Thursday Notes

DUNG BASED FUEL CELLS
Researchers are developing an energy source which could turn the Central Valley of California into the technology center of the universe. Link


PLEDGE A PICKET
Planned Parenthood in Philadelphia has come up with a scheme to discourage protestors. They are soliciting contributions based on the number of protestors demonstrating in front of their building. That is, they find contributors who pledge to give a certain amount of money to Planned Parenthood for each protestor.

Interesting twist -- but it shows that they truly don't understand what drives the protestors.


GOOGLE BLOG SEARCH
Their latest angle on search parameters.


"MINIPRENEURS"
People making money on the side by running all kinds of micro businesses. Apparently someone thinks this is a new trend. They've probably not lived near farmers who have four or five small businesses going on the side to make ends meet. What is perhaps new is the way that people are going about it. (Please buy something through the Amazon ad in the sidebar.)


NEW BROWSER TURNING HEADS
A beta version of "Flock" -- a new open-source webbrowser is suppose to be released in a few weeks -- and everyone seems excited about "the next generation" of browsing. Before we've even been able to make the full transition to the Firefox era we may find it truncated. With innovation coming so fast, no product has a particularly long shelf-life -- no matter how good it is compared to the previous product in its category.

Does anyone remember Netscape? They keep improving it but it doesn't compete with IE or even Firefox anymore. The updates were never radical enough.


DIVERTED ATTENTION
In many places charities doing work other than that associated with Hurricane Katrina are feeling the pinch as donors divert funds. Our people at Cornerstone have been giving generously to disaster relief but as far as I can tell that hasn't hurt the church's budget.


SIX VIEWS OF "THE PROBLEM OF ISLAM"
Opinion piece by Timothy Garton Ash in today's Guardian -- in sum:

1. The fundamental problem is not just Islam but religion itself, which is superstition, false consciousness, the abrogation of reason.

2. The fundamental problem is not religion itself, but the particular religion of Islam.

3. The problem is not Islam but Islamism. (twisted & misrepresented Islam)

4. The nub of the problem is not religion, Islam or even Islamism, but a specific history of the Arabs.

5. We, not they, are the root of the problem

6. Whatever your view of the relative merits of the west and Islam, the most acute tension comes at the edges where they meet.

Feedback?


"PROTESTANT ANGER RUNS DEEP IN BELFAST"
So asserts the headline that describes the current wave of rioting. I take issue with it, though. True Protestants are Christians, and Christians are followers of Jesus, and there is absolutely no sign that any of these rioters are Christians of any sort. At some point you forfeit the "right" to call yourself a follower of Jesus -- and rioters are way past that point (regardless of the legitimacy or illegitimacy of their complaint).


EXCOMMUNICATE ROBERTSON
Journalism professor and columnist Terry Mattingly is calling on is fellow fourth-estaters to recognize that Pat Robertson is a has-been who is out of the mainstream of conservative Christianity and to thus excommunicate him from their stories.

...we have reached the point where some journalists are happy to see Robertson's face on television screens, because every time he opens his mouth he reinforces their stereotype of a conservative Christian. And they may sincerely believe that he remains a powerful leader among American evangelicals, someone who provides an appropriate "conservative" voice during coverage of controversial events.

If this is true, then why is it so hard to find mainstream evangelicals and traditional Catholics who defend Robertson? Outside of a cable TV niche, where are his legions? In short, I'm convinced it is time for journalists to drop Robertson from their lists of "usual suspects." That he ceases to be someone they turn to for quotes from "evangelical leaders." He is a straw man.