Some random pop culture links while I’m clearing out browser tabs.

Firstly, I’m really wondering how this comic book crossover is going to work. ‘Truth, justice and the American way’ and American superhero icons meet THE 99, a comic book which aims to provide Muslim and Arab youth with culturally-relevant heroes whose superhero strengths, actions and virtues personify each of the 99 qualities that Muslims believe are the attributes of God.

More details at:

• Superman and Batman to join forces with Islamic superheroes – Telegraph
• DC Comics’ superheroes join forces with characters inspired by Allah | World news | The Guardian
• DC Universe: The Source » Blog Archive » THE JUSTICE LEAGUE AND THE 99 TO JOIN FORCES IN UPCOMING MINI-SERIES

Secondly, an interesting short article on vampyr lifestyle – see Fangs for the memories – Religion and beliefs – NZ Herald News

Thirdly, Evangelicals In the Star Trek Universe | internetmonk.com (HT to James at Exploring Our Matrix.

And lastly, My iPhone’s bigger than yours – cartoonist Michael Leunig’s take on technology.

The latest issue of Metanexus’ Global Spiral web publication looks interesting. Articles have been drawn from the annual Metanexus conference on this month including:

• “The Making of a New Biophilia: Evolutionary Governance and the Modern Creation Myth” by Walter Truett Anderson
• ““A Mirror up to Nature”: Cosmos, Nature, and Culture in Shakespeare” by Kenneth W. Davis
• “Why I am Not a Pantheist (Nor a Panentheist): Metaphysics, Totalization, and the Cosmos” by Jonathan Weidenbaum
• “God, Strings, Emergence, and the Future of the World” by Nicola Hoggard Creegan
• “The Idea of Design in Nature: Science or Phenomenology?” by Jakob Wolf
• “Religion, Culture, and the Personification of Non-Human Entities” by Kathryn Johnson and Adam Cohen

More details on the conference can be here.

I’ve been reading this book over the past couple of days. So far I’ve read the Stargate SG-1 and Babylon 5 essays, both of which are useful summaries. Looking forward to next essay.

“The Essential Science Fiction Television Reader (Essential Readers in Contemporary Media)” (J.P. Telotte)

Possibly the coldest object in space they reckon. See BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Planck achieves ultra-cold state.

(Of course, scientific measurements fail to accurately measure the temperature of sideline spectators watching their children play sport in the winter).

Interesting short interview on robots and creativity. See Teaching Robots To Be Human.

In the midst of all of the end of semester madness of assignment and examination marking, meetings and marketing it’s been a week to muse on theology and popular culture.

Firstly, I’ve been finishing off the course outlines and assessment tasks for the course “The Bible and Popular Culture” that I’ll be teaching next semester. It’s a big class being a general education course at the university (an order of magnitude bigger that a regular undergrad theology class), so it’ll be a good chance to teach in a new environment. The class is taken by students from pretty much every faculty, so I won’t assume anything. You can see the description of the course over here.

Then on Wednesday the university hosted its annual STEAM AHEAD day, highlighting opportunities for Maori and Pacific Island school leavers. As part of that I did a presentation on theology using a clips from Bro’ Town, Firefly (the scene in Jaynestown where River and Shepherd Book discuss ‘fixing the Bible’), and a scene from Spider-Man (where the hero has to decide whether to save MJ or the cable car of kids – what would ground the decisions to be made here?).

And then on Thursday, I’ve been asked to write a piece relating popular culture and church – thinking I’ll do something on ‘Four-colour theology’ around comic books and graphic novels. Must be time to find some back issues of some comics while on leave for the next few days.