“If leading worship is just about bringing a group of people into a room so we can get goosebumps and sing songs together, there’s not much value in that. But if leading worship is a means to an end, that we leave this place as a different kind of people, as part of a new humanity that God wants to create – the people that are caring for the widows and orphans, that aren’t bound by the systems of this world but becoming free, becoming fully engaged in our world – then that matters.”

The quote there is from the “about us” page on Gungor’s website, http://www.gungormusic.com/pages/whoweare.html. Thanks to @AlieCat82 for sending the video below:

The whole Gungor album is on we7.com. This album is the closest thing to A Beautiful Collision by David Crowder Band I’ve heard, and that’s the highest compliment I can think of. Words and lines grab me and show me a different way of dealing with things; crunching guitar chords, wailing solos, toy piano, banjo, off-beat drumming. The whole thing is about shifting the listener, not a MOR background to the lyrics.

On realising that I felt a bit guilty for not posting more, I decided to plan what to blog. All kinds of ideas, essays, even videos that I could create and share with the literally tens of you who read this come to mind, but mainly at times when I cannot get them to fruition (sermons, seminars, driving) so now I have time and opportunity, I have a mind as blank as an, er, something.

So I’m turning to my social bookmarks which over the last few years I’ve tagged as “to blog about”. So, for your perusal, here are some things which I’ve come across.

Tim Harford (always a source of great posts and interesting links) summarises the difference between anecdote and evidence, and how they can often get confused  -  from 2009. http://timharford.com/2009/06/how-social-science-ends-up-as-urban-myth/

From the BBC in 2008, a slideshow of workspaces that make me feel a bit neat: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/7774965.stm.

And from this month, a video about bikes, cars, trucks and pedestrians at one New York intersection. With a great soundtrack

(from http://www.core77.com/blog/social_design/bikes_cars_and_pedestrians_at_28th_park_ave_a_never-ending_cycle_of_near_misses_19541.asp)

3-Way Street from ronconcocacola on Vimeo.

And finally, tune of the day:

Memories of playing for a couple of hours in the acoustic cafe at the wet weeked away.

This is posted over at A.King’s blog (which is worth a look through).

I would like to quote at least every other line of this film, but it has to be seen. Put it full screen.

DARK SIDE OF THE LENS from Astray Films on Vimeo.

It reminds me also of this (unfortunately I can’t embed it), and this. And it makes me want to run away to the coast.

Some days, you just need windows to stare through.

Nothing to do with my hometown of Milton Keynes (not named after the economist Milton Friedman either), but one of the most influential economists of the twentieth century. Since I’ve been banging on about his importance to students recently, I thought I’d do the same for you.

Some facts, some off the top of my head, about Keynes then:

• In case you don’t know, his surname’s pronounced canes (or even /ˈkeɪnz/ KAYN-z). He was more often known as Maynard to those who knew him, and John was a family name.
• He became a celebrity economist after publishing “The Economic Consequences of the Peace” after the Treaty of Versailles. This gained him exposure, newspaper columns, fame, infamy and no small amount of money.
• He helped set up the IMF and the World Bank, and the Arts Council of Great Britain.
  
• He helped Britain avoid bankruptcy during and after World War 2.
• He married a ballerina, who became an actress, and later looked after Keynes when his health grew very poor
• He was good friends with Virginia Woolf and her husband Leonard, Lytton Strachey (the writer), Duncan Grant (the painter) and other members of the Bloomsbury group.
• He was a leading supporter of eugenics, and has faced allegations of racism.

All in all, an economist worthy of note, even without considering his economic influence.

I’m recently moved offices, and now have a desk with a big map of the world in front of it (or behind it, so that when I sit at the desk, I see the map). The size and position of the map means that when I stare vacantly into the middle distance – a fairly common occurance, I have to say – I’m looking over the south Atlantic and the great Southern Ocean. And it is a fascinating place. How’s about this for an island getaway?

