My youngest (5) was given a Cambridge BrainBox – Electronic Kits for Children and Schools on Monday and it rocks. Really simple way to build electronic circuits that make radios, alarms, lights go on and off, and (most importantly) fans fly up and hit the ceiling. He loves it and has spent that last few days assembling all sorts of things (and blowing the fuses in the set a few times). I can’t believe we didn’t get something like this ages ago (though we have Lego, Meccano and other similar things). The press-stud approach works really well for his hands and it’s robust enough to carry around to show people.

I’m sure it has potential for use in a children’s talk at some point.

Frantic here at the moment. Old job stuff to finish, new job stuff to think about, last week of the school holidays, conference abstract due tomorrow, and going to Dunedin early tomorrow for the bioethics conference (so packing now).

However, still time to note that Dark Horse are finally going to release their next Firefly/Serenity comic book mini-series. Excellent, I can’t wait. See Dark Horse Comics > Profile > Serenity: Better Days #1 (of 3).

A list (with pictures) of some of the times Apple didn’t get it right. Of course, the definition of not getting something right is often in the eye of the beholder (or user), and items like the Newton, Apple IIc and Lisa (all of which I’ve used) all contained elements that contributed to better designs in the future (for Apple and its competitors). I think the MacBook Air might be in this category of a niche-product that helps stimulate all sorts of developments down the line, independent of how successful a system it is in its own right.

See Learning From Failure: Apple’s Most Notorious Flops

I can’t remember whether I’ve posted these links before (a quick search of the blog says not), but in a week’s time I’ll just back from Dunedin having attended the New Zealand Bioethics Conference: Wellbeing and Technology so it seemed apt to note them. There’s a session on transhumanism on the last day of the conference so I’ll be interested to see what the perspectives offered there include.

New Scientist magazine had a special focus on ‘death’ back in October (see Special Report on Death – New Scientist) with a bit in it on transhumanist aspirations to overcome death (or at least, short life) – Death special: The plan for eternal life – being-human – 13 October 2007 – New Scientist (including a link to the video YouTube – Quest for immortality featuring various transhumanists and ‘techno-progressives’).

Other related links:

• Living Forever: The Longevity Revolution – from The Nature of Things with David Suzuki : CBC-TV
• Do You Want To Live Forever? – Channel 4 Documentary
• Mark Walker on superlongevity
• Building Gods – Rough cut of documentary available online
• Immortality Institute

Firstly, a short summary piece from PBS Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly on recent developments in biotechnology and whether they change the ethical landscape. See Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly . PERSPECTIVES . Bioethics Update . January 25, 2008 | PBS

And secondly, Rod Benson (who produces the weekly summary RELIGION & ETHICS AUSTRALIA) also has a daily blog going over at Ethics Update: News, opinion and rumour on all manner of ethical, political and religious issues.

Some more links relating to the recent bibliographic software postings – mostly Mac related.

Firstly, TidBITS – Endnote, Bookends, Sente, Zotero, oh my, which looks at possible alternatives to EndNote on the Mac by an ecologist – with follow up comments by others.

Then there’s a review and a follow up at on the SBL web site of Bookends (which, like Sente, integrates well with the Mellel word processor). See Society of Biblical Literature – Bookends Review: Bibliographic Software For Mac and Society of Biblical Literature – Update to Bookends Review.

Also, does anyone know anything about the Windows software Nota Bene?

Had a nice (but all to brief) lunch today with Tim (of SansBlogue fame), though I was thwarted in my efforts to find some soup to eat as I recovered from the gentle(?) ministrations of my dentist. Conversation ranged all over the place, but included whether or not the ASUSTek Eee Ultraportable , with Linux, OpenOffice and Zotero (or WinXP etc.), might make a nice small, robust machine for taking on sabbatical-type journeys.

The article, ‘Sleep Dealer’ Injects Sci-Fi Into Immigration Debate, is yet another example of how science fiction’s speculative nature provides a space for engaging with questions and issues that challenge and stretch us – in this case a (not-so) futuristic exploration of how Western consumerism might be supported by the creation of virtual ‘sweat shops’.

Another recent article picking up this function of speculative or science fiction is Clive Thompson on Why Sci-Fi Is the Last Bastion of Philosophical Writing.

Mary over at Tensegrities points to this visually engaging project – Chris Harrison – Visualizing the Bible.

Beyond Paley: Renewing the Vision for Natural Theology is an interdisciplinary event being held at the University Museum, Oxford in June. The line up of speakers looks engaging, but given my chances of actually getting there as very slim (as in non-existent) I’ll wait for the downloads from the web site.

Related links from the Counterbalance site:

• General Term: Natural Theology
• General Term: Paley, Revd William (1743-1805)
• God, Humanity and the Cosmos Topic: Natural Theology vs Theology of Nature