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Jottings on science, religion, technology, pop culture and faith from the Antipodes.

Archive for October, 2008

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Studying Religion and New Media Wiki

Sunday, October 19th, 2008

Heidi Campell’s started a new wiki for researching issues related to religion, the internet and other forms of new media. See the link below:

Main Page – Studying Religion and New Media

Posted by stepheng, in Cyberspace No Comments »

OpenOffice 3 for Mac

Friday, October 17th, 2008

Has anyone had a play with the new Mac OS X friendly OpenOffice 3? I’m going to pull it down the wire but would be interested to know what other experiences people have had.

www.OpenOffice.org – The Free and Open Productivity Suite

Posted by stepheng, in Mac 2 Comments »

Science & Religion Today Blog

Friday, October 17th, 2008

Some of the people involved with the now defunct Science and Religion News magazine and website have put together a new(ish) blog on things relating to science and religion. You can catch it at: Science & Religion Today.

Posted by stepheng, in Science, Technology & Religion No Comments »

Confessions of a Space Opera Junkie

Wednesday, October 8th, 2008

I’ve always loved science fiction, but I really, really love space opera. Whether that’s on TV, in the movies, in comic books or novels or short stories, there’s nothing quite like curling up with something like that on a Sunday afternoon or on the train on the way home from work.

So I’m really enjoying Neal Asher’s Polity series with it’s space ships, artificial intelligence, cyborgs, alien invasions, political intrigue, biotech etc. etc. etc. It’s probably on the fringe of moving from space opera to more serious science fiction given some of the deeper themes in it in places, but that’s not a problem. Some of the transhuman and posthuman themes in it intersect with those of Alistair Reynolds

Posted by stepheng, in Science Fiction 5 Comments »

PCANZ General Assembly Keynote Talks

Monday, October 6th, 2008

The Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand has put up the handouts and audio files from the three key note talks by Rev Professor Randall Prior from the General Assembly that’s just finished. You can find them here Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand // What’s Presbyterian?: Keynote speaker.

Posted by stepheng, in Faith & Religion No Comments »

Pacific genes & life patents

Thursday, October 2nd, 2008

Pacifice Genes

Today I’ve been reading bits of Pacific Genes & Life Patents which is a collection of papers looking at bioethics, biotechnology and genetics from Pacific and Oceanian perspectives. The articles aren’t always ‘polished’ but they convey a deep passion about the issues being faced and the need to Pacific voices to be heard in the face of Western technological and economic agendas. The material on biopiracy (and to a lesser extent bioprospecting) is alarming, to say the least.

The full reference to the book is:

Mead, Aroha Te Pareake, Steven Ratuva, Call of the Earth Llamado de la Tierra (Organization), and Institute of Advanced Studies. Pacific Genes & Life Patents : Pacific Indigenous Experiences & Analysis of the Commodification & Ownership of Life. Wellington, N.Z. ; Yokohama, Japan: Call of the Earth Llamado de la Tierra and the United Nations University of Advanced Studies, 2007.

And there are more details at Call of the Earth – Publications as well as a downloadable copy of the book (for free).

Posted by stepheng, in Bioethics/Biotech No Comments »

eDay 2008

Wednesday, October 1st, 2008

Time to recycle those old computer bits and pieces. Saturday October 4 is the day. Check out the venue near you.

See eDay 2008.

Posted by stepheng, in Environment No Comments »
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