February 2010
33 posts
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“The more tedious the work we have, the better. Because part of Crop Mob is about...”
– —Rob Jones, an organizer of a “new movement” linking young people together who want to do some hardcore farm labour for a day.
Shubha Bala, associate producer
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WatchMoving Stills Trent Gilliss, online editor
For those of you still stuck in the office or waiting at home for the night’s activities. The Friday video snack is back.
The Qatar-born photographer Khalid Mohtaseb has received quite a bit of attention for his striking footage (below) of the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake using a still camera (Canon 5d Mark2, if you must know) and a pocket...
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The Arrow of Time? →
Shubha Bala, associate producer
(image: Toni Verdú Carbó/Flickr)
“Physicists have no problem answering the question of ‘If a tree falls in the woods and no one’s there to hear it, does it make a sound?’ They say, ‘Yes! Of course it makes a sound!’ Likewise, if time flows without entropy and there’s no one there to experience it, is there still time? Yes....
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Two Vatican Astronomers: A Twitterscript
Trent Gilliss, online editor
Two Jesuits who work at the Vatican Observatory — Brother Guy Consolmagno, curator of meteorites, and Father George Coyne, its former director (whom you might recognize from his appearance in Bill Maher’s Religulous) — have been on our interview list for years. Yesterday, Krista was finally able to interview them, together, from a recording studio in Arizona....
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Einstein on Race » download (mp3, 13:46) Colleen...
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"Spiritual But Not Religious"
Nancy Rosenbaum, associate producer
“I think in a way that kind of cliche ‘spiritual but not religious,’ which apparently is a thing more and more people say to describe themselves, is in a way an attempt to reconcile in some cases with science. In other words…if I say I believe in this highly anthropomorphic God, if I’m religious and too old-fashioned in a sense, or buy into...
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The Unaffiliated Generation
Kate Moos, managing producer
New data from the Pew Forum may be unsurprising to some of us, but it amplifies what we have probably assumed to be true and seems relevant to our projects at Speaking of Faith:
“Compared with their elders today, young people are much less likely to affiliate with any religious tradition or to identify themselves as part of a Christian denomination. Fully...
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Anglican Bishops in the UK Back Lifting Ban on Gay... →
Shubha Bala, associate producer
Since 2005, same-sex union ceremonies in the UK have been forbidden from mentioning anything religious at all. This has basically banned religious groups (like the Quakers) from consensually performing civil unions for their gay members. It looks like senior bishops in the UK are now backing an amendment to lift this ban, allowing religious institutions to perform...
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Tax Protester? Terrorist.
Trent Gilliss, online editor
Current NewGround Fellow (check out our program on the organization) Ali H. Mir has written a challenging piece in USC’s The Scoop. By definition of the Patriot Act, he says, journalists should be identifying Joseph Andrew Stack III — the suicide bomber who flew his plane into a federal building in Austin, Texas in order to kill employees of the Internal Revenue...
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40 Days 40 Deeds
Trent Gilliss, online editor
The administrative dashboard for SOF Observed allows us to see who has liked and reblogged our posts within the Tumblr community. It also allows us to see who “follows” our blog. Our most recent follower, 40 Days 40 Deeds, is a group of folks in four cities across the U.S. who aspire to:
“…make small changes throughout the 2010 Lenten season...
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A New Dialogue? Colleen Scheck, senior producer
...
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A is for Alleluia
by Pádraig Ó Tuama, guest contributor
A is for Alleluia.
A is for Ashes and last Wednesday was Ash Wednesday, the day when many denominations observe the beginning of Lent — the 40-ish days leading up to the Last Supper, the death of Jesus, the finding of the empty tomb, and the mysterious appearances of Jesus.
Lent comes from the Latin word for Spring. So, it seems that Lent is for Spring.
...
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From Building Blocks to Erector Sets
Shubha Bala, associate producer
“…there are some scientists who say ‘I don’t think electrons really exist.’ It’s useful to think of them as existing. It’s useful to build computers with that image in mind of an electron, but I don’t think they really exist… when other people think of God as a personal thing, that’s as close as you can get...
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Leaving No Factions Untouched
Trent Gilliss, online editor
As we were updating the script for “No More Taking Sides,” we ran across this passage included in the Parents Circle - Families Forum 2009 annual report:
“Palestinian member of the Forum, Ali Abu-Awad met with more than 60 members of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, Palestinian fighters most of who are on Israel’s most wanted list. He spoke...
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More Science Behind the Human-Animal Connection...
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“None of the theories of the transmission of religious belief favoured by...”
– —Andrew Brown, editor of the Guardian’s Comment is free section, has stirred up quite a conversation with his “Are science and atheism compatible?” article — saying that science has as much ability to bring as much discomfort to dogmatic non-believers as it does to the most...
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“Myself When I Am Real” Andy Dayton,...
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“The Color of Ideas” Krista Tippett,...
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“The Prophet Muhammad’s first wife, Khadijah, proposed to him. What is...”
– —Ruqaya Izzidien, from “Muslimahs doing it for themselves” in today’s Guardian.
I’m currently editing Kate’s interview with Omid Safi, which focuses on his recent book about memories and stories of Muhammad. During the conversation he says that if you ask most people a...
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Memories of a New Associate Producer
Shubha Bala, associate producer
As the newest addition to Speaking of Faith, my first task has been to prepare the show “No More Taking Sides” for rebroadcast in a couple of weeks. Listening to Ali say “Nobody want to be honest. Everybody want to be right,” reminded me of working in Gujarat when “state-sanctioned” violence, torture, and rape broke out across...
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A Triumphant Survival
Kate Moos, managing producer
Arresting. From the Mail & Guardian, this difficult and disturbing set of images accompanied by an interview with Leon Botha, an artist and Progeria survivor. He is 24 years old. A Friday afternoon video *pause* in a day that leaves me reflective.
(Thanks to Boing Boing for their post leading me to this slideshow.)
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Starting to pack up for tonight's event. Bob...
Watch the live video stream here!
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“I tend to think that fictional characters are in some ways more real than...”
– —Mary Doria Russell, in our “The Novelist as God”
Last week, we lost fiction writer J.D. Salinger and historian Howard Zinn. In the days after their deaths, I noticed Salinger quotes like this one from Catcher in the Rye peppering friends’ Facebook feeds:
“I don’t...
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“The problem was not a shortage of sincerity but an excess of zeal in which...”
– — —Jonathan Aitken, commenting in The Guardian on former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and his role in the lead-up to, and the aftermath of, the Iraq war. Aitken says that “once the Chilcot inquiry establishes the truth about Iraq, we should be quick not to judge, but to forgive.”
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