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GeekDads@Home Podcast

I’m doing a weekly podcast with Joe Magennis, Daniel M Clark and Scott Jangro titled GeekDads@Home. It’s really becoming a great show as we combine our shared experiences of working from home with kids with our love of all things geeky.

This week’s show (episode 7) was one of my favs:

Geek Dads @ Home #7: Steal This Podcast | Geek Dads @Home: “The Geek Dads gather ’round the computers and don the headphones and mikes once again to talk about things both geeky and dad… y. Dad-ish? Okay, that last part didn’t come out right, but you know what I mean.”

Here’s the mp3 or head over to the site for the stream.

Even if you’re not a dad or a geek, it’s an entertaining listen. Give it a shot. You can also subscribe in iTunes if you are of that persuasion (and please leave us a comment on iTunes!).

Google and Amazon Compete Over Shuffle Readers

As I’ve said many times, I love my Kindle. The device is a complete “game changer” for me in terms of how I think, and consume, the written (?) word.

What I’ve been discovering is that I read more efficiently when I “shuffle read” in a similar fashion to how I listen to music now. Rarely do I listen to just one album all the way through, and even more rarely do I listen to an album on a physical CD. Instead, everything I listen to is set up via playlists on iTunes and then transferred over to my iPod Touch.

In a similar fashion, what I’m discovering with the Kindle is that I get more reading done (and enjoy it more) when I’m given the freedom to read 50 pages from one book then quickly flip over to another for a few minutes and read there, then bounce back to the original book.

That’s not to say I don’t enjoy getting wrapped up in a good story or even an in-depth academic book such as something from Brueggemann. However, when it comes to reading for pleasure, shuffle reading is the way to go for me.

it looks like Google and Amazon recognize this growing trend and are racing to grab market share and attention by offering more access to more books on more platforms:

Google and Amazon to Put More Books on Cellphones – NYTimes.com: “In a move that could bolster the growing popularity of e-books, Google said Thursday that the 1.5 million public domain books it had scanned and made available free on PCs were now accessible on mobile devices like the iPhone and the T-Mobile G1.

Also Thursday, Amazon said that it was working on making the titles for its popular e-book reader, the Kindle, available on a variety of mobile phones. The company, which is expected to unveil a new version of the Kindle next week, did not say when Kindle titles would be available on mobile phones.”

I’ve tried the Google eBook site on my Touch over the last few hours. Admittedly, it’s not as polished or enjoyable as the Kindle. However, it’s a start and it’s pointing to the future.

Will physical books ever go away? Of course not. However, as more people learn the benefits of the Kindle and eBooks (even in the academic sphere), there will be exponential growth in this market, especially when it comes to reading for pleasure.

Donatio Bushi

Should be interesting to watch how the Obama administration handles the delicate ego’s of the many evangelical faith-based organizations that the previous administration relied on for to solidify their base during election years (oh, and for the social work stuff as well):

Obama says faith shouldn’t be used to divide | CITIZEN-TIMES.com | Asheville Citizen-Times: “Obama is also telling the gathering that the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships that he is announcing Thursday won’t favor any religious group, or favor religious groups over secular groups.

He says it will help organizations that want to ‘work on behalf of our communities,’ without ‘blurring the line'”

It’s good to hear a President speaking ecumenical language and not imparting governmental favor or sanctioning upon one denomination, faith or creed but recognizing the place of government to be a neutral party that allows itself to hear, rather than speak, the prophetic languages of faith communities.

After all, (to channel one of my old prof’s from Wofford College), it has been all downhill after Constantine.

Of Pig Bones and Pillars: Why Josiah Matters

As much as I’m drawn to Dura Europos, the interesting convergence of narrative interpretation, post-colonial criticism and historical authenticities surrounding the study of 7th and 6th century Judah as played out in the Deuteronomistic “History” of Joshua thru II Kings (and Jeremiah and parts of Hosea, Genesis, etc) is too fascinating to avoid.

I really do uphold the position that Hezekiah and Josiah (especially Josiah) are the main characters of the OT (from a narrative point of view) and all the actions, theologies, histories, and imaginings of creation can (I would say should, but that’s my own reading) be read through a Josianic lens.

Questions of historicity, royal theologies, centralization of politics and the worship of YHWH, cultural hegemony… it’s all in the Deuteronomistic History.

Fun, and incredibly important, stuff to ponder for us as we move out of a world dominated by the ideas of nationalism into something very different where cultural theologies will be as, if not more, important than historic realities.

It would appear that following the destruction of Philistine Gath, and the apparent existence of a political “vacuum” in part of the region of the late kingdom of Gath, the kingdom of Judah, perhaps under Hezekiah, takes over parts of the lands of the former kingdom of Gath, including the city of Gath itself.

What is interesting though, is the fact that despite the clear change in ceramics, when we analyzed the animal bones from the 8th cent. BCE level, there still was a lot of pig bones – very untypical of the Judean sites. This may very well indicate that while the political control, and cultural affiliation of the site moved towards Judah, at least some of the original “Philistine” population remained on site and sustained their traditional dietary habits.

link: A Judean “pillar figurine” from Gath « The Tell es-Safi/Gath Excavations Official (and Unofficial) Weblog