Now, you may have noticed in my post "Spot the Differences" below that if I add Russia, India and China to my list the score still stays at 14% of the world, but if I add Connecticut, Maine, Vermont, New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Dellaware, Massachusetts and Rhode Island I jump to a whopping 16%. This means that 9 smallish states of the USA count for much more than three of the largest, and most diverse countries. Take note people, for "where I've been" size does not matter, people do not count, nor is it a function of cultural diversity (not that I doubt the cultural diversity of Rhode Island, nor its rich cultural difference from Massachusetts, not having visited either I can hardly comment - though I do suspect that the cultural and geographical diversity of India and China might be considered greater by some people).
The Internet though now a worldwide phenomenon is also an American space. You might argue that this Amerigocentrism is the natural since the USA invented the Internet, you are probably right, but I'd argue back that it is now time we freed the 'net from this colonial past. Renaming the cool tool "Where I've been in America" could be a small start ;)
Labels: internet
¶ 10:37 AM
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Aw quit your belly-aching.
And for the record, I created the Internet.
Sign me up for the Pod Bible group. You guys are cool.
By 
David Ker, at
August 1, 2008 5:34 PM
I am getting some interesting comments from students, so tomorrow I plan to show the class these.
Genesis 1-11:
Genesis 12-50:
What do you think? Do these begin to capture some of the distinctives of the two sections of the book? Or do they rather reinforce the common themes of the whole work?
It would also be interesting to look at the different strands (at least P and J) so does anyone know how I can get hold of electronic copies of P Genesis and J Genesis in English translation?
Labels: bible, biblical.studies, genesis
¶ 4:26 PM
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The Morph Concept by Nokia shows what role nanotechnology can play in facilitating the use of communication devices in everyday life. These gadgets are flexible, they can discern harmful substances in the environment, and they can even be worn as fashion accessories, as this video makes plain.The post contained a link to a You Tube video, which is "no longer available" the post on Britannica has also been pulled over the weekend.
I wonder what is going on? Any suggestions, or better still firm information would be appreciated!
Labels: internet
¶ 8:21 AM
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, Orvieto is on the bend next to Three Kings935A Mt Eden Rd
Mt Eden
Auckland
09-630 5046
With all the rain in Auckland this morning, we decided to try Orvieto again. It is local and has easy parking often just outside. It has also got good reviews in print on a couple of occasions, though the last time (before I began writing up our experiences) we were disappointed. Orvieto was reviewed by the NZ Herald earlier this month, it got 5 stars.
Like one of the Herald reviewers Barbara had the Spanish Omelette she says the Herald description fits:
The omelette came with toasted bread that we couldn't identify, but that didn't matter - it looked solid, even stodgy, but was light and delicious. Just like the omelette, really.My Hash Browns with bacon, tomato and aioli were a more mixed experience. The bacon was excellent, good bacon well cooked; the hash browns were interesting pie slices of potato mix deep fried, apart from being a touch greasy they were crisp tasty and unusually seemed homemade (a nice change from supermarket hash); the eggs were perfect; BUT the aioli tasted like a lightly garlicky salad dressing. I think aioli should be made like mayonnaise from egg yolks and good oil, if vinegar adds bit it should be just a light nip.
On the essential element of "cafe" the Herald proclaimed:
The coffee was hot and strong.It was. The long black was also an espresso in a bigger cup with hot water in a jug to add - that's the way I like it! BUT it was also just a touch bitter.
So my conclusion:
- Food: Good.
- Coffee: Pretty Good
- Service: Very Good
- Overall: Good - Very Good but not the Herald's five stars, maybe four...
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Stephen also commented:
For quick and dirty format conversions, resizing and cropping I use IrfanView. Does the trick for most simple tasks and is quick to start up.IrfanView is also brilliant, a fast viewer that also does many of the most commonly needed editing tasks. I have not yet tried out any of the plugins, so up to now I cannot comment on video in IrfanView, but for graphics it is great!
