Kris' shared items in Google Reader

Justin Bieber: streaming bill author should be "locked up"

2011-10-28T18:38:15Z

Justin Bieber has condemned legislation to make unauthorized streaming a felony punishable by five years in prison, calling it "ridiculous." In a Thursday interview with a Washington, DC, radio station, he said that the legislation's sponsor, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), should be "locked up—put away in cuffs."

The news is surprising because two days earlier, his lawyers sent a cease-and-desist order to the website FreeBieber.org, which also opposes the bill. The site highlights the possibility that the legislation would make felons of artists like Bieber. The radio interview didn't cover the FreeBieber controversy, but it seems likely that the takedown request wasn't Bieber's idea.

In the interview, Bieber said that he had no objection to fans uploading videos of themselves singing Justin Bieber songs. "Are you kidding me? I check YouTube all the time and watch people singing my songs. I think it's awesome," he said.

"People need to have the freedoms," he said. "People need to be able to sing songs. I just think that's ridiculous."

The legislation in question was introduced in the Senate in May, and makes it a felony to show 10 or more "public performances" by electronic means in any 180-day period. Although it appears to be intended to target the streaming of Hollywood movies and copyrighted sports broadcasts, some legal experts believe it would apply to user-created videos like the ones that made Bieber famous.

The House version of the Protect IP Act, which we covered on Thursday, has a similar provision.

Read the comments on this post

Those dogs that never seem to bark (Carl Trueman)

2011-10-26T13:14:08Z

"Is there any point to which you would wish to draw my attention?"
"To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time."
"The dog did nothing in the night-time."
"That was the curious incident," remarked Sherlock Holmes.

Silver Blaze, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Sometimes it is the dogs that do not bark which speak most eloquently to a situation. Over at the Gospel Coalition, Justin Taylor linked last week to another video where one of the topics of discussion is multi-site ministry and where the whole issue of stardom and the pastorate is once again aired.

I have said about all that I want to say on stardom/celebrity/whatever and the pastorate. Once again, I note that it is nothing to do with size of church and everything to do with presentation, function and festishisation of certain pastors, of which multi-site is arguably one symptom. But as that message has not penetrated thus far, it is unlikely to do so now.

What is so striking, however - and what Levy so effortlessly put his finger on yesterday - is how irrelevant discussions of multi-site are to 99.99% of pastors. Even if one granted that multi-site is consistent with biblical teaching (and it seems to me to be utterly subversive of biblical models of pastoral oversight, to point to just one problem), it is a non-issue for most pastors out there.

So here's the question: in the brave new world of megachurch evangelicalism, what are the dogs that do not bark? Or, to put it in more contemporary idiom, what are the topics which never seem to be discussed on cool web videos by the usual suspects?

Here's a few:

Issues raised by visiting old people who are housebound or living in elderly care homes.

Issues raised by that church member who is a faithful attender but descending slowly into the fog of Alzheimer's disease.

How to conduct a funeral for a small child who has just died of cancer.

How to comfort the parents of said child.

How to help the man or woman in the boring, undignified but necessary job (say, lavatory cleaning) to find dignity and glorify God in their work situation.

My guess is that 3 or even more of these topics will be of 100% relevance almost every year to any pastor who actually pastors in the way that the New Testament prescribes. But, unless I am missing something, these topics never seem to get much video airtime on the websites favoured by the bold and the beautiful. Why is this? I leave that to your imaginations.

As Sherlock Holmes noted, sometimes it is the dog that does not bark which tells you what you really need to know about a situation.

Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta Wants to Reinstate Pelagius

2011-10-22T15:00:17Z

Mollie Hemingway, a writer for The Wall Street Journal (and, we might add, Modern Reformation) reported recently on the latest political machinations of the U.S. Episcopal Church leadership.

