism:
And then, in general:
Seeing as how questions about how course management systems and learning management systems relate to teaching in the university crop up all the time at work, I’ll be taking some time to look at this article:
Insidious pedagogy: How course management systems affect teaching
by Lisa M. Lane
First Monday, Volume 14, Number 10 - 5 October 2009
Sermon today was on ‘keeping the Sabbath’ which made this article in the Guardian (Six Nations: ‘Rugby is not what fuels my happiness,’ says Euan Murray) more relevant than it might have been another day.
Hat tip to The GA Junkie - an interesting blog in the vagaries of Presbyterianism around the world.
An interesting recent podcast on faith and football can also be found here: BBC - BBC World Service Programmes - Heart And Soul, 06/01/2010 Faith and Football
Okay, the blogging break ended up being a little bit longer than anticipated, and I’m still trying to decide what to do with blog. It’s been going since August 2003, developing from the previous phpWebSite-based site, through various incarnations. It was really helpful while writing the PhD and in the post-PhD period but I haven’t quite figured out what I want to do with it now - especially when I don’t have a lot of energy for it at the moment.
Still, inspiration might strike…and the blog break has been good in the interim.
On holiday down south for a couple of weeks. Next year should be less busy than this year so I’ll have more time to pay attention to the blog (I hope).
Have a good Christmas.
Quick visit to Christchurch for an ICBC meeting. Main item on the agenda was discussion of the following:
ERMA200223 - Application to develop in containment genetically modified goats, sheep and cows to produce human therapeutic proteins, or with altered levels of endogenous proteins for the study of gene function, milk composition and disease resistance
You can find all the relevant documents (which are all quite an interesting read) at the ERMA web site here (scroll down to ERMA200223).
This looks like a really interesting interactive site looking at the history of the Royal Society. See Trailblazing - Royal Society.
So it seems that the situation posited in William Gibson’s book "Idoru" back in 1997 comes to pass in some form in 2009. See Man marries virtual girlfriend | Stuff.co.nz.
And this is interesting too - Church fined for blocking cellphones | Stuff.co.nz.
You see this sort of thing in the overseas press from time to time (after all it seems to be obligatory to run a robot story every week or so), but it’s not often you see a robot healthcare story in the NZ context. See Robot to work at rest home.
In my family each year we do the whole Advent calendar thing in the lead up to Christmas. Sometimes we also have an Advent candle (See Advent, how to make a candle – Maggi Dawn) and occasionally use a resource like this one.
But New Zealand really doesn’t do Advent calendars. I have a couple that I’ve come across over the years and bought, but after a few years of use each they begin to wear out (doors get ripped, won’t stay shut etc.). The standard Advent calendar here seems to feature a Disney Channel ’star’ and chocolate behind the doors. Not where I want to go.
So, does anyone know of a good place to buy one in the Auckland region?