If anyone has tried the video plugins please comment about how well they work - is this program a substitute for Windows Media Player as well?
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I use Irfanview a lot and my kids like it too. We don't use it for video or as a substitute for WMP. But it's great for cropping, resizing and conversion which I seem to do a lot. My kids are quite artistic with plain old Paint and have created entire adventure games full of graphic soldiers, snakes and monsters using that program plus a little HTML.
By David Ker, at
July 26, 2008 2:20 AM
Here's the list of graphics programs I've used:
http://bibleandtech.blogspot.com/2007/04/regarding-images-and-such.html
By mgvh, at
July 26, 2008 6:15 AM
David, are the games online for others to see?
By Tim, at
July 26, 2008 1:37 PM
You might want to look at VLC for video playing tasks too. The transcoding wizard (and the fact it runs on Windows, Mac and Linux) makes it invaluable for me. You can add codecs to it too.
By Stephen G, at
July 26, 2008 11:09 PM
Mind you they need to. At present the front page of Googlepedia features clogged toilets and how to backpack. Ah, the joys of a fully "authoritative" and commercial encyclopedia, so much better than Wikipedia - NOT! Yesterday to illustrate the genre of the Torah I needed a photo of conglomerate, I found this on Wikipedia. I wonder if the googleplex will ever match that?
For now - until the authorities get busier - don't bother looking for biblical material on Google, "Isaiah", and the like are blank, though there is an article on "David". Jim won't like it though ;) But for the rest of us it even has a photo!Labels: biblical.studies.online, internet, teaching
¶ 10:45 AM
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So, I installed Gimp, it is a few years (as the MX designation on my Macromedia - remember them? - software may hint) since I last tried Gimp. It has improved beyond recognition, back then it was ugly, difficult to use and crashed the machine often - in short, no advert for open source software. Now it is good looking, stable, and most tasks (once I began to learn different menu structure and keystrokes) are fairly easy. Brilliant!I just wish I could find a good way to export a picture as JPG, but then Gimp is not designed as a Fireworks replacement, but one for Photoshop, I guess... Does anybody know a better freeware way to adjust photos and export them for the web? Or a quick way to export JPG and GIF from Gimp?
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Hi Tim, I use GIMP all the time. Simply do a save as and change the extension to jpg.
By 
Graham Doel, at
July 21, 2008 11:39 PM
Hi, Graham, that's what I am doing, but since Gimp then asks me to export the file first it is a multi step process. Also I miss the information Fireworks gives about the filesize as I change the quality.
But I recognise that I am once again examining the teeth of donated equines - Gimp is an all purpose graphics tool and brilliant as such. Firefox is aimed at web use and brilliant at that more restricted task.
By Tim, at
July 22, 2008 6:44 AM
When you change the extension to .jpg (or .jpeg) and click Save, the Gimp wants to know what JPEG quality to use---this extra step is understandable. If you then tick the box to "Show preview in image window", you get not only the filesize, but also (as the words suggest) a preview of the image at the quality you've chosen (but you might have to move other windows out of the way to see it). Moving the Quality slider will update both the filesize and the preview.
<><
By , at
July 22, 2008 2:24 PM
Oops, sorry, stupid of me, yes there it is ;)
Blame my oversight on it being the start of a new semester and trying to get pics ready for the first class as well as blogs... Now I am even more sold on Gimp!
By Tim, at
July 22, 2008 4:30 PM
Actually, I think that bit's a bit unintuitive---if you want to know the filesize, you have to ask for a preview---so I can't blame you for missing it at first.
<><
By , at
July 22, 2008 5:33 PM
For quick and dirty format conversions, resizing and cropping I use IrfanView. Does the trick for most simple tasks and is quick to start up.
By Stephen G, at
July 23, 2008 9:08 PM
Thank you both, Irfanview is also brilliant! Now I do not need to install ANY of the graphics programs I have bought and used over the years ;)
By Tim, at
July 25, 2008 6:27 PM
New Study Released By The Center For The Digital Future and AARP Shows Internet Users 50+ Are Rapidly Closing the Digital Divide with Booming Online ActivityThink about it people, round these parts "the Internet" became popular from the early nineties. The early nineties is now ten to fifteen years ago. People who are now just 50+ were then just 35-40+ is anyone really surprised that they actually use the Internet? I'm now 60+ and I've been publishing content and using "social networking" sites and email groups (a surviving pre-Web 2.0 social networking technology) since the early to mid nineties... Back then I did not feel particularly old to be involved, the surprise would be if few people in the 50-70 age bracket were making significant Internet use.
News Release
June 19, 2008
Mary's response was politer than mine, but she seems equally unimpressed by this totally unsurprising research.
This was a "dog bites man" headline. About as much of a surprise as being told that Winston Peters was economical with the truth!
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I think that it would be interesting to look at *how* these people were using the net. I think that it is unsurprising that people in their 50s and early 60s are using the net, but I suspect that they're using it quite differently to the way that younger people use it, and then differently to the way that people who are older than that use it. I think there are quite a few people in their later 60s and older who have internet access, but they have very different usage patterns. I know quite a few who use email and are reasonably proficient at using Google, but very few blog, or have Facebook (unless they use it to play Scrabble on line with their grandchildren).
Can I also add, Tim, that you are probably not typical of people your age. I have a number of colleagues who are in their early 60s, are university academics who are highly respected in their fields and quite proficient at email and Google, but panic if you suggest that they might use PowerPoint or offer on-line units unless they have a more computer adept colleague helping them. The latter is a little difficult at my university where more than 75% of our students study by distance. :-)
By Judy Redman, at
July 21, 2008 10:57 PM
Judy, I agree with much of what you have written.
I expect that patterns of average web use at different ages will differ - but then patterns of phone use differ at different ages and no one headlines people 50+ are actually using PHONES as if it was news ;)
I have colleagues who are decades younger than me who are technophobes but when our principal Brian Smith retired about ten years ago he began to learn to use a computer (!) and swiftly became one of the most stillful online teachers I have seen. The difference is not so much age as other factors of personality and experience.
So, while it is true that "old dogs" learn new tricks more slowly (and old starts quite young for these purposes) and so those who were "old" in the 90s will probably have lower and less adventurous Internet usage than those who were young then that was a decade ago. Are we saying that people in their 40s in 1990 were then "old"! I think there are three generations here:
- born digital (an exageration as I'd include my daughter Sarah who first touched a computer at age 4) who are now about 0-25
- learned as adults who are now between 25 and 75 (plus a few over 75 who were early adopters late in life ;)
- unlikely digiterati those over 75 or who are technophobic.
These age ranges are (of course) only a caricature, those whose jobs require use afre more likely to use, technophiles are more likely and so are the well-off. So a poor, technophobic person who works in a situation that does not require Internet use will be much less likely to use significantly whatever their age.
By Tim, at
July 22, 2008 7:01 AM
A task for you
So, I thought I'd make a start and ask you all to join in. I'll post my fragmentary list, with some reasons, either in comments here or on your blog (in which case please place a comment with a link to the post here, so that I can gather the posts into a full listing in a future post. Nominate places giving a short description of your reasons.
First some ground rules:
- though we must end up with a list of ten we can discuss more places before we narrow the list
- the list is fosused on enriching understanding of the Bible
- places should be either of great historical or geographical significance
- we will need a balance of places of significance for the Jewish/ChristianHebrew Bible, and also the Christian New Testament, as well as those that illustrate the geography of the land
- the surrounding geography will form part of the virtual visit, so below I suggest Megiddo in part because of its location.
My first suggestion- Megiddo: (a) geographically significant to explain the Plain of Jezreel (b) significance of trade routes (c) site of battles including (?) the one talked about in Revelation in the NT (d) Iron Age administrative centre (e) importance of water supply (f) gate complex and (g) Bronze Age cultic site.
Labels: 1sam, 2sam, bible, internet, teaching
¶ 8:56 AM
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Bruce Friedman, who blogs regularly about the use of computers in medicine, also has described how the Internet has altered his mental habits. “I now have almost totally lost the ability to read and absorb a longish article on the web or in print,” he wrote earlier this year. A pathologist who has long been on the faculty of the University of Michigan Medical School, Friedman elaborated on his comment in a telephone conversation with me. His thinking, he said, has taken on a “staccato” quality, reflecting the way he quickly scans short passages of text from many sources online. “I can’t read War and Peace anymore,” he admitted. “I’ve lost the ability to do that. Even a blog post of more than three or four paragraphs is too much to absorb. I skim it.”Reading online is different from reading print, think Jakob Nielsen's studies back in the 90s which showed that online readers scan. Then bring it up to date and apply it to "academic" readers as well as the metaphorical "ordinary user":
As part of the five-year research program, the scholars examined computer logs documenting the behavior of visitors to two popular research sites, one operated by the British Library and one by a U.K. educational consortium, that provide access to journal articles, e-books, and other sources of written information. They found that people using the sites exhibited “a form of skimming activity,” hopping from one source to another and rarely returning to any source they’d already visited. They typically read no more than one or two pages of an article or book before they would “bounce” out to another site. Sometimes they’d save a long article, but there’s no evidence that they ever went back and actually read it.Factor in the fact that today we live online much more than we did then, and the result is obvious: "the Internet" is changing the way we think. Reducing our capacity to process lengthy complex writing. In short, making us stupid!
But, is different worse? The authors of the study mentioned above wrote:
It is clear that users are not reading online in the traditional sense; indeed there are signs that new forms of “reading” are emerging as users “power browse” horizontally through titles, contents pages and abstracts going for quick wins. It almost seems that they go online to avoid reading in the traditional sense.Carr's argument presupposes that "reading in the traditional sense" is both traditional and good. Yet for the purposes of the "readers" assessed by the study, academics researching prior literature on a topic, reading has perhaps never been the long drawn out sequential process Carr inagines. I have been trying to teach students "How to avoid reading books" for decades. Why? Because scanning not reading works, for researching prior literature scanning beats reading! As MarkG commented "
Reading differently is not necessarily reading worse.
Carr also argues that the structures and processes of the Internet shape and control how we think, claiming:
The idea that our minds should operate as high-speed data-processing machines is not only built into the workings of the Internet, it is the network’s reigning business model as well. The faster we surf across the Web—the more links we click and pages we view—the more opportunities Google and other companies gain to collect information about us and to feed us advertisements. Most of the proprietors of the commercial Internet have a financial stake in collecting the crumbs of data we leave behind as we flit from link to link—the more crumbs, the better. The last thing these companies want is to encourage leisurely reading or slow, concentrated thought. It’s in their economic interest to drive us to distraction.In other words: reading differently is worse because we lose the capacity for sustained attention. This is like Socrates argument in Plato's Phaedrus that the new technology of alphabetic writing (to which ironically we owe our "memory" of Socrates) "will produce forgetfulness in those who have learned it. They will not need to exercise their memories, being able to rely on what is written."
So Carr is in fine company. Like Socrates he is correct, memory has been eroded by writing and the capacity for sequential sustained reading is being eroded by the Internet. Also, like Socrates, he is wrong, the human capacity for living is not eroded so easily and the new mental states are not (most of us believe - since few today voluntarily give up writing and advocate burning libraries to the ground) worse ;)
Google need not make you stoopid, but it is making us think differently, and that needs serious practice and study.
Labels: culture, internet, writing
¶ 8:17 AM
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So, here, I hope not too late for you to sign up, is a link to the invitation, and extracts of the details, it is:
- organised by the Burmese Christian Fellowship,
- on Sunday July 20th from 5pm till 7pm
- $25 per person includes food, entertainment and donation to Cyclone Nargis relief (organised informally through contacts on the spot)
- at Bible College of New Zealand (if it has not changed its name by then ;) 221 Lincoln Rd, Henderson, traffic light entrance opposite Pak N Save, "entrance through the muli-storey brick building at the end of the drive"
- please pay in advance to:
- Adrienne Coats 837 1507
- Paul Long 818 3874
- Khun Aung 630 8975
- David Thorpe 826 0864
Labels: burma, cyclone, karen, nargis
¶ 10:35 AM
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In "Why So Reticent, Boaz?: Boaz's (In)action from an Identity Perspective" Peter H. W. Lau of Sydney University presented a reading of the book of Ruth that analysed Boaz' behaviour from a Social Identity Theoretical perspective. Using this grid enabled Peter to describe clearly the issues involved and throw considerable light of some of the gaps that we as listeners to the story are obliged to fill.
Next, Sunwoo Hwang of the University of Edinburgh offered a clear and organised discussion of "Bêtî in 1 Chronicles 17:14: Temple or Kingdom?" and in doing so drew my attention also to the interesting differences between not only 1 Chron 17:14 and its presumed source in 2 Sam 7:16, but also between the LXX and MT.
Rachelle Gilmour of the University of Sydney presented a lively and engaging analysis of "Suspense and Anticipation in I Samuel 9" and in doing so added still more to my appreciation of this most entertaining and rich passage. (For my take on the passage before Rachelle's paper listen to my 5 minute talks "Humour in the Bible: Part 1: Introducing Saul and Humour in the Bible: Part 2: Still Introducing Saul, incidentally there really are other 'casts in the Humour in the Bible series!
Labels: 1chron, 1sam, 2sam, audio, bible, ruth, sbl
¶ 5:23 PM
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Françoise Mirguet's topic was "The divine monologues in Genesis: An interrupted sequence". She presented the monologues, noted that the cease at 18:17-18, and explored their function in the telling of Genesis, arguing that the reason they cease is that the last monologue represents the moment when God elects a dialogue partner in Abraham.
I am not quite convinced by the case she argued, but convinced enough that I look forward to reading the published version to see if I am then convinced - at least I think there is a "case to answer"...
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Sione Havea is a well-established Tongan biblical scholar, now at Charles Sturt University. His paper "Displacing Bible, Drifting Homes, Restless Tellings" was a lively repeat of the usual post-colonial warnings about the ways in which the (Western) missionary enterprise of the 19th and 20th centuries left the Bible as a problematic book. It was engagingly delivered, and even the jibes at "Western Men" did not seem to hurt the Western males in the audience ;-)
The words were enlivened by "works by artists from Oceania who expose the partnership of the Christian mission with Western colonization"). I somehow missed the argument of the second part, where he spoke about "how and why the Western bible [failed to] function as 'home' for the natives (for whom 'stories give home'). The third part, spoke of "the power of telling" this was a passionate plea, but sadly the example based on the "witch of Endor" (which was promised in the abstract) did not feature in the paper as presented.
Nasili Vaka'uta, a doctoral candidate at the University of Auckland (declaration of interest: I have co-supervised his thesis for the last few years) belongs to the next generation of Pacific scholarship. Nasili spoke on "Myth of (Im)Purity and Peoples of the (Is)Lands: A Tongan Reading of Ezra 9-10" To me Nasili's great achievement is to have prodcued a reading of his text which uses Tomgan vocabulary and culture as the categories that shape the reading. His "Tongan reading" is not merely a Western reading in Tongan clothes therefore, but more genuinely Tongan. I remember encouraging my Congolese students in the 80s to begin, trying to achieve this task, of discovering the thought patterns and processes that would lead to African readings that were African in their intellectual framework as well as their appearance! Back then we made little progress, but I think Nasili's paper represents a strong beginning to such a process for Tongan Tu'a readers. Here is his abstract:
Ezra 9-10 is narrated with a gaze. It gazes at the “peoples of the lands” not merely to identify, but also to belittle and discriminate against. In this paper, I offer a Tongan reading of Ezra 9-10 with attention to objects of deriding gazes, and the myth/ideology behind the gaze vis-à-vis the colonial construction of the Oceanic island 'natives.' This reading is situated in the social location of Tongan commoners (tu'a), and theorized with the Tongan notion of fonua (land, place, sea, and people). Methodologically, it weaves together insights from various methods and categories from Tongan culture. This interpretive framework provides the lenses for enga[g/z]ing (gaze back at) the text.
Labels: biblical.studies, pacific, sbl
¶ 5:53 AM
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It was great to begin this first ever SBL in New Zealand in a culturally appropriate way with the visitors being welcomed to the University Marae, to the University and to the country. As so often though my delight in powwhiri was tinged with saddness, of only Māori custom could unbend enough to produce a geniuinely bicultural powhiri one for example in which the speeches were tailored to the presence of 90% of the participants who are not fluent in Te Reo (the Māori language) so shorter and accompanied by brief summary statements in English (like subtitles) so that the 90% could understand and appreciate the ceremony. Such a powhiri if regularly adopted for bicultural occasions, would I suspect take NZ by storm and become the only appropriate way to formally welcome visitors. Instead too often what we have is a mere cultural show - which ends up turning Māori into museum exhibits, rather than partners in a bicultural society.
Labels: culture, nz, sbl, video
¶ 7:57 AM
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Yes, Tim. I was right up the front of the crowd waiting to go through the arch onto the marae, so I heard the two Maori explaining to the SBL president what was going to happen and what his role was in it all, so I had some idea what was happening. There are also some similarities between the function of the powhiri and the function of an Aboriginal Australian message stick, which is carried by visitors into the country of other peoples, so I had some 'hooks' to hang the experience on, but it was still a bit odd not hearing what had happened until after it had happened. I do hope our hosts were right about the ability of the powhiri to improve the standard of our conference presentations!! :-)
By Judy Redman, at
July 7, 2008 9:35 PM
A superb, free, bibliography manager now got even more useful for biblical scholars, though I still have a small gripe, Zotero does not yet know how to handle book reviews :( the main styles for this are covered by this Duke University Library page and you can see how much fiddling would be needed to change a Zotero reference like this from one style to another!
Labels: biblical.studies.online, bibliography, zotero
¶ 6:00 AM
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This visit I'd rate the coffee slightly less than last time's at just Pretty Good, my long black was a touch bitter and made long by running the water through the grounds rather than adding hot water to standard espresso. Though B's Soy Cappuchino was pronounced "very good" and was superbly decorated with a hand drawn fern ;)
The food this time was good, very good "Jose Breakfast" with a delicious blend of flavours including guacomole. The eggs benedict came on sage flavoured potato cakes, a nice touch! Though not "very good" as the bacon was a workmanlike supermarket style rather than the more risky but usually more tasty butcher's special.
The service was again superb almost too attentive!
Columbus: Onehunga
120 Onehunga Mall
Onehunga,
Auckland
Phone: 09 622 2819
Fax: 09 634 3337
PS: We'd meant to try the cafe at Bunnings Warehouse, but they did not open till 9am, and we did not fancy 20 mins waiting after buying our kitchen jars. Maybe next time...
Labels: auckland_cafes, review
¶ 6:05 PM
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On top of that carnivalesque excitement, within days SBL International begins, if you will be there do consider signing up for an offline meetup...
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There's glory for you!'There's what I think is a fine example of Humpty Dumpty theology quoted on Mary's blog - I can't comment there as to stop the dreaded spammers she has comments set so that only people with a login to her blog can comment :(`I don't know what you mean by "glory,"' Alice said.
Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. `Of course you don't -- till I tell you. I meant "there's a nice knock-down argument for you!"'
`But "glory" doesn't mean "a nice knock-down argument,"' Alice objected.
`When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, `it means just what I choose it to mean -- neither more nor less.'
`The question is,' said Alice, `whether you can make words mean so many different things.'
`The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, `which is to be master - - that's all.'
Alice was too much puzzled to say anything, so after a minute Humpty Dumpty began again. `They've a temper, some of them -- particularly verbs, they're the proudest -- adjectives you can do anything with, but not verbs -- however, I can manage the whole of them! Impenetrability! That's what I say!'
See Lewis Carrol, Through the Looking Glass, "Humpty Dumpty" here
It comes from a wonderful small book called The Practice of Communicative Theology, by Matthias Scharer and Bernd Jochen Hilberath. On page 38 of that book they write:Whatever the Latin ad gradere meant - and although no Latin scholar I suspect that (or perhaps even more relevant what the range of meaning of agressus was the English "aggression" simply does not mean what these authors want to make it mean - no dictionary I have consulted permits it, and even the recent usage in phrases like "an aggressive advertising campaign" permit it either. Aggression means attack, whatever the Humpty Dumpty theologians wish. The etymological fallacy is still a fallacy, even as we near the half-centenary beyond the publication of Barr, James. The Semantics of Biblical Language. London: OUP, 1961.The word “aggression,” from the Latin ad gradere
(”moving toward”) has a positive as well as a negative meaning. It includes no only the life-destroying forces of exclusion but also that force which can find expression in a living, loving relationship. All-encompassing peace and harmony among all creatures without doing away with their differences are ideals corresponding to the transformation of life that God promises for God’s future…
Labels: biblical.studies, semantics, theology
¶ 7:38 AM
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Dude! Do we really need to skip over Faith, Truth and Freedom to find a word theologists have twisted beyond all comprehension?
By Scott Ferguson, at
July 3, 2008 7:55 AM
Hi, Scott, it sounds as if you have been hurt by some theologians, but I don't agree if you are saying that as a matter of course theologians misuse any or all of the words you mention - though evidently some do.
Why should anyone expect theologians to be better than anyone else?
People (of whom theologians are merely a sub-set ;) regularly stuff up. We often do the wrong thing for the right reasons, and sometimes the wrong things for the wrong reasons, just occasionally we do the right thing - that's life.
In theology as elsewhere one job of scholars is to try to improve the balance, which is what my post seeks to do, in pointing out this example of (what I take to be) wishful thinking.
By Tim, at
July 3, 2008 8:10 AM
On the site Deena provides (in her introduction to "links") a classification of different sorts of link:
This is much fuller and richer than the simple binary choice we plan to give to authors of the HBC_ volumes. We just offer the choice of "explanation" or "justification" and links to HBD_ articles or Bible references. But then our goals are much more focused... Her "descriptive" sounds like our "explanation" but I don't find in her list anything that corresponds to our "justification" yet intuitively I suspect that we are not the only ones wanting to link to material that gives in more details the reasons that justify a particular ideas expressed.
- Denotative: The link goes to a node that provides either the site or text itself (such as a link to Google) or a definition or clarification of the linked word or phrase. This is a common type of link in encyclopedias, newspapers, etc.
- Connotative: The link between the origin text and destination text implies something that is not explicitly stated--the originating node gives a new context to the destination node that can suggest some other meanings are lurking under the surface.
- Similar or repetitive: The link goes to a similar node or a continuation of the same theme as the originating text.
- Opposition or contradiction: The link goes to a node that contradicts or opposes the originating text.
- Descriptive: The link goes to a further description or explanation of the linked word or originating text.
- Advertisements: The link goes to a site that sells that particular item. While this is a common type of link in commercial websites (as many sites receive their funding from these links by counting hits and click throughs), this has been used in electronic literature. The link from Deena Larsen's Disappearing Rain: "How many credit cards are in it?" goes to a credit card site. (These outside links are thus commented on within the story and subvert these commercial endeavors into playing a role in tracking down Anna, a missing character from the novel).
- Political: The piece hopes to provoke a reaction in the reader and provides a link to follow up on that reaction. For example, Jennifer Ley's War Games shows the horrors of land mines and connects to Adopt a Minefield.
What do you think:
- Is her list complete, are there other types she does not discuss?
- Does she cover our "justification" type of link?
- Would it help our navigation of the web (and other hypertexts) if there was a more standard and understood "rhetoric" of linking?
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It's probably not a complete list--and I still need to post examples of the other types.
I'm not quite sure what you mean by a justification link--is this where one would put a logical proof? We could have legitimate justifications:
"Not all swans are white" link to evidence such as a picture of a black swan.
Or false justifications:
"Elephants are giraffes" link to:
If elephants are mammals
and giraffes are mammals
then elephants are giraffes...
hmmm... I'll have to do some re-reading and see if I can find some examples of this in elit.
By Deena Larsen, at
July 3, 2008 3:02 PM
Hi, Deena, that was quick!
Maybe the difference in approach is
(a) Because we have different genres in mind. I think your focus in fiction, while mine is narrowly on writing and presenting commentary. Where the reasons for a particular decision or approach may be of interest to some readers but not others, while different readers may need something explained. Hence my choice to distinguish these two classes of link and display then differently.
(b) Your list (I think) is intended to get people started and open up their thoughts - as it did mine. While mine is intended to produce a minimal list that will be useful in a particular project.
However, my questions at the end are more broadly focused, would it be helpful if our hypertext presentation languages distinguished some set of different "sorts" of link? Which sorts are useful to mark for users? Could we ever obtain a useful list that could become shared and conventional. As in print links of the sort "index" and "table of contents" have become conventional...
By Tim, at
July 3, 2008 4:21 PM
PS the "jsutification" link type much as I have envisaged it could occur in fiction, if the author wanted to do something like the "director's commentary" many DVDs provide, i.e. provide readers with comments on why they chose for a character to act in such and such a way... etc. But I admit they might be rare in hypertext fiction ;-)
By Tim, at
July 3, 2008 4:26 PM
PPS Thanks for a really interesting site, I must remember to use it if I ever again teach a course that includes theory of hypertext. Sadly the last time I was due to it was cancelled as too few students enrolled :(
By Tim, at
July 3, 2008 4:28 PM
On the other hand, if you wonder how I can be as hard on the coffees we've had, please be aware that the supplier we usually use for our beans at home: Zeke's Serious Coffee, is not only shade grown, fair trade and organic, nor merely got a regular annual string of bronze and silvers at the NZ Coffee Festival but this year added the Gold award for best NZ Espresso for the Howler Monkey (the blend we buy). Coffee that does not rip off the producers just tastes better!
Labels: auckland_cafes, coffee
¶ 8:42 PM
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Thanks for the return linkage! :-) I'll be trying a place called Savrano in Botany tomorrow. Supposed to be some kind of Italian deli/cafe so I'm sure it will be better than Esquires.
By Rhett, at
July 2, 2008 9:18 PM
An Italian deli sounds good, I remember (drooling) the little Italian deli we used to use in Glasgow when I was doing my PhD. The hams, the sausages, the cheeses...
By Tim, at
July 3, 2008 5:40 AM
I hereby tag myself with the post: Self-referentiality and openness in online biblical studies.
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Way to go, SansBlogue... though the post on 5MinuteBible is better!
By mgvh, at
July 3, 2008 2:21 AM
That's mean!
By Tim, at
July 3, 2008 5:55 AM
By the way, there is no reason why someone should not produce a Wordpress plugin to put audio for the Hebrew audio files, though they'd first have to set up an RSS feed for them... for the real techno-heroes that should be trivial, for the rest of us... well suffice to say I have not worked out how to do it in Blogger, still... If you know please tell us...
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