December 2007

Another very busy week this week - two significant birthdays (mine included a zero in it, and fourth-born reached a significant milestone too), lots of end of year stuff, more other stuff (which was quite stressful), Kim had lots on as she finished up work to start a new job in the new year, and the kids finished school mid-day Thursday.

So now, for the next 10 days or so, they’ll be a brief blog interlude while we all enjoy a break from work, school, kindy and various commitments and spend some time with each other and our wider families.

This year the Pohutukawa trees all seem to be in fine form - even the little ones that were planted this year on the road side by the local school. The colour is refreshing at this busy time.

Have a good Christmas everyone.

A few interrelated things in the past week or so about genetic testing, discrimination and Alzheimer’s.

Firstly, PBS carried this article (and video) about the ethics of testing for Alzheimer’s - Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly . COVER . Alzheimer’s Testing . December 14, 2007 | PBS.

Which, in turn, relates to this part of Radio NZ’s Nine to Noon programme on Thursday that looked at genetic discrimination in insurance cover - MP3 here.

And then this from Terry Pratchett, who notes that while he’s been diagnosed with very rare form of early onset Alzheimer’s people note that he’s not dead yet. (Are there eulogies on the net already?) - Discworld News © PJSM Prints

When I was at high school I used to make regular trips into Wellington’s Carter Observatory to attend astronomical society meetings, so I was sad to see this article today noting the loss of jobs and national status there. Many good memories of heading up the cable car to the observatory and planetarium at the top of the Wellington Botanical Gardens. Places like that fired my imagination to engage with science by firstly wanting to become a scientist, and then more recently to look at science’s relationship with other things like religion. It appears, like many of these things, that the money could only stretch so far - concentrate on education and the research drops, on the research only and it becomes disconnected from the public (and stimulating young scientists). So much, perhaps, for funding a broad ‘knowledge economy’.

See: Jobs lost in Carter Observatory restructuring - Stuff.co.nz.

Hopefully, once the dust settles, there’s something to continue in some positive form.

Other links:

• Carter Observatory, Carter Observatory Distance Education, Carter Observatory (academic), and Carter Observatory - Wikipedia
• Auckland Stardome
• Mt John - Physics and Astronomy - University of Canterbury - New Zealand, Mt John observatory in Lake Tekapo - Tekapo Tourism, and Mt John observatory with Earth and Sky - Lake Tekapo, New Zealand.

As someone interested in both transmedia narratives and the TV show ‘Heroes’ I was really interested to read this article recently.

Confessions of an Aca/Fan: The Official Weblog of Henry Jenkins: “We Had So Many Stories to Tell”: The Heroes Comics as Transmedia Storytelling and to find the link to the online ‘Heroes’ comics that add to the TV episodes at Heroes TV Show on NBC: NBC Official Site

More links to transmedia storytelling at Greenflame · Transmedia.

Interesting articles that popped up on young-earth ‘creationist’ geology, and the problems it causes, not for secular geologists, but rather for old-earth Christian geologists.

Original NYT article at: Rock of Ages, Ages of Rock by Hanna Rosin (Nov 25, 2007). (Login needed).

Commentary on the article here at Young Earth Creationism Makes Life Difficult for Everyone | Liveblog | Christianity Today.

I long time ago I flatted with a postgrad geneticist-microbiologist who had the crazy idea of trying to make bioluminescent bananas (so they could be picked in the dark ). Apparently, bananas are the wrong type of plant for the bioluminescent symbiote he wanted to use, though potatoes would have worked.

Now I see this - SKorean Scientists Clone Cats That Glow: Wired News - AP News - and I wonder, what ever happened to my old flatmate?

The last week and the next one are full on with all sorts of family activities. Monday was fourth-born’s ‘official’ kindy farewell, Thursday was first-born’s school prize-giving, Friday night Kim and three children part of the church’s Christmas drive-thru, today three of the kids were in the Christmas pageant at church, and then there are two family birthdays this week. Combine all this with other stuff that’s happening (summer holidays start mid-day Thursday for the kids, Christmas preparations, fitting in some work and other things) and it’s all really busy.

Oh, and third-born and I made chocolates yesterday at her insistence. Just simple molds with milk and white chocolate but they look (and taste) really good. Mmm.

After some initially using the PHPWebsite content management system way, way back as a proto-blog I shifted to using Blogger, and then over to Movable Type 2 because it afforded me more control over the blog (and added things like categories). And then Movable Type 3 arrived and the licencing became confusing and more restrictive so I just kept on chugging along using the functional, but now relatively obsolete, MT 2. Finally I came to WordPress (via some playing around with Drupal and Mambo/Joomla) and it works pretty well (especially with Ecto).

