Assorted links, vol. 78 (Thomas hearings edition)

[In case you don't know about the Andrew Thomas disciplinary hearings, the basics are here, the formal complaint is here, and video recordings of the examination are here.]

*--PBS' show "Horizon" had very good pieces on the hearings before they began and after Thomas testified.
--Here is respondent Rachel Alexander's blog (see especially this gem, denouncing the proceedings).
*--Can't make it to the trial, but still want to know everything about it?  Follow Arizona Republic reporter @yvonnewingett to be kept in the loop.
*--Besides Yvonne, another amazing reporter covering the hearings is the ABA Journal's senior writer Terry Carter.  While we wait for his sure-to-be-amazing article, check out some of his past reporting here, here, and here.
--Also testifying: Joe Arpaio and David Hendershott.
--News about these hearings have been seen all over local TV (here, for instance), in the Washington Post, WorldNetDaily, Huffington Post, etc., etc.

Hacktivism

I am getting more interesting in the idea of hacktivism and the controversies surrounding it.  Before you ask, no, I haven't done any hacking or illegal computing of any kind.  As you may know from news reports, the two big-name groups are Anonymous and (the now-disbanded) LulzSec, who have done some work together under Operation AntiSec.  It seems to me that the attacks they carry out are not legal (see here, here, and, most fully, here), though I am often sympathetic to their rationales.  Using a variety of attacks, they have hit Sony (protesting the arrest of someone who had hacked them), MasterCard and PayPal (protesting their severing ties with WikiLeaks), and Arizona (protesting SB1070), among many others.  Their DDoS attacks use Low-Orbit Ion Cannon to attack other sites.  They have worried about being caught, and the eventual arrest of an alleged member after LulzSec called it quits led rapper Moses to pen this song.  And joining is easy.  But be warned: others will want to take you down of you get too involved.

Assorted links, vol. 49

--Meet the man whose job it is to take down al-Qaeda.
*--Is a Cal State professor the leader of the infamous motorcycle gang Devils Diciples?
--Were Anonymous' DDoS attacks against PayPal and Mastercard out of bounds?
*--A vote on Palestinian statehood is expected at the U.N. general assembly later this month.  Israel is preparing to deal with the outcome, the EU seems tight-lipped about it, and U.S. opinion is divided (as you might stereotypically expect): liberals are more supportive of the proposal, while conservatives generally are against it.
--More on Marcus Borg and "speaking Christian".
*--Check out this crazy chart about our economic status, as well as the others below it on the same page.
--Thoughts about the entire Hebrew Bible (Old Testament), blogged.  Awesome.

Assorted links, vol. 48

*--Two interesting and worthwhile blogs to check out: the more conservative blog of Dave Wiegel and the more liberal blog of Ta-Nehisi Coates.
--It's like "The Year of Living Biblically" (another book in the long yet-to-read queue), but for women.
*--I finally made it through Rowan Williams' response (#58, here) to "A Common Word," which I posted the other day, and it is fabulous.  It is 17 pages long, but well worth it.  If nothing else, do yourself a favor and read the section spanning pages 12-14, which is basically a masterpiece.
--Some true thoughts on youth ministry.
--And finally, here is perhaps the most diverse blog about all the music and videos that you didn't even know you didn't know about.

Assorted links, vol. 37

--Math concept of the day: sexy primes.
--As Steve Jobs retires as Apple's CEO, take a brief look back through his career at some of the many things on which he has patents.
--Do you know someone who is being abused?  This lengthy but worthwhile blog post is definitely worth reading to help understand him or her better.
*--Since 9/11, there have been a surprising number of people whose curiosity about Islam has led them to convert.
*--What will it mean that astronomy is entering the time domain?
--Here's a new blog that you should be reading if you are interested in global warming (which I also added to the blogroll).
--And have you heard of unschooling, which is basically child-directed education taken to the extreme?  What do you think about it?

Assorted links, vol. 23

[Hard to pick just three to asterisk this time around; all the links are solid, so check them all out!]

*--Always worth reading something by Marcus Borg.  Here he is being interviewed about his new book, which focusing on reclaiming the language of Christianity from conservative evangelicals.
--In the wake of the debt ceiling deal, here's an interesting counterpoint to the "what would Jesus cut?" question.
--Scott Gunn (who has good insights and opinions about things) doesn't like "Holy Women, Holy Men," which I had thought to be pretty good.  I do see his points, though.  Opinions?
*--Look what I found -- "love wins" written more than a year before "Love Wins"!!!  I guess Rob Bell didn't make it all up himself after all (he can thank Shane Claiborne).  :-)
*--What is love? UA chaplain Lucas Mix knocks it out of the park, again.
--And last, but certainly not least, I hope you are ready for the comic book battle of the century: "Captain Israel vs. Foreskin Man" (can't make this stuff up...).