And who said liberals were inclusive? Well, they are in one sense—of Gnosticism, Arianism, and Pelagianism, for example. In fact, the Diocese of Atlanta has just passed a resolution seeking to give Pelagius a place of honor in the church. The resolution reads:

R11-7 Contributions of Pelagius

Whereas the historical record of Pelagius’s contribution to our theological tradition is shrouded in the political ambition of his theological antagonists who sought to discredit what they felt was a threat to the empire, and their ecclesiastical dominance, and whereas an understanding of his life and writings might bring more to bear on his good standing in our tradition, and whereas his restitution as a viable theological voice within our tradition might encourage a deeper understanding of sin, grace, free will, and the goodness of God’s creation, and whereas in as much as the history of Pelagius represents to some the struggle for theological exploration that is our birthright as Anglicans, Be it resolved, that this 105th Annual Council of the Diocese of Atlanta appoint a committee of discernment overseen by our Bishop, to consider these matters as a means to honor the contributions of Pelagius and reclaim his voice in our tradition And be it further resolved that this committee will report their conclusions at the next Annual Council.

On hearing the news, retired South Carolina Bishop C. FitzSimons Allison expressed disdain. Bishop Allison has written about the practical Pelagianism in our day, including a few articles in Modern Reformation over the years (see his articles). In his book, The Cruelty of Heresy, Allison writes, “The broad stream of Western thought since the 17th Century has been characterized by a confidence more congenial to Pelagianism than at any time in history. And Pelagianism is the banana peel on the cliff of Unitarianism.” In response to the decision, Allison lamented, “As one considers the theologically inept accommodation to the secular world, there should be no surprise that Pelagian doctrine of the will’s freedom without grace would be dug up again. A world losing its trust in God will compulsively trust in the human will to obey if it is sufficiently rebuked, exhorted, threatened and scolded. No wonder Richard Hooker and St. Augustine called it a ‘cruel doctrine.’”

What Every True Christian Knows…and Remembers

2011-09-22T03:10:18Z

Many men spend their days in obstinacy and hardness, adding drunkenness unto thirst, never once inquiring what their condition shall be when they enter into eternity; others trifle away their time and their souls, sowing the wind of empty hopes, and preparing to reap a whirlwind of wrath; but this lies at the bottom of all the saints’ communion with Christ,—a deep, fixed, resolved persuasion of an absolute and indispensable necessity of a righteousness wherewith to appear before God. The holiness of God’s nature, the righteousness of his government, the severity of his law, the terror of his wrath, are always before them. They have been all convinced of sin, and have looked on themselves as ready to sink under the vengeance due to it.

~John Owen

from Of Communion With God, volume 2 of Works, page 187

HTC boss: College kids don’t want an iPhone ‘because their dad has one’

2011-09-12T21:57:13Z

Martin Fichter, the acting president of HTC America, has a daughter down at Steve Jobs’ alma mater, Reed College, where he conducted the very scientific focus group:

On the iPhone 5 hype: “Apple is innovating. Samsung is innovating. We are innovating. Everybody is innovating. And everybody is doing different things for the end consumers. I brought my daughter back to college — she’s down in Portland at Reed — and I talked to a few of the kids on her floor. And none of them has an iPhone because they told me: ‘My dad has an iPhone.’ There’s an interesting thing that’s going on in the market. The iPhone becomes a little less cool than it was. They were carrying HTCs. They were carrying Samsungs. They were even carrying some Chinese manufacture’s devices. If you look at a college campus, Mac Book Airs are cool. iPhones are not that cool anymore. We here are using iPhones, but our kids don’t find them that cool anymore.”

They also have no interest in dad’s Porsche.

HTC considering OS purchase: “We have given it thought and discussed it internally” (9to5google.com)

WHI-1066 | By Grace Alone Through Faith Alone

2011-09-11T07:00:04Z

Regardless of their denomination, most Christians would argue that the gospel of Jesus Christ is a free gift of God’s grace and mercy that no one deserves. By his righteous life and sacrificial death, Jesus provides for us what we cannot provide for ourselves. But at this point, some argue that the free gift of God’s grace still has to be “accepted,” and that it is on the basis of our embracing the gospel that we are saved. What do you think? Are we saved by “choosing” to follow Christ? Is believing in Jesus the “one work” we have to do in order to get to heaven? The hosts discuss these questions and more as they interact with Ephesians 2.