Now, in part in response to the success of WordPress, there’s an open-source version of Movable Type 4 available, which might just make me go back and have a look at it if I need to set up a new blog on my own server. I quite liked MT - and back when it was more widespread there were all sorts of interesting sites providing helpful tips and themes etc. (Just like for WordPress now).

More details at: Six Apart Reinvigorates Movable Type with New Open-Source Release | Compiler from Wired.com and Movable Type Open Source - MovableType.org - Home for the MT Community.

BTW - I see PHPWebsite continues to evolve. I liked using the early versions, and I might have a look at it again next time I need a CMS.

Duncan Macleod (AKA Pacific Highlander and of Duncan’s TV Ad Land) has a short piece reflecting on Christmas in Journey (produced by the Uniting Church in Australia, Queensland) about celebrating Christmas in our everyday world. See Jingle all the way.

A couple of interesting things this week relating to copyright.

Firstly, the National Party had to recall the DVDs it had produced to promote John Key because it contained music that was the same as or very close to a Coldplay track. See Faux Coldplay forces Key change - Stuff.co.nz and Key out of tune with Coldplay - NZ Herald.

And secondly, an article on the increasing tendency for the enforcers of copyright to go after everyday people who are oblivious of what constitutes copyright breach over ‘performance’ of a piece - in this case someone playing music in the background at their factory/store during a one-off sale. See Feature: For your ears only by Joanne Black | New Zealand Listener.

Fair enough in the first case, but in the second I guess it’s not safe to hum a tune in public any more?

A couple of links from a recent Geek Speak - KUSP 88.9FM, Central Coast Public Radio podcast.

MacSaber is a piece of software that takes advantage of the motion sensor present in more recent MacBooks etc. to generate lightsaber noises when the laptop is moved. More information at isnoop.net blog » Blog Archive » MacSaber 1.1: Attack of the Backlight and a video of it in action over at YouTube - MacSaber Fighting :MacBook Lightsaber.

Sure to interest the usual subjects: Darren, Craig and Lindsay.

Right up there with the original hacks a friend of mine had to turn his Apple Newton into a tricorder 10-12 years or so ago.

The geekiness of the above topic is outshone though by the effort that went into creating a list of the 50 greatest fictional weapons of all time (which must be wielded by an individual so no Death Stars etc.) Some really strange entries in there (He-Man’s sword?), but nice to see the Green Lantern power ring at #1. Every so often you find a writer who grasps what it is capable of, but on the whole you mostly get the unimaginative fare found in the animated Justice League series of giant boxing glove constructs and the like. The whole list is at: Wizard Entertainment - ULTIMATE WEAPONS.

Various books on the go at the moment. Some good, some not so. Random comments follow.

“Metal Swarm” by Kevin J. Anderson (Book 6(!) in the “The Saga of Seven Suns” series). Should be right up my alley - ancient powerful alien races continue ancient wars while plucky humans (with strange alien sometime allies) strive to survive. It’s Babylon 5 all over again - even down to the human politics and civil war. But it reads really badly - too many characters to follow and a million very short chapters focusing on different characters means it feels like watching a TV where someone’s changing the channel every 10 seconds. No time for empathy to develop with any of the characters, and by now it feels like it’s just going through the motions. On a plus side you can skip whole chapters and not miss much of the plot. Undecided on whether I’ll read the next book.

“The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief” by Francis S. Collins, the director of the National Human Genome Research Institute. Recommended to me by a non-scientist/non-theologian (in the professional sense) so I’ve picked it up from the library. As usual I’ve started reading from the back, in this case the first few pages of the appendix on bioethics which gives some nice summaries of that field. (See also: Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly . PROFILE . DR. FRANCIS COLLINS . July 21, 2006 | PBS)

“Saturnalia: A Marcus Didius Falco Novel” by Lindsey Davis. Falco novels are like a comfortable old pair of slippers for me. When I don’t feel like reading anything too heavy then I get the next one out of the library. I didn’t really like the last one (“See Delphi and Die”), but you know what you’re getting and I’ve always been interested in Ancient Rome. “Saturnalia” improved on the last book, but still missed something of the dramatic tension present in the early novels. (Related information: Second-born (9) has been devouring the children’s equivalent of the Falco novels - Caroline Lawrence’s “Roman Mysteries” - effectively a ‘Famous Five in Ancient Rome’)-

“Practical Theology: On Earth As It Is in Heaven” by Terry A. Veling. Because it was spoken highly of over at Simply Simon: Practicing theology and Simply Simon: Practicing theology II.

