I see Tim’s off on a new venture (SansBlogue : Beatrix Potter’s Peter Rabbit (animated)). Could this be a prophetic rabbit – railing againt the oppressive McGregor regime after the manner of Amos?

Reminds me of DJA Clines paper, “New Directions in Pooh Studies: Überlieferungs- und religionsgeschichtliche Studien zum Pu-Buch“, which always makes me smile when I read it. Especially the bit about “ecumenical” connections,

Half-way between Pooh’s house and Piglet’s house was a Thoughtful Spot where they met sometimes when they had decided to go and see each other, and as it was warm and out of the wind they would sit down there for a little and wonder what they would do now that they had seen each other (H 8.125).

Sometimes that’s so true.

For those of you wondering what “Gattung” in the Clines article is see Tim’s helpful entry : Bible study resources: Gattung.

Hmm. Given the number of “emergent-types” who seem to dote on their iBooks and Powerbooks I guess they’re not aiming for “biological growth” in the emergent church

Reuters.co.uk | Hot laptops could cook men’s fertility.

In a fit of efficiency I’ve moved the blog from running on the Berkley DB over to MySQL. Hopefully this will give me more control over the blog and maybe even some performance improvement.

If it all turns to custard in the near future I’ll be rolling back a few days.

BTW – Backups were made before doing this. Once you’ve deleted a database or two by accident you learn the benefits of backups (which I had – and they worked!).

Well, it’s a couple of hours until Christmas Day – the lights are twinkling outside the house, we’ve been to the children’s Christmas Eve celebration that Kim helped organise at church, toured around the neighbourhood looking at lights, and things are beginning to settle down (still a child or two trying to stay awake). One of our next door neighbours just gave us a big box filled with baking (muffins, cakes, caramel-chocolate slice) which was a nice surprise.

Quiet day tomorrow – church in the morning, a light lunch and hopefully a backyard game of cricket in the afternoon. Kim’s folks are here and we’ll have a couple of other friends over during the day too. Then on Boxing Day, if the weather improves, most of the family are off to the one day cricket at Eden Park (NZ-Sri Lanka).

Blogging will probably slow down (cease?) over the next week. I’ve appreciated reading various people’s blogs concerning advent and Christmas. Some really good things to think about – too many to note (Stu’s postings have been helpful in getting me thinking about what I value about Christmas and what things I should change).

So Seasons Greeting to all and may Christ become more real, more incarnate, to you this season.

Shades of “RePet” from The 6th Day with this Guardian story.
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | The world’s first cloned pet (cost $50,000)

A cat lover in Texas has become the world’s first owner of a cloned-to-order feline, paying $50,000 for a genetic duplicate of her dead pet.

Pondering

• Mitochondrial DNA
• Comments made by some students discussing the Incarnation about Mary’s DNA.
• Did Mary’s other children produce offspring?
• And if so have we “bumped into” the great-great-…-great nephews and nieces of Jesus?

Suddenly the humanity of Christ, of the incarnation, comes jarringly into focus.

Something I was thinking about the other day. With all the heated discussion on embryonic stem cell use what about stem cells that can be gathered and cultured from adults? This article starts to answer my question.
Science & Theology News – News: Focus on embryos neglects adult cell possibilities
There’s line in there that reads “With scientists working toward sidestepping the moral issues altogether, this argument might be moot.” Well, it may sidestep one set of moral issues related to stem cells but that doesn’t mean there aren’t others.

I was so looking forward to this mini-series. Now I don’t know. I guess I’ll go back to the books (which I love).
A Whitewashed Earthsea – How the Sci Fi Channel wrecked my books. By Ursula K. Le Guin

A brief editorial pondering the US debates over origins, separation of church and state, and spiritual question asking in schools.

Science & Theology News – Editorial: Questions we cannot ask.

It raises a good point – where are the safe places for people to ask questions about faith, science and other stuff?

I am in awe (and my iBook is now more than a little afraid).

MacMod – Picking up where Apple leaves off ” The i-Tablet “