Assorted links, vol. 20

--A humorous take on the fact that the Pope has begun to use Twitter.
--What do dominatrices (dominatrixes?) do in their spare time?  This one wrote a memoir.
*--Awesome article about the correspondences between Georgia O'Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz.  I would actually be interested to read the new book about them, despite it's length (832 pages...).
*--You have to check this out!  On this website, there are real papyri uncovered in Egypt at Oxyrhynchus, and you can help Oxford University transcribe and measure them.  [Side note: I may put up another post, just about this website, because the project seems that cool.]
--Has anyone read, or does anyone know anything about, the book "The Prophet and the Astronomer"?  Sounds like something that might be worth checking out.
--Two new blogs to check out: one by Lucas Mix, an Episcopal priest with an extensive science background, and the other about history, politics, and Christianity -- both added to the sidebar.

That's all for now, but more coming soon!

Assorted links, vol. 19

--I just picked up the book "Erasing Hell" by Francis Chan, which appears to be a response to Rob Bell's recent book "Love Wins".  Here are the introduction to Chan's book and a (slightly repetitive) Q&A with the author.  See what you think, and if you've already read one or both of these, tell me what you think of them.
*--If you don't know about what's going on with the debt ceiling debate, here is a very helpful question and answer sheet from the NY Times to help you get caught up to speed.  And see also here.  :-)
*--Just when is "now"?  This article is from a great NPR blog on science and culture called 13.7, which has a subsection on science and religion!
--Should evangelicals stop evangelizing?  And do you really know what's in the Bible, anyways?
*--What impact does Borders' closing have on the distribution of classical music?

Assorted links, vol. 14

--Interesting new (to me) blog about transparency and the courts
--Looking for the Museum of Totalitarian Art? It's opening in Bulgaria in September.
--It seems that the same dissent that has hit The Episcopal Church is hitting the Church of England, too.  Wonder how they'll feel about the "Anglican Mission in England," and wonder why that sounds so familiar...?
--Should official denominational church planting be supplanted by bivocational missionaries?
--This man helped my friend find The Episcopal Church, and for that he deserves great thanks.
--Awesome interview of Kevin Kelly, the founder of Wired magazine, by Christianity Today.  Definitely check it out and read it all.

Assorted links, vol. 11

--Michele Bachmann: ex-gay therapy advocate and homophobe.  Great choice, Republicans.
--Women are winning powerful political positions, thanks in part to associations with male relatives.
--Another simple yet helpful reminder about what the Bible does and doesn't say about marriage.
--Ruth Gledhill, the Anglican woman who writes the Times's religion column, has a new personal blog.
--Will NOM disclose its donor list, as it has been ordered to do?
--Is your church participating in the DREAM sabbath?

Assorted links, vol. 10

--A new study shows that advertising can create false memories
--Advice for Sarah Palin from her new neighbors in Scottsdale
--The Olympics don't always unify us; some evidence suggests they may in fact divide us
--Republicans' strange ideas for tax reform
--New fun blog: The Daily Stat

Assorted links, vol. 5 (law edition)

Last one for tonight -- here are the law journal articles that I am going to read when I have time.  Really.  I'll list them by title.  And credit is definitely due here to the blog Religion Clause, whose weekly list of articles always has at least one or two that I read and/or save.  Kudos to you.

--"Exploring Free Exercise Doctrine: Equal Liberty and Religious Exemptions" is here
--"'Charitable' Discrimination: Why Taxpayers Should Not Have to Fund 501(c)(3) Organizations that Discriminate Against LGBT Employees" is here
--"Compatibility between Anti-Terrorism Legislation and Shari'a" is here
--"'That Man Is You!' The Juristic Person and Faithful Love" is here
--"The Politics of Free Exercise after Employment Division v. Smith: Same-Sex Marriage, the 'War on Terror,'  and Religious Freedom" is here
--"Salazar v. Buono: Sacred Symbolism and the Secular State" is here

P.S. -- These are only the ones I have open in links; others I have already downloaded as PDFs.  I'm sure those others will be posted at a later time.  :-)

Thinking about Prop 8

I regularly read Prop 8 Trial Tracker, a blog that follows the updates in the seemingly interminable trial over California's 2008 initiative proposition 8, which amended the state's constitution to declare that only a marriage between a man and a woman would be legal or valid in the state.  Currently, the anti-Prop 8 (i.e., the pro-LGBTQ) side is winning; they scored a decisive victory in the trial court level, which I was quite excited and energized to see.  Now, on appeal, the opponents of Prop 8 face a tough choice -- would it be preferable to take their big win and walk away, which would be great for California but unhelpful (at least in the short term) to the rest of the country, or is it worth risking that big win by pressing onward to the Supreme Court, where another victory would have national ramifications, but where a loss could set the equality push back years?  The New Yorker ran a piece on these questions awhile back, but it is still just as pressing today, as the wheels of the courts grind slowly on.  What do you think?

Two interesting charts

I believe that I was first alerted both of these charts by the blog Seven Whole Days.  The first shows the combined population of everyone who has ever lived, and the second gives the numbers of satellites put into orbit around the earth by various countries.  What do you think?