This is funky. Playing virtual tennis in real space with your cell phone. I love augmented reality technologies (see Greenflame: Augmented Reality, Children’s Books and Ritual), and the video clips at the HITL (NZ) web site have some interesting demos. (Just wish they were in Quicktime or MPEG formats – never know how WMV is going to perform on the old iBook)

See: Wired News: Next Game Controller: Your Phone and Human Interface Technology New Zealand (Videos).

Article I missed when it came out a few months back, but directly connected to the thesis edits for next week.

See Science & Theology News – I, robot? Ethical considerations of cyborgs

Crittenden said cyborgs may provoke humanity to engage in what he calls “self-deselection” — the idea that in replacing parts of our bodies with mechanical devices we will essentially be replacing ourselves with another species. Our technologically based culture is the first step in the descent toward self-deselection, he said.

“Although many scholars see positive uses of the cyborg imagery,” he writes, “I argue that they downplay, or in many cases entirely ignore, the dangers. Dangers that, if they come to pass, are apocalyptic.”

Had to do a “quick and dirty” translation of a Latin phrase today, and looking around the place I came across this neat little program that gave me a start: A Latin-English Dictionary Program – WORDS. Runs on PCs (incl. Linux) and Mac OS X and given some Latin returns “an analysis/morphology (declension, conjugation, case, tense, etc.) of each word individually, the dictionary form, and the translation (meaning)”.

Most helpful.

And of interest to the geeks out there, it’s written in Ada. Visions of COSC 202 and 302 float before me. (202 PDF tests a long time after I did them are here : test1 / test2)

World Cup goalkeepers complain that the new Adidas soccer ball behaves differently from the traditional ones constructed from hexagonal panels. Article here suggests possible reasons why. See Wired News: Flight of the Bumble Ball.

There’s probably a sense of déjà vu here for Kiwi rugby supporters, after Adidas’ first attempt at a rugby ball was described by some as “a pig and a lemon”, and was dropped in favour of another brand. Still the lemon (it was fluorescent yellow originally) might be back soon. See Game gets kickalong as new ball passes test – Union – www.theage.com.au.

Article on genetic determinism – Science & Theology News – The Daily Dose: Genes are my co-pilots points to another at That Wild Streak? Maybe It Runs in the Family – New York Times.

Reminds me of this from a paper I read recently.

Hansen, Bart, and Paul Schotsmans. “Cloning: The Human as Created Co-Creator?” Ethical Perspectives 8, no. 2 (2001): 75-89. (Abstract)

It is equally compelling to investigate how a ‘gene theology’, insofar as it is formulated on the basis of a belief in a sort of predestination, reasons. Here the genome takes the place of a Janus-faced God who arbitrarily rules over and disposes of everything. On the one hand the human is literally bound by the invisible threads of DNA. Human life is reduced to the performance of a drama whose ‘dénouement’ has been determined in advance. The divine DNA directs the play and humans act it out. In this perspective of God’s providence the separation and autonomy of humanity over against God is eliminated. On the other hand, the illusion is created that once the genetic structure is untangled a total control of the further evolution of human dignity and scientific and technological development becomes possible. (pp.82-83)

This happened a while back but the site still has audio, presentations and papers for download. See TransVision 2004 : Faith, Transhumanism and Hope Symposium.

Had a brief look at this today. Looks really interesting.

God’s Earth, Our Home || Social Justice Commission of the Anglican Church – 5 studies based on faith and the environment through the lens of ‘Ecology and Economy’, a lecture given by Rowan Williams.

Produced by Social Justice Commission of the Anglican Church (NZ).

A glimpse into the hypothetical future? Have a look at Genpets.com – Bioengineered Buddies! (It’s not real, in case you were wondering)

Wired News: Androids Dream of Soccer Glory.

Presentation | Drupal as an Instructional Design Tool.

MEDIATIZED STORIES. Mediation perspectives on digital storytelling among youth — Intermedia Home Site

The project explores how people – youth in particular – use self-representation in digital storytelling to shape and share their lives, and tries to understand these processes through theories of mediation and mediatization across media studies and the field of education.

Just came across my first theological paper in a respectable journal that referred to some terms being critiqued as “weasel words“. Must be somewhere in the thesis to use that. I’ve often wanted to replace lines like “the concept demonstrates certain deficiencies…” with “the author was obviously high as as kite when they dreamed this up…”

Well, I’m inspired. Coke and Mentos Fountain at EepyBird.com. Science on the cutting edge.

Trying to think of how it works as a theological analogy so I can use it in class sometime.