“The Blackwell Reader in Pastoral and Practical Theology (Blackwell Readings in Modern Theology)” by John Patton. Because it was near the Veling book on the shelf in the GSC library, and because it covers a wide range of perspectives on the field.

“Engaging the Online Learner: Activities and Resources for Creative Instruction (Online Teaching and Learning Series (OTL))” by Rita-Marie Conrad and J. Ana Donaldson. A book that collects a large number of different online learning examples and is really useful for showing you what other people have down and why, and also for helping design your own activities and assessements.

The Comics Show, which was a really enjoyable and informative documentary on the history of New Zealand comics is now available on DVD. More details at: Dylan’s Blog - The Comics Show - DVD now out!.

Related link: Greenflame · The Comics Show - documentary on NZ comics.

A couple of times I’ve found it useful to use Marc Prensky’s concepts of the digital native and digital immigrant to make points in things I’ve written. As one reviewer noted of one of these pieces, these are helpful concepts but can’t be realized as absolute categories, which I agree with entirely. The adoption or uptake of digital technologies is far more complicated than seeing people as either ‘natives’ or ‘immigrants’.

Prensky’s work was originally situated in discussions about education, and in particular, perceived differences between teachers and students in terms of familiarity with and use of digital technology. Now, several years on, Henry Jenkins has an interesting article on the relevance and helpfulness of the terminology. See Confessions of an Aca/Fan: The Official Weblog of Henry Jenkins: Reconsidering Digital Immigrants….

Brief article on designing a computer games to allow students to explore ethical issues. In this case, you play an ‘Igor’ assistant in a Frankenstein scenario. Sounds intriguing. See Universities bring video games into classrooms | CNET News.com.

I was wondering yesterday, with the Wifi and Safari built into the iPod Touch, whether you could blog from it. It appears you can, and there’s a WordPress plugin to format posts for the iPod Touch/iPhone screen size. See Wordpress for Ipod Touch (iWPhone)

If you’re publishing stuff on your blog or web site and you’re concerned about other people misusing your content then ProBlogger has a useful little article on how a terms of service page can help with that. See: Nip Problems in the Bud with a TOS Page.

Duncan Macleod posts an interesting set of links pointing to the use of the web to create a ‘viral’ YouTube clip to highlight the conflicting values within Unilever’s campaigns to market their Dove and Axe (Lynx) brands. See Unilever Hypocrisy Exposed » Television Adverts at Duncan’s TV Ad Land, and the associated link Dove Viral Draws Heat From Critics - Advertising Age - News. I guess it’s all about selling, not a product primarily, but a brand that triggers associations with particular values in the consumer and thereby loyalty to that brand.

Related links:

• Lovemark - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
• gapingvoid: expressive capital

As part of a low-key celebration of Advent here at home we normally have an Advent calendar that the children take turns at updating each day (or having an Advent candle burn down a marked section each day). Finding an Advent calendar that isn’t loaded with chocolate or associated with a television programme or movie can be pretty hard, so a few years back I found a reasonable one (in a post-Christmas sale) that told bits of the Christmas story by turning a central cardboard dial each day to reveal the next passage of Scripture.

Now, while that calendar was much better at telling the story than your average ‘Finding Nemo’ or ‘Shrek’ Advent calendar, some of the Scripture passages it had were a little odd (especially taken out of the context of the wider passage) and after 3 years or so of using it, it was time for a change.

So I was interested in Jonny Baker’s post - 25 new from si smith - advent comic, calendar and flatpack models which pointed through to Proost - 25 Advent Comic and Calendar (PDF Download), which looked interesting.

So I’ve downloaded the advent calendar package (not really interested in the models, so didn’t get those) and each day we’re taking the next day’s cartoons and putting them in a multi-pocket clear-file that the kids can flip through over the Advent period. There are blanks left in speech bubbles for you to add your own words (which the kids are supplying) and we get to talk about the story as we go and recap it when we add a new page. Plus, if your children like coloring in pictures like my daughter there is scope for doing ‘exegesis with crayons’.

Early days so far, but it looks like it’ll work well.

On a related note - the kids have also enjoyed Nicholas Allan’s “Jesus’ Christmas Party” with the cutout manger scene and figures for retelling the story.