I’m looking for a Christian to explain to me why they believe that people killed in recent flooding (or in the Indian Ocean tsunami for that matter) are not sinners who deserved to peril. I’m not interested if you believe that they are, I can follow the derived logic in this case, regardless of my views. I’m not looking to provoke or receive reactionary knee-jerk responses either. I’m just genuinely interested in people who feel able to override their biblical morals on a case-by-case basis.
Archive for July, 2007
TED talks
July 22nd, 2007, Good things, 5 CommentsTED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It’s an annual conference that’s been running since 1984 and challenges the world’s best thinkers to give a presentation in just 18 minutes. The topics vary wildly and the scope is a lot bigger than the original acronym implies.
Attending the conferences is expensive and through an approved application only, however the non-profit organisation behind it has started making videos of the talks available online. They become pretty addictive once you start watching.
Some of my favourites so far include Richard Dawkins on militant atheism, Stefan Sagmeister on happy design, Jonathan Harris on the secrets of the web, Jeff Hawkins on brain science and computing, David Kelley on human centred design, and Rives on 4 o’clock in the morning.
UDPATE: Robert Wright on how modern morals might evolve from capitalism is really excellent too.
Please feel free to comment with your own recommendations.
Binary arithmetic
July 21st, 2007, Good things, Leave a commentBinary (base-2) addition explained in a simple and elegant way using some marbles and wood. This is basically how the circuits of a computer work. Find out more.
Gadefest
July 21st, 2007, Events, Leave a commentRust is a quite a nice club and venue in Copenhagen, or rather it was. There was a fire in the wardrobe a couple of months ago and it’s been closed ever since, forcing a lot of bands to either cancel or reschedule their tour dates.
They recently announced that rebuilding work was starting and the place would reopen in September, which is good news. Unfortunately they had the small problem of 1,200 litres of ‘useless’ alcohol taking up space in their basement. On Thursday lunchtime they declared it would all be given away free at a little gadefest (street party) outside.
The concept of ‘free beer’ quickly spread around the city and by 10pm there were around 2,000 people there, blocking up most of the area around Sankt Hans Torv. The free drinks went quickly and so did the supplies of several local kiosks – much to the delight of their owners (I witnessed one waving his hands in delight shouting “my fridge, my fridge, it’s empty”). A strange sight for a quiet, balmy Thursday evening.
Adrian Orange + Forma Nova Festival
July 10th, 2007, Events, Leave a commentForma Nova Festival starts in Fredericia, Denmark this Thursday. It has music, films, art and ideas. It’s going to be excellent and only costs 320 DKK for 3 days. The final line up is below.
Adrian Orange (A.K.A. Thanksgiving), who is playing the festival on Thursday, will be playing a living-room show here in Copenhagen tomorrow evening.
July 11th 2007: Livjægergade 14, st.tv. ring doorbell for Johanson, 7pm
Anti-Communist Party of China protest
July 8th, 2007, Events, Leave a commentThe Spoiled Milk studio is on one of the main streets in the centre of Copenhagen and as a result there is always something interesting happening outside. Protests and marches are quite common. The youth from Ungdomshuset still come past most weeks, the parading of the Queen’s guards are a daily ritual and last weekend was the annual procession of floats containing freshly graduated students.
However, today’s protest march against the Communist Party of China was something quite special. It seems that nice shiny costumes and choreographed routines can go a long way to making a point and is something ungeren should consider before they take to the streets in their dowdy black hoodies again. I’m not sure why this took place in Copenhagen, but I’m going to do some research and see if I can find out.