The Last Issue of Infinite Matrix is up

It looks like Infinite Matrix e-zine is going the way of the Rover and Studaker, though perhaps with a bit more style. They've just posted what they say is the very last issue. Not everything is there yet. Yet due is an essay by William Gibson, and a few other features. The last of David Langford's weekly blogs is also there (he still has a monthly e-zine at his Ansible website).

Apparently, it takes a lot of steam to keep an e-zine going, especially if you're using one that's uncluttered with pop-up adverts. A good free e-zine is necessarily shortlived.

Anyway, you sci-fi buffs, have a happy read...

Lessons in Yiddish, Lil' Abner, et all

Have you ever wondered what's the difference between a shlemeel, a slemozzel, a shnook, and a host of other epithets?

Al Capp, the late creater of Lil' Abner, provides us with a humourous illustration depicting all of these and more.

FYI -- Al Capp wasn't a hill-billy himself, but a Jewish New Englander. You'll find the Yiddish lesson at the lower half of the webpage containing his bio on the official Lil' Abner website.

If you like Lil' Abner, you can go to that site daily for a new cartoon. I think they're putting out ones that were in circulation 40 or so years ago.

Scott McKnight on the Gospel -- update

Further to my last post, Scott McKnight's blog entries on What is the Gospel, have been combined into an article in Next Wave e-zine.

Scott McKnight on the Gospel

Scott McKnight has an excellent series of blogs on exactly what is the Gospel. The link above is to a page that includes the whole series, including a few more that fit into the cattigory. Start reading from the bottom of the page (in normal blog fashion).

An Age Old Question

The question of whether it is right for a Christian to go to war has been with us for a very, very long time. Believers as early as the second century were against taking part in the army.

I have heard some very good arguments for Christians being good citizens and defending their country. I realise that there's a difference between killing and murder. I do sympathise with people who are made to go through a horrendous legal battle because they've killed someone in defence of their own life, or that of their family.

So where do I stand? I would not want to own a gun, even to use for self defence. I think I'd prefer to be killed than to kill (I said "I think" -- if I were really faced with that choice, it's hard to say how I'd see things). Because the Bible, particlulary in the Noahide Law, specifies that a murderer should be put to death, I do agree with the ethics of capital punishment. However, I would have problems with shooting someone to kill just because they're on the wrong side in a military conflict. On the other hand, I also don't know how the world Jewish population could have been saved had someone not gone to war against Hitler.

Having said all that, Scott McKnight has a compelling argument for Pasivism.

Hand Cranked Laptops for 3rd World School Children

If you're interested in leveling the playing field and empowering the average person, even in the third world, check out this interesting Article from Wired Magazine:

The MIT Media Lab and Wired magazine founder stood shoulder to shoulder with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to unveil the first working prototype of the "$100 laptop" -- currently more like $110 -- at the U.N. World Summit on the Information Society here Wednesday. The Linux-based machine instantly became the hit of the show, and Thursday saw diplomats and dignitaries, reporters and TV cameras perpetually crowded around the booth of One Laptop Per Child -- Negroponte's nonprofit -- craning for a glimpse of the toy-like tote...

How Christian is America?

Len, at NextReformation points to an excellent article on the state of the Church in America, By Bill McKibben in Harper's Magazine. It's entitled, The Christian Paradox.

Depending on which poll you look at and how the question is asked, somewhere around 85 percent of us call ourselves Christian. Israel, by way of comparison, is 77 percent Jewish.

However, he also points out that America's favourite scripture verse is, "God helps those who help themselves" ... which isn't from scripture. It's from Benjamin Franklin, who's ideas weren't all that Biblical.

The following quote probably sums it up:

America is simultaneously the most professedly Christian of the developed nations and the least Christian in its behavior.

Anyway, have a read...