On the way to work yesterday say a handmade/handwritten sign on the side of the road for the next ‘Underpants on the Outside’ event. Apparently it’s a “comic book and sci-fi swap meet of anything that you would find in a comic store, this includes recent and back issue comics, sci-fi memorabilia, figurines & collectibles and more.”

I have no idea what it’s like but might head along on Saturday and have a look.

UNDERPANTS ON THE OUTSIDE!!!!!
DECEMBER 1ST, Grey Lynn Library Hall!!
474 Great North Road.
9.30am – 2.30pm.

Link to organiser’s MySpace page here.

I have a real soft spot for Dan Dare (along with the old black and white Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon TV programmes). When I was a boy I remember my Dad finding some old Eagle annuals from somewhere and introducing us to the Dan Dare he grew up with in the UK. And then later I followed, for a while, the rebooted Dan Dare in the early 2000AD.

Now the quintessential British hero is getting year another reboot in a seven issue series. Looks good, though I’ll wait for the trade paperback before buying it. It’ll be interesting to see how the values of the 21st century get worked into the 1950s landscape Dare exists within.

More details on the release here at DAN DARE #1 – NEWSARAMA (with some sample pages).

Official release information at Virgin Comics brings back DAN DARE: PILOT OF THE FUTURE with GARTH ENNIS « Virgin Comics Blog

Reviews of the first issue here at Sunday Slugfest – Dan Dare #1 (of 7) Review – Silver Bullet Comics.

One of the reviewers asks some good questions about these sorts of reboots:

1. Why don’t the revivals meet with greater commercial success? After all, they were huge successes when they first appeared.
2. Since they keep failing to become contemporary commercial successes, why do people keep bringing these characters out of mothballs?

Most of the revivals (thinking of Flash Gordon, Tarzan and Buck Rogers here) fall flat, even with reshaping to new cultural conditions, though some, like the rebooted Doctor Who and Battlestar Galactica series seem to get it right. Something to think about.

Andii helpfully points to the UK Just Church site.

Just Church is a free programme for use by churches, Christian groups and ecumenical bodies. It’s designed to help you embed a concern for poverty and social justice issues in the life of your community.

It looks like it’s well supported by various church and para-church organisations. The course material can be downloaded free, though printed copies are available for a small fee (and there’s a DVD you can buy with additional material, such as video, to supplement the base course materials).

There’s also a (free) package for doing a Lenten series using the materials. Definitely worth checking out for a look.

We’re not on for a children’s talk at church for a while, but I’ve been trying to thrash out some ideas that work and some that didn’t in advance. I thought I’d jot them down here because, as Steve found out in Adelaide a while back (see e~mergent kiwi: stories of failure), it’s useful to hear of things that didn’t work out as well as those that did.

As always you can see all the posts in this category here.

Jesus as train conductor
A talk I did ages ago after seeing the guards on the train go around the carriage making obviously exhausted school kids give up their seats for fit and healthy adults. The children and I made a big train track at the front of the church using Lego Duplo trains. It’s been a while but I’m sure it included the value of children in the Kingdom of God, Jesus buying tickets for us to ride the train to God, the train stopping anywhere to let people on, and ‘I’m going to ride that glory train’ gospel choir music.

What didn’t work so well: The track took a long time to build (and hence took ‘too long’ for the slot given according to some ‘grown ups’), and I forgot to invite interested adults down to see the train. Several adults and older youth wanted to see the train too, but we had to pack it up. I now often stop and ask if anyone from the back seats wants to have look at what we’re doing down the front.

Hand puppets
It seemed like a good idea at the time to use a zebra hand puppet for the talk. Forgot to work out clearly what the point of the talk was first, and then use the puppet to augment that. I’m sure I had something to work with but it didn’t integrate well. Got the big ‘thumbs down’ from my family evaluation for that one.

House on the sand and the rock
Literally made sand castles and rock piles at front of church and then poured water on them. What happened to them? Also read the parable from “The Lion Storyteller Bible” (Bob Hartman) (which I think is quite good).

What didn’t work so well: The activity worked well. The story worked well. Together they took too long. I’d retell the parable while we did the activity next time. Also, using lots of sand and water up the front caused a few of the church managers to worry about the carpet.

Prayers in the darkness
Talked about Jesus being the light of the world, and also about the importance of prayer – both individually and corporately. Used the example of some small tealight candles. One on it’s own in a dark place makes a real difference, but a whole lot make a huge difference. On the whole it worked well, but…

It’s really hard to make our church dark so the effect of the tealights didn’t work so well as I thought it might. Also need another adult to keep an eye on the candles so they don’t get bumped or touched (I had them on a plank down on the floor). Using a gas match allowed the kids to light them safely though. (Also, the odd comment that we’re not Catholic so don’t need candles from adults who missed the point of the talk – sigh).

Who’s loved the most by God?
Kim did this and it worked really well. It was impromptu and the kids all came to the party. Kim had the four kids arrange themselves in different orders – age, height (not the same as age), ticklishness, love of a particular food (I think). And then she had them arrange themselves in the order of who was loved most by her. The kids all clumped together so she could hug them all the same. And so an analogy for God’s love.

Possible problems: If one of the kids is in a bad mood or is feeling like mucking around it might not work. Also they needed to be confident with their mother showing them affection in public. (I don’t think I could have pulled this one off, but Kim did).

Strength in numbers
Got adult ‘volunteer’ from the congregation and put them on a chair. Then wrapped a strong of wool around them and had them stand up. Then repeated it with a bit more wool and had them ‘break free’ again. Finally, wrapped the ‘victim’ in enough wool to immobilize him. Then dressed him in a funny hat, glasses and face paint. The point being that sometimes individuals need to work with others to achieve a task. It’s a pretty general talk, but I’ve adapted it several times to deal with particular things from Scripture that are up for discussion.

