Tensegrities

A set of numbers seeking to describe the ‘net these days. (Hat tip to FreeRangeLearning)

JESS3 / The State of The Internet from JESS3 on Vimeo.

danah boyd and a group from the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard have published on the web their response to the FCC’s “notice of inquiry” (NOI). It’s a thoughtful, concise examination of what the best scholars know right now about how to “empower parents and protect children in an evolving media landscape.” Among other things it’s a great literature review chock full of citations, and an empowering conclusion:

With or without dedicated tools, young users will benefit from media literacy skills that allow them to access, manage, integrate, evaluate, create, and communicate content at any point, using a variety of technological formats, in order to manage the unprecedented amount and range of quality of information available online. Media literacy skills overlap with safety skills. Youth need more support and more skills to develop their own, repeatable processes for assessing credibility and reliability of information in digitally mediated environments.

A series of resources pointing out how Jewish thought abhors torture. (Hat tip to theDailyDish)

The Interfaith Youth Core has started to put together a weekly digest of news which might be of interest to interfaith learners — it’s definitely worth checking out!

There’s a small Michael Wesch video I use a lot, on the “information revolution,” and in the video the camera pans to an article from Newsweek in 1995 on “why cyberspace isn’t, and will never be, nirvana.” I’ve never actually read the article, but it’s way more deliciously ironic even than its title (and thanks to boingboing you can read it online easily).

Oh, give me a break! The US-based intellectual property alliance has asked that Indonesia be added to the list of “rogue nations” because it’s a strong supporter of open source software.

I have to admit, I really enjoy the Harvard Divinity School bulletin. Yes, I get it because I’m an alum, but it makes me proud to claim that status because the magazine is always full of really excellent pieces. This time around there’s a review of an exhibit that’s written by Margaret Miles, and in it she makes some comments about “viewing” and images:

What difference does it make whether one sees Shinjo Ito’s work as art or as religious images? How does a religious viewing differ from a viewing of an artwork? In devotional looking, the viewer expects to be shaped by her engagement with the sacred object. She expects, not to be entertained or to analyze, but to be acted upon, and to participate in a conversation with the image. The devotee expects the object to affect him at the level of feeling, even though he may not be able to articulate precisely how that occurs or to name the feeling that is evoked. Plato described vision as a kind of touch. Vision occurs, he said, when a stream of light, a visual ray, proceeds from the eye and touches an object. This ray is generated from the same fire that animates and warms the body, a fire that is at its most intense and concentrated in the eye.3 Moreover, the visual ray is a two-way street; as it touches an object, the object moves back up the ray into the eye and imprints itself on the viewer’s memory. In the act of vision, the worshiper is connected to the sacred figure through the visual ray.

Museums and exhibitions almost always prohibit viewers from touching the art. But, according to the visual ray theory, seeing is touching—a kind of touch that does not change or harm its object. In fact, although visual ray theory has long ago been superseded by theories of vision that are more accurate physiologically, it nevertheless describes to perfection the act of religious viewing. It pictures a two-way street that connects viewer and object, a space in which the viewer communicates with the object and, in turn, receives the message the object represents and embodies.

I need to go back and re-read this stuff in relation to my own points about authenticity in practice.

Why am I not surprised? I score very low on the millenial scale — only 16, just past baby boomer. However, given that technically, I AM a baby boomer, maybe that’s a good sign?

The St. Paul area synod has formally approved Anita Hill for rostering in the church! This has been a long time coming, and is only one of the many good fruits from the decisions made at the churchwide assembly last summer. PrettyGoodLutherans has a great set of additional links with background, but I think my favorite is still the documentary film, This Obedience. The film traces the path Anita and her congregation took in ordaining her outside of the ELCA rules at the time.