Death by PowerPoint is an interesting online slideshow presentation about how not to do slideshow presentations (via Tensegrities » Powerpoint “stuff”).

A timely link as I’m currently collating material about the effective use of presentation software.

Interesting article on Wired’s web site about developments that see brain-machine interfaces moving from therapeutic domains and into the entertainment world, and medical concerns about that. see BCI – Brain to Control Games Directly, Maybe Vice Versa

One of my favourite authors, Madeleine L’Engle, has died at the age of 88. I first encountered her work at primary school when I borrowed A Wrinkle In Time from the school library. I read it several times, and then forgot about her work until a few years back when I was working on an essay about principalities and powers in the apostle Paul’s writings and I came across a footnote in a commentary pointing to her book A Swiftly Tilting Planet and her portrayal of the Ecthroi. I borrowed that book from the library and was hooked again.

Since then I’ve bought a boxed set of her Time Quartet, and coincidentally read Many Waters at the same time as I was working on translating texts from Genesis 1-11 in a Pentateuch course. I thoroughly enjoyed her spiritual autobiographical work Bright Evening Star: Mystery of the Incarnation.

If you’ve never read any of her books, do yourself a favour and check some of them out. You might have to look in the ‘young adults’ section, though that’s how the books were marketed, and not necessarily whom they were written for.

Related links:

• Her official web site: www.madeleinelengle.com
• Obituaries at Episcopal Life Online, New York Times, and Reuters.
• Christianity Today has reprinted online their 1979 article Supernatural Sagas of Good and Evil about L’Engle along with a link to an interview and some other material.

One of the perennial questions that comes up when people think about robots and artificial intelligence is the ‘does it have a soul?’ question. A more significant question might be ‘can the robot dance?’ That, in itself, might be a sign the that robot has ‘soul’

Japanese Robot Keepon Dances to Spoon Hit, “Don’t You Evah” (YouTube link of the music video at this site).

Recently I’ve been thinking frequently about the place of practical theological reflection by those in the church who have no time or energy for formalized theological study programmes but still have a desire to integrate their faith in the real world. The practical outworking of faith in ways that connect with their stage and place in life brought about by, not only intellectual engagement, but also integration in a community that challenges and encourages people. With this in mind I was interested to see the following in the past couple of days.

Firstly, Mark Stevens over at Welcome to the Emergent Pilgrim Blog: From the Seminaries to the Pews reflects a bit upon the recent article From the Seminaries to the Pews | Christianity Today | A Magazine of Evangelical Conviction.

And then over at the Deep Church project blog a post on A deep church curriculum….

I’m still thinking about the gap between things like Alpha-type endeavours, Sunday sermons and prewritten Bible studies, and the more formalized (and costly, in terms of money and time) certificate, diploma and degrees courses run out of seminaries, Bible Colleges and like. What kings of things would fit there?

Out shopping for birthday presents at the weekend when I stumbled across a copy of Cult Themes – ITV 50 – Classic TV Show Theme Tunes which somehow had to find it’s way into the shopping basket. Some of the tracks are the original TV themes music, others are very good covers (not some guy in his garage with a synthesizer). I’m not particularly interested in many of the non-UK shows (though the Mission Impossible track seems a good rendition), but I’ve been looking for a copy of the Stingray theme music for a while now and there it was (along with the extended version of the UFO theme complete with clicking teletypes).

Listening to the CDs begged the question – did the BBC release a CD with the various incarnations of the Doctor Who theme? There are various MP3 clips over at BBC – Doctor Who – Sounds but no theme music.

Oh, and I’m really enjoying Season 3 of Doctor Who which is finally playing here. Nice to see the Season 2 episode ‘Girl in a Fireplace’ pick up a Hugo Award, and I’ll be trying and track down a copy of my favourite Doctor Who (Tom Baker) story Pyramids of Mars to watch again. Spent most of those four episodes watching it from behind the couch, if my memory serves me right. Far more creepy in places than similar Stargate episodes.

Radio New Zealand National’s Nine-to-Noon programme had an interview last Thursday concerning the potential resumption of clinical trials of xenotransplantation techniques to help treat Type 1 Diabetes (through the implantation of pig tissue in a person’s pancreas). See Radio New Zealand National : Programmes A-Z : Nine to Noon : Thu, 30 August with the interview available as an MP3 here.

Related links:

• Toi te Taiao: the Bioethics Council – Publications
• Greenflame · Pastoral implications for everyday xenotransplantation
• Greenflame · Bioethics/Biotech