Praying for jobs — from insidehighered.com by Scott Jaschik
Since 2008, academic job openings in religion have dropped sharply — and the positions that do exist are more likely than in the past to be non-tenure-track.
On 08/24/2012,
in art, drama/theater, faith, geography / geology, hearts -- matters of the heart, history, K-12 related, languages and translation, pedagogy, real-world assignments, relationships, religion, science, teaching & learning, technology (general),
by Daniel Christian
Excerpt:
The site presents teaching examples—for both elementary and secondary classrooms—from a range of subjects: art, cooking, dance, technology, drama, English, environment, geography, history, technology, math, foreign/second language, music, physical education, health, Bible class and science. (There are also categories titled “teacher,” “tests” and “topics.”)
Each example leads off with a question: “What if a grammar lesson challenged selfishness?” “What if success in math depended upon forgiveness?” “What if history could inspire students to love their city?” The site also provides tabs labeled “The Approach,” “Training,” “Big Picture,” and “Information,” where teachers can learn how to apply what they’ve learned in their classrooms.
“The website helps teachers ask key questions and make strategic decisions, not only about what to teach but about how to teach,” said Matt Walhout, Calvin’s dean for research and scholarship. “It relates specific topics like language, history, and math to the overarching Christian principles of faith, hope, and love.”
Also see:
On 03/20/2012,
in 21st century, career development, faith, future, hearts -- matters of the heart, relationships, religion, robotics, workplace,
by Daniel Christian
Also see:
- Who’s responsible when robots kill? ‘We Robot’ Conference hunts answers — from Mashable.com by Peter Pachal
. - Goldman to fire employees who can be replaced by technology, miss performance targets — from HuffingtonPost.com by Lauren Tara LaCapra
. - The robots are coming! Better get used to it — from CNET.com by Stephen Shankland
Robots are widely used now, and they’re only spread even farther into daily life. The sci-fi future may be closer than you think.
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Opinion from DSC:
Technologies — by themselves — are neither good nor bad. It’s what we do with them that makes them good or bad. The concerns I have are when people try to play God. His ways are higher than our ways, and his thoughts are higher than our thoughts. So when the We Robot Conference puts up a banner that would normally look like the hand of God touching a human hand — but in their case, they put a robot’s hand reaching out to touch a man’s hand — something just doesn’t set well with me re: that image.
Don’t get me wrong. I think robotics can be very helpful — especially in manufacturing, fire safety, other. But in some of the robotics space/spheres of work, when we think we can “do better” than the LORD — to make a better mind than what He gave us — I get a bit nervous.
On 03/16/2012,
in business, corporate / business world, ethics, hearts -- matters of the heart, morals/values, relationships, religion,
by Daniel Christian
From DSC:
I couldn’t help but reflect again on the state of our hearts here in the United States when I read Greg Smith’s Op-Ed in the New York Times entitled, “Why I Am Leaving Goldman Sachs”. It’s a depressing accounting of the rampant greed on Wall Street, with a disregard for deeper qualities and a true attention to meeting a customer’s/client’s needs and goals. It speaks to employees not giving a damn about clients, but only looking to make as much money as possible. (It’s fine to make a living, but how about sincerely trying to make a contribution to society at the same time?)
Some excerpts from Smith’s article:
And I can honestly say that the environment now is as toxic and destructive as I have ever seen it.
To put the problem in the simplest terms, the interests of the client continue to be sidelined in the way the firm operates and thinks about making money. Goldman Sachs is one of the world’s largest and most important investment banks and it is too integral to global finance to continue to act this way. The firm has veered so far from the place I joined right out of college that I can no longer in good conscience say that I identify with what it stands for.
…
What are three quick ways to become a leader? a) Execute on the firm’s “axes,” which is Goldman-speak for persuading your clients to invest in the stocks or other products that we are trying to get rid of because they are not seen as having a lot of potential profit. b) “Hunt Elephants.” In English: get your clients — some of whom are sophisticated, and some of whom aren’t — to trade whatever will bring the biggest profit to Goldman. Call me old-fashioned, but I don’t like selling my clients a product that is wrong for them. c) Find yourself sitting in a seat where your job is to trade any illiquid, opaque product with a three-letter acronym.
…
I attend derivatives sales meetings where not one single minute is spent asking questions about how we can help clients. It’s purely about how we can make the most possible money off of them. If you were an alien from Mars and sat in on one of these meetings, you would believe that a client’s success or progress was not part of the thought process at all.
From DSC:
I don’t know this man and I’m sure Goldman Sachs will try to discredit him; and yes, he was part of that culture and made a serious living off of it for years.
However, my focus is not on Greg Smith but upon the type of culture he spoke of; such a culture is not only bad for relationships — and ultimately for souls — but regardless of what you believe in terms of faith-based items, it’s simply bad business and it doesn’t benefit our society. In fact, it destroys it and it’s a significant contributing factor to the anger that continues to mount in the Occupy Wall Street phenomenon that is sweeping the nation.
Some relevant graphics come to my mind:
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Addendum on 3/21/12:
- This CEO should be ashamed of himself — from fool.com by Sean Williams
Excerpt:
CEO gets 44% pay raise while “Pfizer is in the midst of a multiyear cost-cutting campaign instituted in 2005 that includes eliminating a grand total of 55,400 jobs. That’s not a misprint — that’s 55,400 jobs gone, eliminated, axed! Pfizer announced the final phase of those jobs cuts recently, which will target 16,300 jobs and save the company a purported $1 billion in 2012. I have to wonder, how out of touch with reality do you have to be to give yourself a 44% raise as you are in the process of eliminating 16,300 jobs?”
On 10/18/2011,
in faith, graphics, hearts -- matters of the heart, history, relationships, religion, visualizing information,
by Daniel Christian
Infographic of the day: What are the darkest parts of the Bible? — from fastcodesign.com by Suzanne LaBarre; also Openbible.info
Openbible.info charts the Bible according to positive and negative sentiment–with some surprising results.
Excerpt:
What you end up with is a snapshot of the relative cheeriness–or gloom–of different sections in the Bible. As the designer tells it:
Things start off well with creation, turn negative with Job and the patriarchs, improve again with Moses, dip with the period of the judges, recover with David, and have a mixed record (especially negative when Samaria is around) during the monarchy. The exilic period isn’t as negative as you might expect, nor the return period as positive. In the New Testament, things start off fine with Jesus, then quickly turn negative as opposition to his message grows. The story of the early church, especially in the epistles, is largely positive.
In short, it gives you a bird’s-eye view of the tone of each book, something that’s easy to miss in a line-by-line reading. You could also use it as a guide of sorts to the darkest, juiciest parts of the Bible.
On 09/27/2011,
in faith, global / globalization, history, relationships, religion,
by Daniel Christian
Some items concerning the fact that the Dead Sea Scrolls are now online:
- The Dead Sea Scrolls Online — video
- From parchment to personal computers, Dead Sea Scrolls go online — from theglobeandmail.com
- Famous Dead Sea Scrolls are now Online — from edukwest.com
- Dead Sea Scrolls come to life on the Web — from cnet.com
On 09/07/2011,
in 21st century, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, digital video, e-books, e-publishing related items (EPUB and more), e-readers, education technology, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, faith, interactivity, relationships, religion,
by Daniel Christian
On 07/18/2011,
in 21st century, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Daniel S. Christian, faith, global / globalization, hearts -- matters of the heart, relationships, religion, robotics, society,
by Daniel Christian
From DSC:
Items re: The Singularity:
- The Singularity just got a lot closer — from Benzinga.com
New tool by ai-one inc. allows programmers to build artificial intelligence into almost any software application.
“…ai-one’s “biologically inspired intelligence” is a virtual brain that learns without human intervention.” - Kurzweil Accelerating Intelligence — www.kurzweilai.net/
… accelerating change articulated in Ray Kurzweil’s landmark books — notably The Age of Spiritual Machines and The Singularity is Near — and updates these … - http://www.singularity.com/
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity
- Michael Vassar and Michael Anissimov Talk About the Singularity on Supreme Master TV (12/27/10)
- Excerpt from The Illusion of Control in a Intelligence Amplification Singularity (7/1/11)
From what I understand, we’re currently at a point in history where the importance of getting the Singularity right pretty much outweighs all other concerns, particularly because a negative Singularity is one of the existential threats which could wipe out all of humanity rather than “just” billions. The Singularity is the most extreme power discontinuity in history. A probable “winner takes all” effect means that after a hard takeoff (quick bootstrapping to superintelligence), humanity could be at the mercy of an unpleasant dictator or human-indifferent optimization process for eternity. - IBM’s Watson | IBM’s Deep QA Project| Human vs. Machine
From DSC:
I don’t mean to suggest here that just because someone is pursuing the development of AI, robotics, etc. that their heart isn’t right — that’s just not accurate and such a perspective would be painting a broad and bogus swath across mankind.
But from some of the robotic and AI-related sites and blogs that I’ve seen (and not necessarily those listed above), I’m becoming a bit more skeptical of peoples’ motivations in this space, as many of these folks seem to be saying they can create better than God can. Alternatively, some don’t believe in a Creator at all, and thus want to make themselves the ultimate creator. When inventors, entrepreneurs, corporate leaders, military leaders, and other relevant parties have “hearts of flesh” that are compassionate, caring, and giving…these technologies can be very useful and beneficial. But I’m more concerned if these types of technologies are warped into a pathway for power, personal gain, military applications, etc.
Also see:
- Last Look: War of the machines? — from cnn.com
- The DIY Terminator: Private Robot Armies And The Algorithm-Run Future Of War — from FastCompany.com by Greg Lindsay
In the latest installment of the Butterfly Effect: Predator drones are just the start of unmanned, autonomous warfare technology. But as the tech becomes more democratized and more deadly, what happens when anyone can assemble an army of killing machines?
Tour of the Bible, part 5: the Minor Prophets — from Bible Gateway.com
Excerpt:
Last month we revived our Tour of the Bible series to examine the Major Prophets. Today, we’ll take a look at the so-called Minor Prophets—and we’ll conclude our tour of the Old Testament while we’re at it. In case you missed them, here are the previous installments of our Tour of the Bible:
Holy Week Timeline Visualization — from BibleGateway.com
A Reflection of Christ –– from Insight for Today by Charles R. Swindoll
Excerpt regarding the commentary on Genesis 43:33-34
Joseph’s life offers us a magnificent portrayal of the grace of God as He came to our rescue in the Person of His Son, Jesus. So many come to Him, like Joseph’s guilty brothers, feeling the distance and fearing the worst from God, only to have Him demonstrate incredible generosity and mercy. Instead of being blamed, we are forgiven. Instead of feeling guilty, we are freed. And instead of experiencing punishment, which we certainly deserve, we are seated at His table and served more than we can ever take in.
For some, it’s too unreal. So we desperately plead our case, only to have Him speak kindly to us—promising us peace in our own language. We then try to fend off His anger by bargaining with Him, thinking our hard work and sincere efforts will pay Him back for all those evil past deeds we’re guilty of. But to our astonishment, He never even considered our attempts important enough to mention. What we had in mind was earning just enough to silence our guilt, but what He had in mind was overwhelming us with such an abundance we’d realize we can never, ever repay.
What a beautiful picture of Christ at the cross, bearing the sins we committed, forgiving us in the process. Isn’t such grace amazing? The One who was rejected is the same One who goes the limit to get us reunited with Him.
From DSC:
I “happened to see” this book at Barnes & Nobles the other day, and I started to read it. Immediately, it got my attention and I ended up buying it. It has brought tears to my eyes on several occasions and for different reasons. I highly recommend that you check this book out. Nothing in it surprised me — but rather, it confirmed/affirmed many of my beliefs.
Description from http://heavenisforreal.com/:
Heaven Is for Real is the true story of the four-year old son of a small town Nebraska pastor who during emergency surgery slips from consciousness and enters heaven. He survives and begins talking about being able to look down and see the doctor operating and his dad praying in the waiting room. The family didn’t know what to believe but soon the evidence was clear.
Colton said he met his miscarried sister, whom no one had told him about, and his great grandfather who died 30 years before Colton was born, then shared impossible-to-know details about each. He describes the horse that only Jesus could ride, about how “reaaally big” God and his chair are, and how the Holy Spirit “shoots down power” from heaven to help us.
Told by the father, but often in Colton’s own words, the disarmingly simple message is heaven is a real place, Jesus really loves children, and be ready, there is a coming last battle.