Neil Gaiman: Why our future depends on libraries, reading and daydreaming. It’s important for people to tell you what side they are on and why, and whether they might be biased. A declaration of members’ interests, of a sort. So, I am going to be talking to you about reading. I’m going to tell you that libraries are important. I’m going to suggest that reading fiction, that reading for pleasure, is one of the most important things one can do.
And I am biased, obviously and enormously: I’m an author, often an author of fiction. So I’m biased as a writer. And I’m here giving this talk tonight, under the auspices of the Reading Agency: a charity whose mission is to give everyone an equal chance in life by helping people become confident and enthusiastic readers. And it’s that change, and that act of reading that I’m here to talk about tonight. I was once in New York, and I listened to a talk about the building of private prisons – a huge growth industry in America. It’s not one to one: you can’t say that a literate society has no criminality.
It’s tosh. 26, unmarried, and childless - Converge. “What’s Next?” Both of my brothers recently had kids that more than likely complete their families. They’re both older than me, so it makes sense they’re at a different stage. They met and married their wives, they bought dogs and they had kids, all in a nice little sequence. I love watching them build their lives together. It’s a really good thing. When my last brother got married, I was in my early twenties. But now? “What’s next?” “When are you getting married?” “Babies look good on you!” “Better get started!” I shouldn’t be overly concerned with what they’re saying. But it doesn’t feel very nice. Believe me, I am fully aware that I am unmarried and childless. So when you — friends, family, acquaintances, Twitter followers and blog readers — remind me that I’m far behind where one would expect to be at my age, it makes me feel broken.
I am 26 years old. What if my ultimate goal has nothing to do with marriage or kids or a career? I am 26 years old. Flickr photo (cc) by derekskey. The Scandal of the Evangelical Heart. “It’s right for God to slaughter women and children anytime he pleases. God gives life and he takes life. Everybody who dies, dies because God wills that they die.” – John Piper “Belief in a cruel God makes a cruel man.” – Thomas Paine It’s strange to think that doubt has been a part of my life for more than ten years now. I remember when it first showed up—a dark grotesque with a terrifying smile that took up so much space, catching every payer in its gravitational pull. A lot of people, when they catch pieces of my story, assume my doubts are of the intellectual variety. This is true to an extent. But the questions that have weighed most heavily on me these past ten years have been questions not of the mind but of the heart, questions of conscience and empathy.
If you’ve read Evolving in Monkey Town, you know that the public execution of a woman named Zarmina in Afghanistan marked a turning point in my faith journey. Evangelical apologists were quick to respond. “Nope.” If The Earth Could Talk. The Quiet Gay-Rights Revolution in America's Churches - Molly Ball. A shift among people of faith is moving public opinion -- and changing gay Americans' lives in profound ways. For most gay Americans in the 20th century, the church was a place of pain. It cast them out and called them evil. It cleaved them from their families. It condemned their love and denied their souls. In 2004, a president was elected when religious voters surged from their pews to vote against the legal recognition of gay relationships.
When it came to gay rights, religion was the enemy. A decade later, the story is very different. The votes, too, are going differently these days. Gradually, and largely below the radar, religious Americans have powered this momentous shift. This change -- from most religious Americans opposing gay rights to many of them supporting it -- didn't happen by accident. For gay Americans, the consequences are already profound: a new generation of gay youth that may grow up less scarred by caustic preaching.
"I get it all the time," she said. Love Your Lower Body! Jumping Jacks, Hunger and Questioning Technology — Editor's Picks. This week I had the privilege of attending Foocamp 2013, an unconference put together by O’Reilly Media that brings dozens of brilliant people together to discuss anything from politics to technology to faith. The attendees pitch the sessions and that’s just about the only rule. As I was preparing to leave for Foo, I thought a lot about the topics that I wanted to discuss with the Foo community. Specifically: Hackathons and how we can make them better, ensuring the open source movement is thinking about sustainability and better supporting those learning how to code.
As it turns out, these three topics have one thing in common. They all stem from a deep inner confusion about the role of technology in my life. You see, I’ve had the fortune of working as an engineer in so many different environments. We technologists have an incredible power that many do not. Having said that, I can’t help but hear in the back of my head “with great power comes great responsibility.” Why millennials need the church as much as the church needs them.
Opinion by Rachel Held Evans, special to CNN (CNN) – For a time, I counted myself among the spiritual but not religious, Christian but not churchgoing crowd. Like many millennials, I left church because I didn’t always see the compassion of Jesus there, and because my questions about faith and science, the Bible, homosexuality, and religious pluralism were met with shallow answers or hostility.
At first I reveled in my newfound Sunday routine of sleeping in, sipping my coffee and yelling at Republicans who appeared on ”Meet the Press.” But eventually I returned, because, like it or not, we Christian millennials need the church just as much as the church needs us. Here’s why: Baptism As former Methodist bishop Will Willimon has often said, “you cannot very well baptize yourself.”
In a culture that stresses individualism, the church satisfies the human need for community, for shared history and experiences. Confession We can be too idealistic, too convinced we can change the world from our iPads. Meaning Is Healthier Than Happiness - Emily Esfahani Smith. People who are happy but have little-to-no sense of meaning in their lives have the same gene expression patterns as people who are enduring chronic adversity.
