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Easter specs

22/04/12 | Posted by Ian Black | Permalink | (0) Comments

Like many I am finding the reports of the trial of Anders Breivik disturbing. Last July he killed 77 people in attacks in Norway, not least 70 young people on an island camp. The details are distressing to read. The case at the moment is trying to determine his sanity, but my assumption is that sane people don't behave like that. I got a glimpse of that the other day seeing the way a group of young people responded to a tragic death with compassion and sensitivity, honouring the one who had died with dignity and devotion. This seems to be how normal people behave. The trouble of course with 'normal' is that how we see it depends on what we take for granted and that has to be fed. More ...

Keep Calm

31/03/12 | Posted by Ian Black | Permalink | (0) Comments

One of the images that has captured imaginations at the moment is a World War II poster carrying the simple message 'keep calm and carry on'. The poster was never issued and was only discovered 60 years later by a bookseller in Northumberland in a pile of dusty secondhand books. The poster produced so much interest that when it was reprinted it became an instant hit. It's ironic then that with this slogan everywhere we are in the grip of panic over pasties and petrol. I have a mug which carries a parody of the slogan: 'now panic and freak out', which is looking more accurate. More ...

Council Prayers

14/02/12 | Posted by Ian Black | Permalink | (0) Comments

The vexed question of whether to begin council meetings with prayer was taken to the High Court last week. The case was brought by an ex member of Bideford Council in Devon because he felt that faith and politics do not mix. Praying has no part in a council's business and so the practice he had twice asked to be ended and twice been out voted on was taken to the High Court, backed by the National Secular Society. More ...

Moral news

13/01/12 | Posted by Ian Black | Permalink | (1) Comments

The Leveson inquiry into how the press behave (following various scandals) has produced some amazing moments. None more so than the owner of the Daily Express saying that he didn't know what the word ethical means. He said everyone's ethics are different and deciding can be a fine line. With so many competing voices it can be confusing, so here's a bit of a quick guide to ethical behaviour. More ...

New Year checklist

31/12/11 | Posted by Ian Black | Permalink | (1) Comments

Three-quarters of us will make New Year resolutions. According to an occupational psychologist, Kim Stephenson quoted in the Independent, how we fair depends on three things: they have to matter to us; we need a plan to complete them and there needs to be something positive in it for us to do it - a motivator. How we decide what to include and what to leave out is determined by the values that we aim to live by. The bible gives good pointers and so here's a new year's checklist to pull together a few threads. More ...

An Apple a day

07/10/11 | Posted by Ian Black | Permalink | (0) Comments

News of Apple's founder Steve Job’s untimely death brings sadness on several levels. It is humanly sad that someone should succumb to cancer at the age of 56. That is too young. His death has also taken away an incredible creative genius, one which has revolutionized the lives of us gadget fans. Phones with touch sensitive screens, more computing power in the palm of my hand than I could have imagined just a few years ago, stylish and compact equipment that gives added pleasure to the task of writing this blog, the computer generated images behind films like Toy Story. His influence on our culture has been enormous. More ...

Confession Is Good for the Soul (I’m Told)

06/09/11 | Posted by HughB | Permalink | (0) Comments

I’ve been on a bit of a journey of discovery over these last couple of months. Do you remember my time with my friends and the stone gorilla? More ...

Good Fish, Bad Fish

20/07/11 | Posted by Sarah-L-B | Permalink | (11) Comments

New York, 2006 - my friends and I were having the time of our lives walking the streets of "The Big Apple". While attempting to locate a particular comic book store we turned a busy corner, at which point I felt a small leaflet being pressed into my hand. No prizes for guessing the message. More ...

The News of the Ancient World

14/07/11 | Posted by MattPage | Permalink | (5) Comments

Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: “The journalists, headline writers and editors are often right in what they say. So you must be careful to live as if it will be your life under the microscope on tomorrow's front page. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them. More ...

Between a Rock and a Hard Place

12/07/11 | Posted by HughB | Permalink | (2) Comments

Have you ever found yourself asking, “Why don’t people get it? Isn’t it obvious? Why are they so dense?” More ...

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