Each week the 95bFM has a University of Auckland academic on for their “Ready Steady Learn” spot and this week it was me talking about Christmas, the internet and the church. You can catch slot (with Mike Havoc hosting it) here (MP3). (For some reason the MP3 cuts out at around 9 minutes but the session went on longer than that – hopefully the full thing will be downloadable at some point).

First time on the radio and I wouldn’t mind doing it again sometime.

BTW – Each Wednesday morning Mike talks to Peter Lineham in the “That’s the Spirit” slot. Often the most entertaining (and loud) religious podcast of the week.

Next year I’m teaching the general education course The Bible in Popular Culture (in which I can indulge my love of comics etc. and be paid for it), so I’ve been checking material to add the that which previous lecturers have used. A while back (Greenflame · More comics and religion) I noted that there were some recent Superman stories that explored religious aspects of the character, and this week I’ve gotten around to reading the recent trade paperback that put several of them in one volume.

Superman: Redemption by Kurt Busiek and Fabian Nicieza collects three stories – one about a woman who sees Superman as her personal angel of judgement, another about what happens when fundamentalist religion and superpowers mix, and a third that continues the DC universe’s development of the nature of Hell. The last story didn’t really work for me – it felt a bit clumsy (compared to some of the Sandman or Spectre material that intersects the DC universe) – but the other two stories were worth looking at. I’ll try and buy the TPB for my own collection of such things next time the comic shop has a sale.

Has anyone read "Aliens Are God’s Children Too" by J.J. Stewart? Sci Fi Catholic notes in A Little Bit of Christmas… that there’s a sample chapter available at Aliens Are God’s Children Too: Christmas on another planet.

I’m tossing up setting an essay on what the implications for religious faith might be in the face of potential discoveries of extra-terrestrial life, so the idea’s sort of floating around in my head at the moment. (Either that or it’s a side effect of too much Christmas cake eaten with strong blue cheese.)

Merry Christmas from the Antipodes where, after the traditional bad weather in the week up to Christmas, things seem to be warming up.

Low key Christmas this year – at home with Kim’s folks here – and some time to recharge the batteries.

Dinner tonight will be Butter Turkey – last year I curried that left-over turkey and the kids loved it and all this year they’ve been asking for a repeat performance. So it looks like Butter Turkey or similar will become a Garner Christmas tradition.

This video clip from Wired Science highlights some interesting research about what sort of relationships might be formed between robots and their human operators, especially in situations where the robot might be put at risk.

What happens to embryos created by IVF but not implanted is a fraught question for many, but it gets more complicated when those storing the embryos can’t contact the couples.

See Embryos in limbo – dilemma for clinics – Religion and beliefs – NZ Herald News. (It’s been filed in the Herald’s “Religion and beliefs” section but they probably need a more general ‘ethics’ section as it impacts on more than just religious beliefs”)

A link through to a brief report on a NZ project to create a virtual personal assistant for controlling your environment. See Meet Nicole, the virtual PA – Stuff.co.nz.

More detailed information at: Massey University – School of Engineering and Advanced Technology – Unravelling the mystery of mechatronics and YouTube – Massey University Engineering Smart House.

Related link: Greenflame · Guess who’s coming to (virtual) dinner?

At some point soon I hope to watch this video clip (Science & Religion Today: Watch an Atheist & a Jesuit Astronomer Chat) that comes from unused material from The Genius of Charles Darwin – FameLab from channel4.com. I don’t know whether we’ll ever get the documentary here in NZ so the web video might have to do. (A review is at: Science & Religion Today: Richard Dawkins on Darwin’s Genius)

I do have a copy of the following DVD ($5 in a sale bin a while back) which I will be watching soon.

"Genius – Charles Darwin" (Kultur Video)

And hopefully I’ll get my hands on this one too.

"Paradise Lost: The Religious Life of Charles Darwin" (David Wollert)

Related links – see Greenflame · Search results for darwin.

A series of interconnected posts from around the net recently:

• James Hughes over at Trans-Spirit : Message: Vatican condemns enhancement, embryonic stem cells, cloning highlights the recent Vatican document Dignitas Personae relating to bioethics
• He then follows it up with a list of other Catholic bioethics-related publications at – Trans-Spirit : Message: Dignitas Personae and previous documents. The links are a little broken in places but you should be able to make them out.
• Science & Religion Today: Religion Affects View of Scientific Decisions points to how ‘faith’ in one (science or religion) affects ‘faith’ in the other.
• And Who Cares if the Vatican Weighs in on Bioethics? | blog.bioethics.net figures that religious bioethics is, at the end of the day, irrelevant.

Wired pick up on a recent article in Science magazine on the possible implications of becoming overly reliant on robotic child minding systems. See I, Nanny: Robot Babysitters Pose Dilemma | Wired Science from Wired.com

The original article is here but you need to sign in to get it (unless you have access through an institution that subscribes or similar). The reference is:

Science 19 December 2008:
Vol. 322. no. 5909, pp. 1800 – 1801
DOI: 10.1126/science.1164582

Perspectives
COMPUTER SCIENCE:
The Ethical Frontiers of Robotics
Noel Sharkey