Wi-Fi in Hotels

November 4, 2011 By scotmcknight 10 Comments

Gulliver, at The Economist, on what’s happening with wi-fi in hotels.

How about you, are you experiencing slower reception and connectivity?

A PIECE in the New York Times earlier in the week explained why Wi-Fi connectivity in hotels has been getting slower of late. It seems the runaway success of tablet computers has created an army of people who like nothing better to do than sit in their hotel rooms and stream videos, placing a huge demand on the network.

One possible solution would be to install a tiered system, so guests would pay differing rates for Wi-Fi depending on their proposed activity.

The lowest level, suitable for basic Internet requirements like checking e-mail, would be free, but other levels would be priced depending on bandwidth requirements. According to iBAHN [an internet-service provider for the hospitality industry], iPads consume four times more Wi-Fi data per month than the average smartphone.

Having to pay to use the internet is one of the standard gripes of hotel guests, particularly in smarter establishments. But if they and their fellows will continue watching online videos into the small hours, they’ll probably have to start paying.

Filed Under: Uncategorized 10 Comments

Seasonal Affective Disorder

November 4, 2011 By scotmcknight 3 Comments

From The Atlantic, by Alice G. Walton:

The days are growing shorter and colder in the Northern hemisphere. And some people are feeling gloomier. Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is the seasonal depression that affects between six percent and 10 percent of the population generally during the winter months. Though many people may feel a bit blue during the short, cold days of winter, for others, the symptoms are more serious. SAD is a genuine form of depression and a recognized psychiatric disorder, with a specific symptom set and treatment requirements.

SAD can affect the sufferer in much the same way as clinical depression. Like depression, seasonal affective disorder can range from mild to severe. It appears to be much more common in higher latitudes than in lower ones and is more common in North America, where the prevalence is higher than in other parts of the world, and twice as high as in Europe.

Seasonal affective disorder can make life extremely unpleasant for the sufferer, but the good news is that it is treatable. Though the symptoms of SAD tend to go away during the warmer months of the year, there’s no reason to suffer from it if you don’t have to…. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Uncategorized 3 Comments

For and Against Calvinism 7

November 4, 2011 By scotmcknight 29 Comments

Did Jesus Christ die for everyone, from Adam to the last person ever born, or did Christ die only for the elect? Calvinism, or at least most of it, teaches what is called “limited atonement” or “particular redemption.” In other words, the mission of Jesus Christ’s death was to secure an atonement for those who are the elect of the Father. As you may know, we are this series on Roger Olson’s Against Calvinism and Michael Horton’s For Calvinism. I began with Olson’s book before Horton’s arrived so I am catching up.

Horton’s sketch of atonement is, well, not as satisfactory as I’d like but his sketch of particular redemption is clear and accurate for what this Calvinist view affirms.

What do you believe about the atonement? For all or for the elect only? Do you think an atonement that makes possible redemption is less than an atonement that actually saves? (Arminian vs. Calvinist.)

He sketches atonement theories: penal substitution, recapitulation, Christus Victor, satisfaction, moral exemplary theory, and governmental theory. Horton makes it abundantly clear that Calvinism isn’t just the substitutionary theory but includes all the others, but in this his words don’t go as far as his sketch for, by the time he’s done, the only one that really matters is penal substitution (he does give some attention to recapitulation, but it’s not easy to distinguish recapitulation and Christus Victor) and his view of PS is through and through forensic and legal, and therefore it comes down to justification theory. Fair enough; that’s one kind of Reformed theology.

Example: while Anselm grounded atonement in the need for God to be satisfied in his dignity, Reformation theology was grounded in God’s justice. (That’s a justification theory driving atonement theory.) [Read more...]

Filed Under: Calvinism 29 Comments

New/Old Perspective on Justification 4

November 4, 2011 By scotmcknight 8 Comments

The New Perspective argues that since Judaism was not a works religion, Paul was not opposing “works” righteousness. If everything in the old perspective flows out of the view that humans are merit-striving and if everything flows from a gospel that assaults human striving by replacing it with grace and faith, and if the new perspective is more accurate, then, well, lots of Paul’s theology deserves a more careful look. Which is why the works of Ed Sanders, Jimmy Dunn and Tom Wright are so much at the center of today’s debates. And since so much is at stake, we ought not be to surprised at the vehement reaction to the new perspective by some in the Reformed camp. Someone once told me he heard a well-known NT scholar say “Anyone who believes in the new perspective is not a Christian.” Well, that’s raising the flag, wouldn’t you say?

Thanks to the fine efforts of James Beilby and Paul Rhodes Eddy, the book, Justification: Five Views (Spectrum Multiview Books), we have a book that sorts out the various views on justification in this new perspective debate today. We looked last week at Michael Horton’s traditional Reformed view, and today we look at Michael Bird’s “progressive” Reformed view.

Michael Bird is one of the bright young lights in the evangelical movement, but he’s not easy to box up into a predictable position. Michael wants more if more is to be had in the Reformed view; and he wants less if the Bible dictates less. So, in this post, he moves outside the box of Horton but is not with Dunn. He’s Reformed but he’s got a new perspective kind of Reformed theology of Paul. He takes “reformed and always reforming” seriously. Most Reformed don’t.

How does Bird’s take on justification strike you? Does it improve on Reformed thinking? Does it go far enough toward the new perspective? If not, where does it not go far enough?

He gets us started with this: “justification is the act whereby God creates a new people, with a new status, in a new covenant, as part of the first installment of the new age” (132). Paul’s emphasis in justification language — and here he parts ways with everyone in the traditional Reformed camp — “justification is Paul’s way of describing how the gospel saves Gentiles and brings them into the heritage of Israel” (133). “Works of the law,” so contested in this debate, “means works that the law requires, though in some contexts the laws that distinguish Jews from Gentiles” [there's the more I spoke of above].

[Read more...]

Filed Under: New Perspective 8 Comments