Computers make it easier to do a lot of things, but most of the things they make it easier to do don't need to be done.
Monthly Archive for April, 2008
This is a rather unbelievable story about a baby girl in India who was born with a rare condition called 'craniofacial duplication'. I assume that this story is real, as it wasn't released on April Fools' Day, and the article comes from two reputable sites:
I have to confess that there are many parts of the Church of England's new Common Worship services that I don't like. The Baptism service, for example, is hugely long, overly complicated and (I think) theologically wrong. (For more on that you might want to read my essay on baptism.) The pattern of daily prayer changes every day, and there are so many options that it is difficult to see what is 'Common' about the new services.
Despite all this, my wife and I spent the day in Durham Cathedral yesterday - where we will be ordained in June - going through the ordination service, both practically and theologically. As the last part of Common Worship to be published, there has been a lot of time and effort put into the service, and I think it has paid off. The prayers are good, there is a focus on the call to preach and to serve, and even on the importance of the Bible!
The ordination itself, where the Bishop lays his hands on each candidate, takes place within the context of the main prayers in the service. From the service booklet we were given yesterday (all forty pages of it!) it really does seem like the transition between prayers - ordination - prayers is seemless.
The centrality of prayer in the service caught me by surprise, but actually I think is absolutely right. It means that our life as ordained ministers begins firmly within the context of family, friends and the wider church praying for us, and it means that we ourselves begin on our knees. This all acknowledges just how important it is that God enables us to perform our various ministries (ordained and non-ordained), that we can't do any of it in our own strength.
I was looking forward to the service before - now I can't wait!
I just found this on the internet:
Coming soon: superfast internet
The very clever people at Cern have invented something much faster than the internet - or rather, some technology that is much faster than the protocols used by the WWW. It uses dedicated fibre optic cables and modern switching hardware, to avoid the bottlenecks of copper cables.
It would be amazing if this stuff made its way into the normal world, but with ISPs so concerned with short-term profits, and after chronic under-investment in the internet infrastructure in this country, I'll believe it when I see it.
As ever, the universities are there first:
Britain alone has 8,000 servers on the grid system – so that any
student or academic will theoretically be able to hook up to the grid rather
than the internet from this autumn.
Why am I leaving university?! I should get a job as a lecturer...
There is scarcely anything in the world that some man cannot make a
little worse, and sell a little more cheaply. The person who buys on
price alone is this man's lawful prey.
Susie and I recently returned from a few days in Rome, courtesy of her great aunt. I have wanted to visit the Eternal City for years, mostly to see the Roman ruins, which are, well, ruins, but still spectacular! The best preserved is probably the Pantheon, which is incredible, but the Colosseum and Baths are not far behind.
We also visited the Vatican museums and St Peter's. The Sistine chapel really is quite special, as are many other things in the museums. However, St Peter's basilica provides much food for thought. In huge letters the front reads:
IN HONOREM PRINCIPIS APOST PAVLVS V BVRGHESIVS ROMANVS PONT MAX AN MDCXII PONT VII
That is, translated, 'In honor of the prince of apostles by Paul V Borghese, a Roman, Supreme Pontiff, in the year 1612 and the seventh year of his pontificate.'
All very well and good, but what you actually see when you look at it is 'PAVLVS V BVRGHESIVS ROMANVS', because it's in the middle, on the central pediment! This is the story throughout Rome: the most prominent place is always given to the name of the Pope. Even on the side of the Colosseum pope Pius IX gets pride of place!
While there I read this verse:
The fear of the Lord is instruction in wisdom, and humility comes before honour.
Proverbs 15.33 (ESV)
And also this verse:
For they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.
Philippians 2.21 (ESV)
I couldn't help but think of all the popes who have sought their own interests, their own honour, before God's. All it would take is 'SOLA DEO GLORIA' ('only for God's glory') as an inscription.
The challenge to us is how easy it was for the popes to behave like this - and we are no different. I'm sure if I was the pope and built an enormous church I'd be tempted to stick my name on it somewhere for the generations to see.
Well I'm enjoying my experience of WordPress 2.5 already. The admin interface is so much cleaner, and it does so many things better than before!
I did however have one small problem. When trying to add media using the new media interface, I kept getting HTTP errors. After a bit of searching around, I discovered it was due to the mod_security Apache module.
Not wanting to disable it entirely, I discovered that it is possible simply to disable the POST filter, which allows the gallery to work. Simply add the following to the .htaccess file in the root folder of your blog:
<IfModule mod_security.c>SecFilterScanPOST Off</IfModule>
This works for me, so I hope it works for you!
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