The Pelagian Captivity of the Church
R.C. Sproul
Who Saves Whom?
Michael Horton
Unconditional Election
J.I. Packer
WHI Discussion Group Questions
PDF Document

MUSIC SELECTION

Doug Powell

PROGRAM AUDIO

RECOMMENDED BOOKS

Putting Amazing Back Into Grace
Michael Horton
For Calvinism
Michael Horton
The Christian Faith
Michael Horton

RECOMMENDED AUDIO

You Foolish Galatians
WHI-140
Guilt, Grace & Gratitude
WHI-208
Consumers or Disciples?
WHI-1055

Mayor Bloomberg's Ban on Prayer -- A Good Thing or Not?

2011-09-07T22:06:36Z

This coming weekend the US will pause to remember those whose lives were lost so tragically in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Adding fuel to the growing fires of public debate over the role of religion in public life, New York mayor Michael Bloomberg announced his decision not to include prayers for the official event.

Theory is tested in specific cases, and this is one more opportunity to wrestle with a larger question. It’s one thing when a political leader has to choose a clerical representative out of an array of Christian denominations. Today, however, representing the religious diversity of the Republic in public ceremonies is more complicated.

On one hand, this is a constitutional issue. Especially given the history of civil religion in America, it’s implausible to imagine that the nation’s founders ever intended anything like the separation of religion and public life that the mantra “separation of church and state” has come to embody. On the other hand, it is a theological issue. In other words, even if Mayor Bloomberg has no constitutional reason to avoid the liturgical interjections in public commemorations that were included by his predecessor, the debate returns us to a recurring question of decisive importance to Christians. It’s not a question of whether prayer at public occasions of this kind is sanctioned by our Constitution, but, for Christians at least, whether we can participate (much less encourage) such acts of “non-sectarian” worship.

A Lesson from Marx for the SBC (Carl Trueman)

2011-09-07T16:16:09Z

It seems a bit of a brouhaha is developing over the exclusion of (or, perhaps better, lack of invitation to) evangelical Protestants from participation in the religious ceremonies at the National Cathedral this weekend to commemorate 9/11. The prayer vigil will, according to Fox News, include the dean of the Cathedral, the Bishop of Washington, a rabbi, a Buddhist nun and incarnate lama, a Hindu priest, the president of the Islamic Society of North America and a Muslim musician. But no Southern Baptists, and, presumably, no Missouri Synod Lutherans, PCA pastors, OPC ministers etc. And no musicians from the classic rock fraternity either, for that matter -- unless we are perhaps talking Cat Stevens here. The president of the Southern Baptist Convention is apparently upset at this act of `tragic intolerance towards Protestants.'

I think the Rev. Page has misunderstood the reason for the exclusion: it seems the powers that be in Washington understand the implications of the biblical evangel better than some evangelical leaders. Rather than lamenting the situation, the Southern Baptists should be delighted that the organizers had the sensitivity and foresight not to place them in the grim position of having to turn down such an invitation in order to avoid compromising their orthodox, Protestant identity. The public relations disaster that would have followed this elementary stand for biblical truth and exclusivity would have been spectacular. After all, how could one maintain that one is taking seriously 1 Timothy 2 while sharing prayer time with a real-life incarnate lama?

The Southern Baptists need to stop feeling disappointed that such a well-intentioned but theologically incoherent gathering does not want their presence and they should instead remember the wisdom of Marx - not Karl, but Groucho: you should never want to join any club that would have you as a member.