For at least the last decade, the happiness craze has been building. In the last three months alone, over 1,000 books on happiness were released on Amazon, including Happy Money, Happy-People-Pills For All, and, for those just starting out, Happiness for Beginners. One of the consistent claims of books like these is that happiness is associated with all sorts of good life outcomes, including — most promisingly — good health. Many studies have noted the connection between a happy mind and a healthy body — the happier you are, the better health outcomes we seem to have. But a new study, just published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) challenges the rosy picture. Of course, it’s important to first define happiness.
It seems strange that there would be a difference at all. What’s a body all about — Better Humans. Our bodies are the conduit through which we experience and interact with the world. In my life I’ve seen an evolvement of how I think about and interact with my body. I started lifting weights at about 12. The main reasons being it was something to do, I liked the competitive nature of it, and muscles. I wanted big muscles. I wanted them for vanity, for showmanship and a few other silly reasons.
I remember 2+ hour sessions in the backyard shed with Mario, Luis, Juan and Aaron. This was a transitional phase. During my early Ironman years I read a lot about nutrition, physiology, and fitness. Lessons All calories are not equalIgnore 99% of information about fats, proteins, carbohydrates, and the 2,000 daily calorie requirementWhen you eat mattersWhen exercising water and food not carbohydrate drinksSleep is dynamic and is important to view on a weekly timeframe as well as dailyBodies are always changing, albeit very slowlyThe body is a deep knowledge center rather than this:
The Cherubic Hymn No. 9 by Gavriil Lomakin (1811-1885) YOU ARE YOU. Visualizing the Infinite Beauty Of Pi And Other Numbers. Progression and transition for the first 1,000 digits of φ Math and art may appear, superficially, like two disparate fields, but they've been in conversation for millennia. One recent example of the synergistic possibilities between the two comes from Canadian scientists Christian Ilies Vasile and Martin Kryzwinski. The pair have utilized the data visualization software Circos to create beautiful and colorful visual representations of mathematical constants π (pi), φ (phi), and e using transition probabilities and color-coded digits on Archimedean spirals.
Progression and transition for the first 1,000 digits of π, φ and e Given the endless nature of π, φ and e the task of representing them visually in a simplified form could seem daunting. For the technical deets on how the pair created the visuals, check out the project page on Kryzwinski's site. Progression of the first 10,000 digits of π Progression and transition for the first 1,000 digits of e [via Visual News] @BASEDGODard. Bereaved. Paper Roses. Art Journaling 101 - abstract - create explore paint.
How do you start an art journal? "Art journaling is about the {creative process} of pulling together color, words and images as you wish on a page. Unlike many other forms of art, it is not about the outcome. "Tammy Garcia Original post 2008 * Updated March 2014 Welcome to Art Journaling 101 If you are just starting to bring art into your life, or wish to introduce kids & teens to art journaling, check out Art Journaling 101 for Kids, Teens & Beginners.
I'll begin with a note that the type of art journaling that I talk about is very loose and free and unencumbered by rules. 1. 1,000 Artist Journal Pages by Dawn DeVries SokolSpilling Open: The Art of Becoming Yourself by Sabrina Ward HarrisonThe Journal Junkies Workshop, by Scott and Modler Good Mail Day by Jennie HinchcliffJournal Spilling by Diana TroutCreative Illustration Workshop for Mixed-Media Artists by Katherine DunnPersonal Geographies: Explorations in Mixed-Media Mapmaking by Jill K. By Annie LamottThe Art Journal Workshop 2. . ➸ Note! 3. Granola: A Documentary. Terri Roberts, Mother Of Amish Shooting Perpetrator Cares For Her Son's Victims. By Daniel Burke Religion News Service LANCASTER, Pa. (RNS) Terri Roberts was eating outside with a co-worker on a bright October day when an ambulance wailed nearby and a helicopter swooped overhead. As she often did at a sirens' sound, Roberts said a quick prayer.
"Little did I know what I was praying for," she said. Walking back to her office, Roberts heard the phone ring. It was her husband, Chuck. "I need you to come to Charlie's house right away," he said, referring to their 32-year-old son. Terri jumped into her car. Terri worried: What if Charlie had been shot while trying to rescue the children? As she pulled into her son's driveway, she saw Chuck talking to a state trooper. "Is Charlie alive? " "No. " It was Oct. 2, 2006, and Charles Carl Roberts IV had just shot 10 Amish schoolgirls before turning the gun on himself.
"Not only was my son not alive, he was the perpetrator of the worst crime anyone could ever imagine," Terri Roberts said. Finally, Chuck looked up. Gordon: Faith + Ideas. By Mark Sargent For my first teaching job, I was assigned a small, windowless office on the second floor of the library. At that stage of my career, moving in was a do-it-yourself affair, so I convinced some friends to help, but only after some late-night basketball. We hustled to the library moments before midnight, just as the librarian trimmed the lights. With risky grace, he loaned us the key, a few flashlights, and a battery-powered candle. The move took only an hour, including a few gratuitous games of laser tag in the dark stacks. As I recall, I met my end twice, the last time near Hume and Kierkegaard. Quite soon now, I will be boxing books again, making this one of the few occasions when I wish I owned a Kindle.
Dostoyevsky will survive the cut, though I will undoubtedly have to surrender others. Didion’s anthology was already in rough shape when I found it at a used bookstore for 75¢, but I have long preserved it, largely for one essay—“On Going Home.”