“How many people are on the Internet? By stunning coincidence, the total turns out to be exactly the same as the number of angels that can dance on the head of a pin.” [Paul Andrews, Seattle Times, 14 Jan 96]

“Technology is the knack of so ordering the world that we don’t have to experience it.” (Kim Stanley Robinson, The Martians)

Been finishing off my poster presentation for Auckland Uni’s Exposure03 event next week which has been hard work. There’s nothing like trying to take your theology into the marketplace to get you reexamining your assumptions and how you present it to a different audience. How will it stand up against medicine, science, engineering, law and…

I was struck the other day by a couple of self-subverting advertisements on TV – both by banks. The ANZ ad for their banking services that remove the need to use a branch with real people leaves their character “Ira Goldstein” feeling unhappy and missing the human contact. The message – buy this product and…

Always a fan of interplantary probes I remember the hype around the launch of the Galileo probe to Jupiter back in 1989. Now 14 years later it’s finally going out in style. NASA’s Galileo Heads for Its Grand Finale Plunge

During my everyday Internet use there are a few of web logs (blogs) I check up on reasonably often just to see if there’s anything interesting there (and there normally is). A couple of these are from the alternative/postmodern worship scene. I’ve enjoyed Jonny Baker’s writings (blog, books and articles) & music over the past…

Spent a very enjoyable afternoon at the Stardome Observatory in Auckland yesterday. We went to their Family Fun Day and the kids loved the two presentations in the planetarium – a show for 3-6 year olds and one on “Are we alone?”. Great value and fun for all. They have a cool web site too.

Our home copy of the NZ Listener is regularly mauled by visitors excitedly reading the articles and regular columns (and for some reason only known to them do not buy it themselves). However hope is at hand as the magazine has a new web site with links to articles (and some web-only) content there at:…

William Gibson made the point in the novel Neuromancer that being in cyberspace is like “being wrapped in media” – cyberspace as a “consensual hallucination”. Much the same can be said of television and other mass media which is pretty scary if your only window on the world is what’s piped down your TV screen.…