The first Atari Joystick I’ve wanted in 20 years…

2011-09-05T21:26:35Z

Update: DVICE has a review up with the following notes:

It is a 30 pin dock connector, not Bluetooth. It runs on the iPads battery and gets 8-10 hours of battery life (pretty efficient!). The downside to that: Portrait playing only.
The Atari Arcade is scheduled to drop on October 2 at Target and then in November at Toys “R” Us and Walmart for $60.

Coming soon to DiscoveryBayGames, a new Atari controller that will go head to head with the popular iCade box. The appliance was discovered in the update by MacRumors.

What’s New in Version 1.3

Hello Atari fans! We’ve been paying close attention to your feedback and have made a ton of improvements:

• New and improved control schemes
• OpenFeint integration
• Optimized iPad layouts with larger playfields
• Better multiplayer connectivity
• Compatibility with the Discovery Bay Games Duo Controller
• Play with the official Atari® Arcade – Duo™ Powered joystick. http://bit.ly/atariarcade

Lodsys sues Rovio over Angry Birds, EA over Sims 3, Atari, and more (9to5mac.com)

40.714513 -74.005122

Political science: why rejecting expertise has become a campaign strategy (and why it scares me)

2011-09-04T18:00:00Z

On this long Labor Day weekend in the US, we're bringing you a set of opinion pieces from various Ars writers—and we'd love to have you join the conversation in the comments.

"To be clear. I believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming. Call me crazy." With that tweet, Jon Huntsman set himself apart from every other candidate in the Republican primary field. Despite his phrasing, Huntsman, who is barely registering in most polls, was clearly hoping that the public would believe most other candidates to be a bit loopy by contrast.

Agreeing with the scientific community has become a key issue in recent presidential campaigns. Evolution came up at a debate during the previous Republican primary season, and Rick Perry, the current front runner, was put on the spot about it at a recent campaign event (he flubbed his answer on several levels). And, as Huntsman's tweet suggests, the reality of climate change has been a hot topic.

Read the comments on this post

Horton's "For Calvinism"

2011-09-01T21:20:33Z

Michael Horton's forthcoming book, For Calvinism, is part of a running dialogue with Roger Olson's Against Calvinism.

Here is the publisher's blurb:

The system of theology known as Calvinism has been immensely influential for the past five hundred years, but it is often encountered negatively as a fatalistic belief system that confines human freedom and renders human action and choice irrelevant. Taking us beyond the caricatures, Michael Horton invites us to explore the teachings of Calvinism, also commonly known as Reformed theology, by showing us how it is biblical and God-centered, leading us to live our lives for the glory of God. Horton explores the historical roots of Calvinism, walking readers through the distinctive known as the 'Five Points,' and encouraging us to consider its rich resources for faith and practice in the 21st Century. As a companion to Roger Olson's Against Calvinism, readers will be able to compare contrasting perspectives and form their own opinions on the merits and weaknesses of Calvinism.

For Calvinism is due to be released in October.

Can You Miss God’s Will For Your Life?

2011-09-01T10:30:25Z

Decision making can be a paralyzing experience.

Say, for example, that you have been offered a new job in a different state? Should you take it? Well, it depends. What are the schools like in the area? What is the traffic like? Are there any nuclear power plants nearby? Is the increased salary worth the emotional cost of moving your family? Will you be forced to root for the Dallas Cowboys? All these different factors can make it difficult to decide.

Now throw the whole issue of God’s will into the mix? Is it really God’s will for you to move? It seems like it’s God’s will, but maybe it’s not. What if you make a terrible mistake and somehow miss the will of God? Are you going to end up in some purgatorial situation because you accidentally missed God’s will?

The fear of missing God’s will is enough to paralyze any Christian. But here’s the question: can a Christian miss the will of God for their life? Could you somehow go your entire life being outside of God’s good plan for you?

It seems that the Bible teaches that, yes, you can miss God’s will. It also teaches that no, you can’t miss God’s will.

