Looks like the local council, which already has a “zero waste” policy, is investigating the possibility of food recycling. Sounds like a good idea, though the implementation might be an issue. See: STUFF : NATIONAL NEWS : ENVIRONMENT – STORY : Food recycling trial to be considered for Waitakere.

Recently we switched from weekly plastics/cans recycling in small green bins to fortnightly in a large blue “wheelie” bin. In principle, I think its a good thing for the wider community but in practice it doesn’t work out as well for us. We used to put out two (mostly) full green bins a week and the new blue one only holds the equivalent of three green bins. So while it might encourage non or minimal recyclers to give it a go, it works against those who already were trying to do lots of recycling. And you can’t get a second bin – you have to store the excess for a later week (See here). So far jumping on the contents and more thorough flatting of material have made it (just) fit – but you’d think in “Eco-City Waitakere” (our city’s slogan) they’d be wanting to encourage more recycling and would make the option of getting extra recycling capacity an option.

I guess the next step for us is to look at ways of reducing acquiring the packaging & plastics etc. that we’re putting in the blue bin, on top of the normal reuse of plastic bags and bottles that we already do.

See also: WCC – Your Guide to Rubbish and Recycling at Home (PDF)

From Science & Theology News : Give an organ, get an organ.

Stephen Giles, a Canadian social worker, thinks people who volunteer to be potential organ donors should be placed high on the waiting list if they are ever in need of an organ.

A brief review from a while back of James Hughes’ book Citizen Cyborg. The copy I was reading has been recalled this week by the university library before I finished it but I agree with the reviewer that it’s a very readable book and takes a different tack from the typical libertarian transhumanist approach. In common with the latter approach though, it still holds to the view that human rationality is the key to essential human being. It makes some good observations about how normally diametrically opposed political factions often form alliances when finding themselves at similar positions on a biopolitical spectrum, and comments worth thinking about for how society should manage technological developments to avoid things like “digital divides“.

See: Boing Boing: Humanist transhumanism: Citizen Cyborg.

I love it when I find poems that connect with my research. Charlie’s poem Crossing over at Borrowed Dust hit the mark today, as I filled out my end of year PhD report. Especially the verse,

Elegant double-helix,
Jacob’s spiral ladder:
hides, convoluted and coiled,
betwixt deo and imago,
bears the inscrutable runes of
dreamers rising from the
dust.
“Very good!”

Reminiscent of Isobel Thrillings poem “Before Lazarus”.

Quite possibly the largest collection of web links I’ve seen for a while over at: Sites Unseen – Earth’s Mightiest Alternative Christian Link Portal.

And they have a comic book section.

This week I’m trying to sort out the broadband dilemma that we’ve been landed with.

We have our (primitive) broadband connection with our ISP (owned by Telco #1) and have our phone account (local and toll) with Telco #2. This has worked well in the past because ISP #1 has been good to us and we’ve got our phone plan with Telco #2 just how we want it.

So when we get an email from our ISP telling us we have to move to Telco #1 for our phone to keep using their broadband we get stuck (and very grumpy). Telco #1 claim that Telco #2 won’t carry our current ADSL connection any more so we either have to:

1. Move our phone connection over to Telco #1 (who don’t have the plan we like at Telco #2), or
2. Change ISP’s to one supported by Telco #2 and suffer the significant grief associated with changing email addresses, ISP transfer charges, and going with an ISP we don’t want to use.

Feel like we’re stuck between two very large Borg motherships – one way or another we’ll be assimilated into the collective whether we want to be or not.

BTW – It doesn’t help too when you phone around other ISPs and their help desk people just end up confusing you. They’re all set to sign up new customers but don’t seem to cope too well with transferring customers.

Been feeling grumpy this week about people who produce Christian resources that use DVDs and then who region-code them. Had a few possibilities for really good resources for using with our house group but they are only available in Region 2 coding. Not a problem, you might say, just use a region-free DVD player (commonly available outside of the US) to play them. Several problems with this.

1. My iBook is now locked on Region 4 after it’s 5 possible region changes have been used up (and can’t be reset). So I can’t view the material there which would be my preference.
2. At least one of the producers won’t ship to NZ because the disk is Region-2. So even if I can play it they won’t deliver “out of zone” (even though their mission statement declares they’re producing materials to take Jesus to the whole world. Maybe their Bible says “Therefore go and make disciples of all in DVD Region 2, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you”).
3. There are no plans for Region 4 (Aus/NZ etc.) coding of the DVDs, nor distribution here.

Now I know that some argue that DVD region coding is good because it prevents movies being sold in a region before it gets released in the cinema (of course, that falls down where you live somewhere where the film never comes, nor the DVD for your region). But why should that affect producing material for the kingdom of God (especially if you’re not part of some larger media empire). And yes, there are the PAL/NTSC/SECAM issues – but surely it’s not rocket science to produce a multi-zone DVD (“Region 0″). If you write a book on discipleship or mission you don’t make it so only readers in the UK can physically read it. So here’s my list of suggestions for Christian content producers (including theological colleges and emergent-types):

• Please encode the DVD with a multi-zone format if you can.
• Ship disks out of zone anyway.
• Grow your “market” globally. Don’t forget about the rest of the world outside of regions 1 & 2. Some of us actually want to pay you for good resources that we can use, even if we’re not the “target market”.
• Make your websites accept international orders – especially if you’re not going to ship any disks to retailers here.

Enough ranting – time to prepare dinner.

Relevant DVD links

• www.dvddemystified.com : What are “regional codes,” “country codes,” or “zone locks”?
• hometheater.about.com : Region Codes – DVD’s Dirty Secret (interesting comments about the possibily of region-coding being used for price-fixing)
• wikipedia.org : DVD

Links to an assortment of cartoon strips sorted by various philosophical categories. See: PHILOSOPHY COMIX.

Article on the use of robots for the care of the elderly in Japan. One of the systems talked about here, the Hybrid Assistive Limb (HAL), is effectively an exoskeleton that augments the person’s muscle strength. In effect it creates another form of cyborg, not dissimilar to those seen in the cinema, video games and comic books.

See: STUFF : Japan looks to robots for elderly care.

A researcher at Japan’s University of Tsukuba, Sankai has developed a robotic suit designed to make it easier for elderly people with weak muscles to move around or for care-givers to lift them.The sleek, high-tech get-up looks like a white suit of armour. It straps onto a person’s arms, legs and back and is equipped with a computer, motors and sensors that detect electric nerve signals transmitted from the brain when a person tries to move his limbs.

When the sensors detect the nerve signals, the computer starts up the relevant motors to assist the person’s motions.

See also:

• New Scientist : Bionic suit offers wearers super-strength
• Video of the HAL system from available University of Tsukuba Cybernics Lab.

Article from a few weeks back in Science and Theology News about a survey of college and university students’ religious and spiritual beliefs.

According to a recently released national study, the majority of college students across America think about their religious and spiritual beliefs with similar contemplation. The University of California, Los Angeles’ Higher Education Research Institute surveyed about 100,000 freshmen at 236 colleges and universities last year and found that 80 percent were interested in spirituality. Seventy-nine percent said they believe in God.

See : Science & Theology News : Spirituality makes the grade on campus.

The article is that it provides a link to a PDF file containing the survey questionnaire. So you can see exactly what type of questions were asked, rather than just the normal summary of results. Might be helpful if you were looking at doing something similar.