Downside: Don’t pick a ‘victim’ who can’t take a joke. Also don’t pick a claustrophobe.

The humanity of Jesus
Did this just after Christmas when my youngest (who was born just before Christmas) was only a few weeks old. Wanted to connect that that Jesus in the Christmas story (who we forget about after Dec 25 often) was incarnated as real flesh and blood. So we counted toes and fingers (and marvelled at their smallness), checked out the clothes and blankets, and talked about babies in general. Just trying to get beyond the Christmas card Jesus to the God who ‘became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood.’

Downside: I didn’t check with Kim first about ‘borrowing’ fourth-born for the talk. Ouch!

That’s all for now.

A couple of useful web development and design articles I came across the other day.

A List Apart: Articles: Understanding Web Design by Jeffrey Zeldman (Nov 20, 2007)

Web design is the creation of digital environments that facilitate and encourage human activity; reflect or adapt to individual voices and content; and change gracefully over time while always retaining their identity.

Some good points about thinking about how web content is both similar to and different from other forms of content creation.

A List Apart: Articles: How to Size Text in CSS >by Richard Rutter (Nov 20, 2007) contains some useful reminders that all browsers do not render text the same, even if you’re being careful with the CSS.

Scott Prather, over at swords to plowshares: Major bio-medical breakthrough highlights the recent news of researchers developing techniques that look useful for creating stem cells for therapies from a non-embryonic source. (More details at: Researchers Turn Skin Cells Into Stem Cells — Vogel 2007 (1120): 1 — ScienceNOW).

Scott notes that Lutheran bioethicist, Ted Peters, thinks that even if the controversial nature of using embryonic material as a source of stem cells is eliminated by this process the public controversy won’t die down. Indeed, the discussions over what exactly defines personhood, and possibly the ‘sacred’ nature of DNA will continue, I think.

This is the simply the case of different views of what being human and what nature is are played out in the public arena. For example,

It seems conceivable that the intensity of current controversies around genetically modified crops and foods arises in part from the fact that, in their regulation in the public domain, conflicting ontologies of the person are making themselves felt in the politics of everyday life.[1]

[1] Celia Deane-Drummond, Robin Grove-White, and Bronislaw Szerszynski, “Genetically Modified Theology: The Religious Dimensions of Public Concerns About Agricultural Biotechnology,” Studies in Christian Ethics 14, no. 2 (2001): 27.

Related links:

• Greenflame · Is our DNA Sacred?
• Greenflame · DNA, Stem Cells and Faith
• Hansen, Bart, and Paul Schotsmans. “Cloning: The Human as Created Co-Creator?” Ethical Perspectives 8, no. 2 (2001): 75-89. (Abstract)

The other week I borrowed a friend’s copy of “a genuinely educated ministry”: Three Studies on Theological Education in the Uniting Church of Australia by Andrew Dutney, principal of Parkin-Wesley College in Adelaide.

It’s a collection of Dutney’s three research projects submitted for a course at Flinders University designed for educational administrators and managers. As such, each section reads like an academic report (which may not be your cup of tea), but I found it quite accessible, though each report draws upon common material so sometimes I skimmed ahead.

Each project is oriented around a different question or subject:

Part 1. An historical study of the place of theological education in the inherited traditions of the Uniting Church in Australia

Which looked at tensions that can arise from different views of theological education within Reformed and Methodist traditions

Part 2. Theological education in the Uniting Church in Australia: historical trajectories and the future

Which, in part, looked at how different parts of the church viewed their roles in the shaping and control of theological education, as well as the impact of para-church educators

Part 3. Where do our ministers come from now?

The issues arising from candidates for ministry coming for training later in life, often with prior theological education, and often already established in lay ministry.

That’s only a brief summary of some of the points in the book, but if you’re interested in theological education and some of the issues it faces in this part of the world then it’s well worth the read.

Related links:

• New Books at Parkin-Wesley College
• A couple of Bible studies by Andrew Dutney at the recent Presbytery and Synod of SA meeting: Part 1 (mp3) and Part 2 (mp3).
• I can’t remember if I cited this in the thesis, but I definitely skimmed Dutney’s book “Playing God: Ethics and Faith” and found it interesting.

In what seems now like a lifetime ago, I took a fourth year computer science paper at the University of Canterbury in data encryption as part of the first year of my MSc studies. My memories of the course are a little blurry, though I do remember lots of math (yuck!) and bits of computer science history (yay!). It also included some of the hardest assignments I’ve ever done. I so enjoyed the history bits the best – I think best in terms of themes and events, not bit manipulations.

The history of data encryption (and codes and cyphers etc.) still intrigues me though, and not just that relating to digital computing. So I was interested to see this article – BBC NEWS | Technology | Colossus loses code-cracking race – about rebuilding the WWII Colossus computer, as well as simulating it in software, and recracking a message encoded on a Lorenz S42 machine.

You can find out more about the Colossus project and its history at AlanTuring.net – The Turing Archive for the History of Computing (co-directed by Professor of Philosophy, Jack Copeland, at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch). In particular, look under the section AlanTuring.net – Codebreaking Catalogue.

Some of the presentations at the creation care colloquium I mentioned back in May (See Greenflame · Environment Colloquium – TANSAA and A Rocha) have been written up and published in the November 2007 issue of Stimulus. A couple of the papers are available online.

Practical Ethics is a new blog that provides “reaction to the most recent ethical issues in the news, with a special focus on science related events” from a collection of people associated with the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics. Given the presence of commentators from the Future of Humanity Institute, which has strong transhumanist leanings I’ll be interesting in knowing what’s considered ‘practical’ ethics.