You Can Miss God’s Will If…

The way to miss God’s will is really simple: ignore the Bible. In the Bible God has told us exactly what we should do when it comes to making decisions. First, we should determine if our decision goes against anything clearly spelled out in the Bible. The Bible is clear that fellowship with other believers is necessary for our Christian growth. If taking a job will cut you off from fellowship with others, it’s not God’s will for you to take the job.

Second, we should ask God to give us wisdom. James 1:5-6 says:

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting…

Getting wisdom from God isn’t a mystical, super spiritual experience. It means asking God to help us think clearly and biblically about the decision in front of us. When we ask for wisdom we should believe God is going to give it to us. God isn’t trying to hide his good will from us. He wants to help us understand the right way to walk.

Third, we should ask the opinion of others. Proverbs 15:22 says, “Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisers they succeed.” This is so gloriously simple. Finding God’s will for your life is as simple as asking the opinion of other, godly Christians. Lay the situation out before them, and then let God speak to you through their counsel.

You Can’t Miss God’s Will If…

If we heed the counsel of scripture, we won’t miss God’s will. God isn’t hiding his will, or trying to trick us into making a bad decision. If we evaluate our decision by scripture, ask for wisdom, and then ask the opinion of others, we are doing what God requires of us. He promises to guide us through that process.

We don’t need to seek a subjective, mystical, spiritual feeling when it comes to decision making. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes God gives us peace about a decision, and that’s a blessing. But that’s not always the case. Sometimes we might not feel one way or another about a decision. In general, feelings are a very bad barometer of the truth. A feeling of peace can come from God, but it can also come from a lot of other things, like a glass of wine or a good nap. Plus, what exactly constitutes the “right” feeling when it comes to a decision? Is it peace? Or maybe joy? Or a sense of rightness?

The Bible doesn’t tell us what we’re supposed to feel about our decisions. Instead, it tells us how to make biblical, God-honoring decisions. So if you have a big decision to make, don’t freak out. Instead, go to the Word, ask for wisdom, and get others involved.

Does Worship Really Need to be Exciting?

2011-08-29T21:10:10Z

The following is by Rev. Andrew Compton, associate pastor of Christ Reformed Church in Anaheim, CA and is used with his permission. Rev. Compton is one of the bloggers at The Reformed Reader

I’ve been reading through Kevin Roose’s book The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner’s Semester at America’s Holiest University. If you have an interest in learning about evangelicalism and fundamentalism, this book, written by a Brown University student who enrolled at Liberty University for a semester, is a great volume to read. Informed by George Marsden’s more historical Fundamentalism and American Culture, this is a fun and witty memoir of someone who decided to “act the part” of a Christian fundamentalist for a semester.

I was especially struck by Roose’s contrast between the simple, Quaker worship meetings of his youth and the contemporary worship at a local megachurch. He writes:

You can see why I didn’t go to [Quaker worship] meeting[s] much. As a kid groomed on cartoons and video games and Little League, an hour of motionless silence was excruciating. At Thomas Road, on the other hand, there’s almost too much stimulation. The stage lights, the one hundred-decibel praise songs, the bright purple choir robes, the tempestuous bellowing of Dr. Falwell – it’s an hour-long assault on the senses. And all you have to do is sit back in your plush, reclining seat, latte and cranberry scone in hand, and take it all in. It’s Church Lite – entertaining but unsubstantial, the religious equivalent of a Jerry Bruckheimer movie. And once the novelty wears off, once the music becomes familiar and the motions of praise become pro forma and mechanized, you start to realize that all the technological glitz and material extravagance doesn’t necessarily add up to a spiritual experience.

Today, from my perch in the Thomas Road choir loft, my mind wandered back to the little brown house with stone steps. I think I’d appreciate the minimalist Quaker worship more now than I did as a kid. It didn’t have Jumbotron screens or a five thousand-watt sound system or a cafe in the lobby, and it wasn’t run by a world-famous televangelist with millions of followers. But at least it felt real (The Unlikely Disciple, pg. 199; emphasis added).

