Jottings on science, religion, technology, pop culture, photography and faith from the Aotearoa New Zealand
I’m probably going to pick up a copy of the book Global Perspectives on Science and Spirituality edited by Pranab Das, but am somewhat disappointed by the perception of global in it. While the authors represent a range of non Anglo-American voices, most (all?) the authors are still in a predominantly northern hemisphere axis. Where are the voices from Africa, South East Asia, Oceania and the Pacific, and Latin and South America? Hopefully, when I delve into it I’ll be surprised.
The Secret Life of Scientists is a PBS web series with videos about different scientists and what they do out of the lab. Maybe a ‘Secret Life of Theologians’ at some point?
A bunch of links to religion (esp. Christianity) and transhumanism can be found at this recent posting on the Sentient Developments blog.
See Sentient Developments: J. Hughes: Radical Life Extension, Transhumanism and Catholicism.
Back in 2006 (Greenflame · e-Monks doing e-Business) the monks with the laser printer supplies business were making a minor splash. Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly pick up the story some three years on from there over at September 11, 2009 ~ Laser Monks | Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly.
Every now and then something like this comes along while you’re teaching a course on the same thing. Will be pointing students in the Bible in Popular Culture course over here – The Most Exalted Star Wars Religious Art In The Universe.
The Ministry of Research, Science and Technology have collated the material from their nanotechnology workshop held in Wellington earlier this year. Summary documents, primers and video footage at Nanotech Workshop 2009 – MoRST.
The New Yorker had short article looking at seven fantasy books you might read after finishing off the well-known staples of Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings. You can find the list at Seven Essential Fantasy Reads: Going to Second Base: The Book Bench : The New Yorker. (As an aside, I think I’ve read all of these, apart from “The Name of the Wind” which I’ll go an hunt down).
Setting up a ‘definitive’ list of books or an anthology can be a fraught process though. For example, see the recent reaction to ‘The Mammoth Book of Mindblowing Science Fiction’ (see also: Making Lists: Mindblowing SF by Women and People of Color).
Henry Jenkins’ blog has had a number of interesting recent postings related to transmedia storytelling, computer games and various other things:
A couple of interesting links in the Washington Post relating to the ‘Religion’ field in Facebook profiles. See Facebook’s Religion Question Prompts Soul-Searching – washingtonpost.com and Facing Their Faith – washingtonpost.com.
Related link: In Google we trust: our new faith | Stuff.co.nz
A few useful links related to teaching and learning: