for web junkies . . .

Knowing When to Log Off

Reader's mind-map

I just found this link on the joystory site (an Aug'05 entry). Seems like a good "quick reference card" for book discussion groups (of which I'm in 2).

Lesson of a Lifetime

from SciTech Daily:

Teacher Jane Elliott's unorthodox exercise to instruct her third-graders in the consequences of racism still divides people nearly 40 years later [the story]

world religions in America

I'm taking a class on world religions in America, and one of the texts is entitled just that [the book]. So far I have read the intro and some of the Native American chapter. In the intro the editor has written, he makes a point to remark at how diverse America is, and that more religions are represented in the US than in any other country in the world. Americans in general are more welcoming/tolerant of diversity than any other nationality. It is a good reminder.

for those going through the personality quiz phase of the moon . . .

http://www.blogthings.com/

oughtta be a law . . .

from AlterNet:

A new U.N. declaration grants the world community the right to intervene and prevent governments from committing massive crimes against their own citizens. [the story]


Just makes me sad that such a thing is necessary . . .

The Brothers Karamazov

Well, I finished it (old blog entry 1, old blog entry 2). I really enjoyed it, but it had a lame ending. It ended up having the following features:

• several opposing dissertations on the meaning of life; quite interesting
• a murder mystery; intriguing but frustrating - I'm still not sure whodunnit
• information from a Russian Orthodox perspective, and those "evil" Catholics

Altogether it was a fine read. There are various things that I want to look into as a result of reading this (and other things I've read):

• the impact of world leaders on the spread of large factions of Christianity (i.e., Constantine, Henry VIII)
• more Russian literature; I've read some Tolstoy, but would like to read more authors
• more indepth thought regarding The Brothers Karamazov (classic literature) and The Brothers K (I suspect this book won't stay around for 150 years, as Dostoyevsky's book did, but it took it's title from the other). Now that I've read both, the way The Brothers K is influenced by The Brothers Karamazov is very interesting to me.

book-club overload

Hope I haven't done it again. Last year, in late winter, I had to stop all extra activities because I'd gotten too stressed. Well, I've just signed up for not one, but three book-review groups. They're all related to the same sorts of books (Theology/Spirituality), so maybe that will help. Also, two of them are within walking distance from my home (of course most of the volunteer activities I'd been in were within walking distance from my home, too . . .). Fortunately I can just stop going if I can't handle it all. No one is counting on me for anything.

helping hurricane victims

from Alternet. The political messages will bother some people, but the suggestions to help are good food for thought.

10 GREAT WAYS YOU CAN HELP
Don Hazen, AlterNet
Americans: Let's not let our clumsy, uncaring government undermine our capacity to help those in need. Here are 10 outstanding endeavors that deserve your support.
http://www.alternet.org/story/25177/

anglicans

From Powells.com Review-a-Day:

The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England, 1400-1580, Second Edition by Eamon Duffy
Another World, A review by Benjamin Schwarz
The winners define the past. For 400 years the British popular and scholarly minds, possessed by Protestant and Whiggish triumphalism, believed that superstition, a disengaged laity, a corrupt priesthood, and pagan accretions had enervated the late-medieval English Church-- and thus ripened it for reformation, a process embraced by the people. . . . [the review]