Bravo, Kevin! You have nailed it to the wall.

It is only tragic that it takes someone posing to be an evangelical to point out something that the “experts” themselves either can’t understand or chose to suppress—i.e., that the excitement of contemporary “worship” is more driven by consumerist impulses than genuine gratitude or spirituality.

If you’re drawn toward exciting, contemporary worship settings, know this—we all are! But this is not because it is right; not because it is proper; not because God is truly putting a burden on our hearts to pursue worship of him in this way… it is because all of us prefer to worship ourselves! All of us are idolaters who fashion gods in our own image!

If we like video clips, well then God must want us to watch those while worshiping him. If we like rock music, God must like it too. If we like to sit in church with our feet up, drinking a cafe mocha, then there can only be one reason for this—God must want nothing more than for us to sit in church with our feet up, drinking a cafe mocha! Whatever we like to do, God likes to do it too, right?

After all, we’re too genuine to be self-centered, right? Idolatry is only practiced by people out there, isn’t it? What we want to do just feels so right—how can you argue with that?!?!

It Was Nice While It Lasted

2011-08-29T07:00:00Z

It is a sure sign that sin messes things up that we keep watching the same boxing match over and over again, between truth and unity. Both sides, of course, insist that they have a deep and abiding love for the other. They shake hands in the center of the ring, go back to their corners, wait for the bell and come out ready to destroy the one they love. In the stands we stand, screaming ourselves hoarse in defense of our favorite.

Until recently unity has been on a hot streak. Charismatics, dispensationalists, YRR, and old school Reformed folk, post-mills and a-mils have managed to work together for the gospel. Blogs and conferences, magazines and books have born much fruit from cross-pollinating. We discovered that our brothers on the other side of this aisle do not actually have horns. We remembered that the beauty of what unites us is not only more important, but more potent than the nuances that divide us.

But we should never count out truth, or at least our own version of it. Though it was on the ropes, like Rocky in the last few rounds, truth has shown a rare ability to take a punch, and come back strong. It has moved well past highlighting what separates charismatics from dispensationalists and this Reformed group from that, and has now has each camp engaged in its own civil war. Cessationism versus continuationism, neckties versus t-shirts, beer versus teetotalism have sparked fires that rage inside our own worlds.

So what do we do? Can we get truth and unity to kiss and make up? Only if we Christians learn to grow up. We need to not only learn to distinguish between primary and secondary doctrines/practices, we need to learn to value them accurately. Can we both agree that being wrong on baptism is not a damnable heresy, and also affirm that it is an issue that matters? Can I seek to correct my Baptist brothers in a way that speaks to them as brothers who are wrong on an important issue? And can I in turn hear with grace my Baptist brothers as they lovingly seek to correct my error on the issue? Can I be concerned that my charismatic brother is leaving open the door for false prophecy and at the same time understand that he is concerned that I am boxing in the Holy Spirit?

Can we both agree that being wrong on baptism is not a damnable heresy, and also affirm that it is an issue that matters?

I have an opinion on virtually every issue that is being argued on the internet. I think some positions being espoused are good, sound, biblical. I think others are fallacious, dangerous, and unbiblical. I know that whatever the Bible teaches, that is what’s right and true. And I know the Bible teaches that I am often wrong. It is not Rodney King that asks if we can all get along. It is Jesus asking, in His high priestly prayer (John 17). He is the Truth, and He calls us to unity. That comes in reflecting His character. He, even when He corrects us, is for us. He, even when we are wrong, loves us perfectly. He is lowly in spirit and will not break a bruised reed.

We will not change until we choose our heroes not by how cogently or fiercely they defend our position on this issue or that, but by how much they reflect the grace of Christ whatever their position.

