Bob Cargill’s rendition of an official SBL projector There was a lot of discussion prior to the Society of Biblical Literature annual meeting about the fact that using a projector for PowerPoint would cost $25 if you requested it at the time you submitted your proposal, and $75 if you requested it later. Since I had two papers accepted, and did not decide immediately to use powerpoint (although I probably ought to have), it became clear that purchasing a portable... Read more

Since Scott Bailey posted the full round-up of papers from the Blogger and Online Publication Session at the 2010 Society of Biblical Literature annual meeting in Atlanta, what’s left to hope for? As readers of Chris Brady’s blog already know, the answer is…podcasts! Chris shared a recording of Jim Davila’s presentation, and promises more to follow! As if this weren’t enough, Dan McClellan shared his master’s thesis, and Matt Montonini shared a link to Durham PhD theses available online, including... Read more

An atheist billboard in New Jersey about Christmas got mentioned in the iReport section on CNN. It seemed worth blogging about, for several reasons. But before that, here’s the billboard in question: Here’s my first thought about the billboard and reactions to it: People have a right to feel offended at the billboard, and those who put up the billboard have the right to offend them. We have no legal right to live free from feeling offended. There are religious... Read more

I’m grateful to Joseph Kelly (whom I had the pleasure of meeting in person at SBL this year) for letting me know about the NPR science blog. Poking around I found a recent article by Ursula Goodenough which discusses knowledge, revelation, religion and science. Here’s a sample: I would say that scientific understandings represent revelations of a second kind. Unlike those canonized in a religious tradition, unlike those entombed in whatever fundamentalism — left-wing or right-wing — that enthralls a... Read more

Via the NCSE, I learned of an op-ed piece entitled “The Devolution of Evolution” in The Scientist which reiterates the fundamental importance of evolution as the unifying theory that allows us to make sense of diverse fields such as genetics, embryology, and paleontology, and to understand their relationship to one another. The author of the article, Leonid Moroz, writes that “biology simply means evolution.” He also quotes Peter Medawar, who wrote “The alternative to thinking in evolutionary terms is not to... Read more

My friend Robert Heaney let me know that a new journal, SOMA: An International Journal of Theological Discourses and Counter-Discourses, of which he is the editor, has issued a call for papers for its inaugural issue: CALL FOR PAPERS ON THE THEME OF: “THEOLOGY & GLOBALIZATION” Articles Soma is now accepting articles on the theme of “Theology and Globalization” for its inaugural (2011) edition. Along with a guest editorial by Rowan Williams, the first edition will feature a lead article... Read more

Cory Doctorow has a fascinating article with this title in The Guardian (HT 3QuarksDaily). Providing both a historical perspective as well as explaining why historic legal agreements on copyright are ignored because they make little or no sense when applied to the present day, the article encourages us to think creatively about copyright. At present, the trend seems to be in the direction of applying older laws to new internet and digital technologies and the situations they create. Instead, we... Read more

Thanks to Brad Matthies for pointing out the article “Preservation of Scholarship: The Digital Dilemma” by Lynch and Marcum. Read more

There are a lot of web sites that help you figure out if you have a drinking problem. But there don’t seem to be any that help you figure out if you have a blogging problem. Fortunately, all that is needed is to copy from a site about alcohol addiction, and use find and replace to make it address blogging addiction. Two examples follow. The first comes from this site, aimed at students: Do you lose time from classes due... Read more

This post was inspired by something Ken Schenck said to me on the flight back from SBL, which I misheard. It sounded like he mentioned needing to get up at night to let the blog out. Although he in fact said dog, bloggers do sometimes need to get up at night and let the blog out. I thought I’d explore what other parallels there might be between the two. Below you’ll find some advice for dog owners from About.com, modified only slightly to... Read more