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As mentioned recently, I bought and planted a few rocket seedlings. I planted them in the same planter box that last year’s crop were in, and the seem to be doing well. Imagine my mingled surprise, delight and mild chagrin to find that last year’s crop has self-seeded (as my mum actually mentioned it might), and circa 100 tiny rocket plants have germinated among the handful of larger seedlings. So now I have rocket plants to spare if anyone would like any.
RDB take plenty good photo
Said Justin Martyr (100–165):
[The demons] struggle to have you as their slaves and servants … they get hold of all who do not struggle to their utmost for their own salvation—as we do who, after being persuaded by the Word, renounced them. Specifically in the baptismal renunciation of the devil and all his works. and now follow the only unbegotten God through his Son. Those who once rejoiced in fornication now delight in continence alone; those who made use of magic arts have dedicated themselves to the good and unbegotten God; we who once took most pleasure in the means of increasing our wealth and property now bring what we have into a common fund and share with everyone in need; we who hated and killed one another and would not associate with men of different tribes because of [their different] customs, now after the manifestation of Christ live together and pray for our enemies and try to persuade those who unjustly hate us, so that they, living according to the fair commands of Christ, may share with us the good hope of receiving the same things … The teachings of Christ were short and concise, for he was no sophist, but his word was the power of God. [via tSJCotACiANZaP]
2nd-century rabbinic riff on creation feat. speaking letters (“The light of the first day was of a sort that would have enabled man to see the world at a glance from one end to the other … It takes five hundred years to walk from the earth to the heavens. … There are also five different kinds of fire in hell.”)
Oy vey but there’s a lot of good stuff on at the film festival this year. Sing out if you’d like to go to something with me.
massive green news round-up from WorldChanging
Time photo essay: what the world eats
Alex Steffen on privatising responsibility:
There is no combination of purchasing decisions which will make the current affluent American lifestyle sustainable. You can’t shop your way to sustainability, as I’ve put it before. On a planet running up against so severe a set of deadlines – global warming, the extinction crisis, the poverty crisis, etc. – prosperity as currently delivered is frankly immoral, even when purchased with an eco-chic package.
That doesn’t mean that I think prosperity itself is wrong. Quite the opposite. Nor do I think we could talk people out of wanting prosperity if we tried – heck, I hope for a generous amount of prosperity myself, one day. But we need to redesign prosperity, using innovation, new thinking and new technologies to render it sustainable.
And here’s the essential break between lite green and bright green thinking: the reality is that the changes we must make are systemic changes. They involve large-scale transformations in the ways we plan our cities, manufacture goods, grow food, transport ourselves, and generate energy. They involve new international regulatory regimes, corporate strategies, industrial standards, tax systems and trading markets. If we want to change the world, we need to forge ourselves into the kinds of citizens who can effectively demand such things.
Dire practicality demands that we reject the privatization of responsibility. None of us can make this great transformation happen alone, and it removes pressure from our leaders to take needed steps when some suggest that the changes that need to be made in the world start with our personal choices. They don’t.
SubversNZ on a new Christian political party for NZ
Tom B on holes in WCC’s aspiration of carbon neutrality
Last night’s Angela Davis talk. The atmosphere was worshipful, ceremonial. I wondered what it would be like if Jesus turned up to give a lecture, maybe in the Hunter Chambers or the Town Hall. 200 people had been turned away at the door, even after an overflow room with a video link had been filled up. It was like she wasn’t there, like an icon of her was there instead. She said it herself in fact – many people when they meet her feel they’re encountering their youth. She was the instantiation of an idea, or a hope, or maybe a vibe. She could have said anything, we would have clapped and cheered. We weren’t there for her, we were there for us. Well they were: I didn’t really belong; I didn’t fight the good fight, I don’t believe. What she did say was more of less this: notes from this evening’s Angela Davis lecture [45K PDF]
Tash took this at UWA when I was over in Perth last year.
REMINDER: Tomorrow evening is the Winter solstice party at our house, feat. swap meet.
Faking it, like the Monkees or Neil Young [via Daniel S]
[via WorldChanging]
“The Failure of Syntax”, from Friedman’s Fables, Edwin H. Friedman:
The colossal misunderstanding of our time is the assumption that insight will work with people who are unmotivated to change. Communication does not depend on syntax or eloquence or rhetoric or articulation, but on the emotional context in which the message is being heard. People can only hear you when they are moving toward you, and they are not likely to when your words are pursuing them. Even the choicest words lose their power when they are used to overpower. Attitudes are the real figures of speech.
Hubble took a million-second exposure of a small bit of the night sky (one tenth of the moon’s diameter) that appears uttlerly black/empty to earth-based telescopes, and found about 10,000 flash new galaxies. [via Digg]
GIVEAWAY: mhjb.co.nz/blog offers the first interested commentor a SPECIAL PRIZE, to wit, Kim Stanley Robinson’s 1994 novel Antarctica. Some say it’s epic, but it’s not really, it’s just big, almost 700 pages. Big and good. Like lots of his books it makes me want to work hard and collaborate and start/join a co-op and be a scientist or bureaucrat and do (more/better) drugs. There’s this underground party at the south pole which is by itself worth the price of the book ($12 at Arty Bees). The prize has a catch though: you have to agree to give away the book (with or without the tootling of trumpets) when you finish it.
Tom Wright on the War on Terror
Gallery of images rendered on freeward Blender 3D modeller
Behold the great goddess of the underworld
Tips for Christian philosophy students
Letter to a young artist
March 2005 Marilynne Robinson interview