QuickWire: Major Libraries Join Controversial Project to Publish ‘Orphan’ Books Online

2011-08-24T22:43:31Z

Several libraries today pledged to follow the University of Michigan’s lead in making available on their campuses digital copies of books whose copyright holders cannot be found to ask for permission. The libraries jumping in today are the University of California Libraries, and libraries at Cornell, Duke, Emory, and the Johns Hopkins Universities. The Universities of Florida and Wisconsin recently did the same. The libraries are all part of the HathiTrust consortium that places digital copies of books into a shared online repository. At least one publishing official has called the orphan works plan illegal, but the libraries clearly feel they are operating within copyright law.

Could Steve Jobs’s Stepping Down as Apple’s CEO Affect Higher Education?

2011-08-25T19:32:23Z

Much is being written about whether Apple can retain its edge now that Steve Jobs, its visionary chief executive, has announced his departure from that post for health reasons. For colleges, the question is whether the company will remain as attentive to higher education, given that Mr. Jobs has long sought the advice of higher-education officials and encouraged colleges to use the company’s technology in new ways for teaching and research.

Campus officials say that Mr. Jobs has long shown a personal interest in higher education and played a personal role in the company’s education strategy. From the early days of the Macintosh, the company ran what it called the Apple University Consortium, an advisory panel of top college officials who got early looks at products and a chance to influence design. The group is now called the University Executive Forum, though the company applies its trademark secrecy about who is involved and what they do.

Martin Ringle, chief technology officer of Reed College, remembers being at a meeting about 10 years ago when Mr. Jobs gave officials a sneak peek at the iPod.

“People around the table said, Well, what does that have to do with higher education?” Mr. Ringle remembers. “He said, ‘Use your imagination. It probably has lots of things to do with education. That’s what you’re here for.’” Several universities experimented with iPods, which led Apple to create a free service for colleges called iTunesU, designed to store and stream audio and video files for university courses and make lecture recordings available to the public.

Other college officials say that Mr. Jobs’s strength has been challenging officials to, as the company’s motto once went, “Think Different.” “He gets people to think about—excitedly and in more visionary ways—what could be done with a product,” said Larry Levine, chief information officer for the University of Colorado at Boulder.

The last time Mr. Jobs left Apple, after being forced out in 1985, the company faltered—and paid less attention to colleges. He went on to start a company called NeXT, which focused much of its attention on building high-end computers for research.

One thing Mr. Jobs did upon his return to Apple in 1997 was to restore the company’s education advisory board. At about that time, I interviewed Mr. Jobs about whether he thought the company could make a comeback in education, where its market share had fallen drastically. He expressed frustration with what he saw as the negative tone of the questions.

“It doesn’t keep me up nights,” he said. “What keeps me up nights is, How do we make the best stuff? I think that Macs will be the coolest computers for kids in another year or two, and I think that’s very important. And I think that we’re going to definitely see stabilization and then improvement.”

Though many in higher education were skeptical at the time, he pulled it off. Many college officials say that they see at least as many Apple computers as PC’s on their campuses, and students are snatching up iPhones and iPads as well.

Mr. Ringle, of Reed, says that he expects Apple to continue its traditional ties to education under the company’s new CEO, Tim Cook. “I think Tim Cook has been very responsive to and interested in higher education,” Mr. Ringle said. “It’s good that Steve is gong to stay on as chairman of the board” of Apple, the official added. “I think he’s built a culture at Apple that is a culture of creativity and a culture that does value education very highly.”

Mr. Levine says that he expects no major changes in the short term, but the real test will come four or five years from now. “Beyond that is what I wonder about,” he added.

Image from Flicker user Danny Novo

Does Your Work Flow Still Match Your Life?

2011-08-22T12:00:30Z

A couple of weeks ago, Natalie wrote about ways to be more mindful about your daily routine, in part by stopping “to look at what’s currently working well for you.” That’s good advice! The difficulty comes, at least for me, in identifying the pain point when things start to go wrong. Sometimes, it’s a major, life-altering event. Probably more often, though, it’s a change that has crept into your life so gradually that you haven’t noticed until it suddenly can’t be avoided–sort of like a receding hairline, for example.

