I had to post the following review … explore faith : Notes on Music -U2 Dismantles Bomb with Love, if only so that I could quote the following paragraph:
In November of 2004, U2 released their highly anticipated 12th studio album, How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. The hackneyed title apparently wouldn’t leave the boys alone in the studio and it just stuck. The band offers no explanation for “the bomb” other than an oft-repeated anecdote about Bono asking Michael W. Smith the question at an AIDS fundraiser, “How do you dismantle an atomic bomb?” To which a baffled Smith just shrugged and Bono answered, “With love.” One can only imagine the pseudo-knowing yet perplexed look on Smith’s face. “Uh yeah, that’s great man. Right on. What are you talking about?”
–JA
I finally had a chance to see Hotel Rwanda this week, and it was a deeply moving film about events that most Americans had forgotten before they even occurred. Though I have little to add apart from one man’s encouragement to engage with this material, I will provide pointers (and solicit more from my friends who know more) to some interesting material. Robin Philpot had an article a few months ago, titled RaceandHistory.com - Second Thoughts on the Hotel Rwanda. Also, see the Taylor Report. –JA
Mark Lawson has a column in the Guardian [Guardian Unlimited Special reports: Mark Lawson: One miracle too many] reflecting on the perceived surge of “religiosity” in the United States, on the occasion of Billy Graham’s curtain call. Among the challeging things Lawson has to say (emphasis mine)…
The open religiosity of US society has always been a shock for European visitors, but it feels as if the rhetoric is intensifying monthly in a sort of galloping spiritual inflation. Last week an 11-year-old boy from Utah disappeared during a scout camp. After four days in the wilderness, the child was found, thirsty but perky. It’s true that even British phone-ins in these circumstances would have freely invoked a “miracle”, but the public comments of the boy’s relatives and family friends resembled scenes from Iran of the ayatollahs unexpectedly dubbed into American.
Read on for (more…)
William Wulf of the National Academy of Engineering gave testimony last month to the US House Science Committee on the topic of The State of Computer Science Research in the U.S. and the Evolution of Federal Support for It. This testimony is directly in support of the types of grants funding Viriginia Tech’s real-time computing work, and the types of grants we seek from DARPA, NSF, and the rest. –JA
I have just completed the unutterably excellent Father Joe by Tony Hendra [Hendra’s website]. The author’s biography, as one-time editor of Spy and National Lampoon magazines, as performer in This is Spinal Tap, and mixed up with the likes of Monty Python, Carlin, and all the rest make this spiritual memoir and tribute to a Benedictine monk remarkably compelling. Read it. You will like it. –JA
Read on for a hopeful excerpt from this review in First Things. (more…)
The ECUSA has submitted their report to the Anglican Consultative Council, titled To Set Our Hope On Christ, on the topic of same-sex unions. This report was recommended as a part of the Windsor Report last year, and formally requested at the 2005 Dromantine Conference. They have opened a website called Anglican Listening which is worth a review. For more coverage and commentary on the events at the ACC, have a look at the Anglican Communion News Service (for the straight dope… er, no pun intended) or ThinkingAnglicans for a broader spectrum of reportage and commentary. –JA
I had the pleasure of leading our adult Sunday School class at Bethel this morning, and decided to share here some of my thoughts about what we discussed, and where we might go in the coming weeks. [My thanks to Paul Bowen for an excellent conversation on Saturday evening which crystallized some of my thoughts for Sunday morning.] Read on for more details of our conversation Sunday morning, and how to prepare for next week… (more…)
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Angela and I are excited to announce that our purchase offer on 1326 Mockingbird Drive in Blacksburg [click here for photo gallery] was accepted this evening, and we are due for a move to Blacksburg, VA in late July. Fancy [google map] –JA
KernelTrap has posted an article from LKML summarizing a very, very long conversation about approaches to providing real-time computing facilities in Linux. –JA
Angela and I will be travelling to Bozeman, Montana for Gayle and Terrence’s Wedding. –JA