At some point in the spring, I started getting a lot less done most evenings than I normally would. I couldn’t figure out what was going on: Was I sick? (No.) Stressed? (Maybe.) Getting old? (Yes, but that’s not the problem *here*.) It has been an annoying puzzle.

A couple of weeks ago, though, I finally realized the source of my problem: My kid’s bedtime has shifted by about 45 minutes or so over the past year, from a little bit before 8 to somewhere around 8.45 or so.

Such a small change probably shouldn’t make a difference. But of course it’s not the fact of the bedtime, it’s the whole bedtime routine: I read to my kid for about half an hour before he ~~reads on his own, thinking we don’t know, after I’ve closed the door~~ goes to sleep. And it turns out that the small shift in time makes it just late enough that it’s hard to return to full alertness after the super-relaxing bedtime routine. And so while I would still stay up into the night, trying to get caught up on grading or writing or what have you, it was much harder to make any real progress.

Now, the fact that he’s now 8, and is perfectly happy to spend that extra hour of awake time coding HTML, or drawing/writing a comic book, or otherwise playing in some only-nominally-supervised way should mean that I have a little bit more time to get my work done earlier in the evening. My wife is good at this: she’ll try to copyedit n pages of an essay, for example, or type up notes–both of which are tasks that can be easily chunked. However, because he went to bed pretty early, and I stay up pretty late, my habit has always been to put off work until after he goes to bed, and–and this is the crucial bit–I didn’t really notice the change in his bedtime, which happened pretty naturally, and without any arguing or even explicit negotiation. So I was left with a work pattern that no longer matched the reality of the house. I was basically wasting time between dinner and his bedtime, and, at the same time, struggling to get work done after he went to bed.

What I’ve tried recently is to set up two new contexts in my to-do lists: “early evening” and “groggy” (a version of Natalie’s zombie list). The former are things I can get done while the kid’s awake-but-occupied. The latter are things I can do while waiting for the coffee to kick in, to help wake myself back up. We’ll see how it holds up during the semester.

Here at the start of the academic term, it might be helpful to take a quick scan of your life, to notice what minor changes might’ve taken place in your environment that disrupt your routines. These can take many forms, some of which may really be opportunities rather than challenges: Your partner switched from driving to taking the bus. Your kid got suspended from school busing. Your puppy has started to mellow a little bit and has become far more predictable in her playtime routines. There’s construction near your office this semester, and so it’s not as peaceful early in the morning for writing. Your department got a fridge, so you can bring a lunch more easily, instead of going out. The person you go to the gym with goes on sabbatical. None of these are probably earthshattering events in themselves–but they all impinge on your ability to structure your time.

Being mindful about background changes in the way your work patterns fit your life may well save you some time and aggravation this semester.

Do you have strategies for freshening up your work patterns? Let us know in comments!

Photo by me.

Christ My Relief

2011-08-19T09:30:32Z

When Christ is at any time absent from the soul, when it cannot see that it has any interest in him, many lovers offer themselves to it, many woo its affections, to get it to rest on this or that thing for relief and succour; but though it go mourning never so long, it will have nothing but Christ to lean upon. Whenever the soul is in the wilderness, in the saddest condition, there it will stay until Christ come for to take it up, until it can come forth leaning upon him.

- John Owen -

from Of Communion With God, volume 2 of Works, page 148

An Idea Whose Time Has Come

2011-08-18T21:55:35Z

The Borders of Sin

2011-08-18T09:30:01Z

Christ sometimes, by some strong impulse of actual grace, recovers the soul from the very borders of sin… To show his saints what they are, their own weakness and infirmity, he sometimes suffers them to go to the very edge and brow of the hill and then causes them to hear a word behind them saying, ”This is the right way, walk in it,”—and that with power and efficacy, and so recovers them to himself.