Tristan da Cunha, including Inaccessible Island

(image of Edinburgh of the Seven Seas  - the capital of Tristan da Cunha – by michael clarke stuff at wikipedia commons) 

Some facts from wikipedia now – there’s too many, so just bullet points:

The most remote, inhabited archipelago in the world (isn’t archipelago a good word?). Population is 264. There are just eight surnames, with the population mainly descended from 8 males and 7 females. One surname is because a resident married in England and settled back on the islands.

The capital is called Edinburgh of the Seven Seas, and it is regarded as the most remote permanent settlement in the world, being over 1,500 miles from Saint Helena, which is in itself remote indeed (and worthy of a Wikipedia Wednesday of its own)

The first permanent settler was an American called Jonathan Lambert, who declared the islands his, and lived there for two years until his death.

The UK annexed them in order to stop a French invasion to release Napoleon from the (relatively) nearby St Helena, with a garrison stationed there and a few passing ships.

The only currency in use up to World War 2 was the potato. I’d love to see the exchange rate. How did they buy things from passing ships?

“In 2005, the islands were given a United Kingdom post code (TDCU 1ZZ) to make it easier for the residents to order goods online.”

All land is communally owned. Livestock numbers are regulated to stop better-off families dominating. No outsiders can settle there.

A key source of income is selling postage stamps (to collectors presumably), and most people are both farmers and civil servants.

One doctor and five nurses to 264 people. Not bad. But if someone needs hospital, you have to hope there’s a fishing vessel nearby willing to take you to South Africa.

One TV channel.

Inaccessible Island is part of the archipelago, but not permanently settled. It sounds like a bad TV show. Or, just a challenge to any traveller really.

On the subject of islands, doesn’t this look wonderful:

Atlas of Remote Islands, by Judith Schalansky. (“Fifty Islands I have never set foot on and never will”)

I’m not much of a dancer, but this video makes me want to learn.

Inspired by Iceland Video from Inspired By Iceland on Vimeo.

via the always excellent Swissmiss

The music is “Jungle Drum” by Emiliana Torrini, who is of course, from Iceland. 

I’ve added it to my Spotify playlist, `music you have to move to’ which, I’ve made collaborative. So, please add songs or suggest some below.

I was very excited to find out that one of the most influential economists of British history has a link to Bath! David Ricardo first became interested in the subject after reading Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations in Bath. Also, Thomas Malthus‘ tomb is in Bath Abbey. A veritable hotbed of nineteenth centry thought.

On the other hand, given how popular Bath was amongst the well-to-do at the time, it’s not surprising that there’s some link to the city.

There’s at least two TV series currently available on iPlayer that are, in different ways, evidence that television can be astounding, informative and mind-changing. They are both about people, about society, about life.

The first is a series of lectures by Harvard’s Michael Sandel, who gave the BBC’s Reith Lectures a few years ago, which is when I first heard of him. However, he’s been giving lectures on justice and philosophy at Harvard for many years, where it is one of the most popular courses to take. It is not hard to see why. He raises a wide variety of questions – some controversial, some seemingly innocent – and uses them to bring in the main ideas of philosophers and thinkers who we’ve all heard of, but probably never tried to understand. But, unlike a lot of popular philosophy books who try and bring down the thinking of the great minds of history to our level, it really feels like Sandel is trying to bring us up to their level. He asks the audience to contribute, and whilst never demeaning the students’ contributions, he does challenge them and probe their answers.

The BBC series is available on iPlayer, part of BBC 4′s Justice Season, and is available until the 22nd March, or there’s a 12-part series over at Harvard’s dedicated page.

The second series is “Human Planet“, which is one of the massive documentary series that is usally presented by David Attenborough. Big sweeping pictures of the globe spinning into view make up the title art, large, lush landscapes, dramatic music – all the usual ingredients of the BBC Natural History department. Except this is anthropology. It’s about people. About people who somehow live in dramatic, dangerous places; people who find food, fuel and shelter in the wildernesses. Every episode has a number of astounding moments, whether it’s the diver who can slow his metabolism so much that he can stay underwater for over five minutes, and walk on the sea bed without weights. Or the mountain dwellers who survive by walking into sulphurous vents to harvest blocks of sulphur from cracks in a volcano. They go in and breathe sulphuric acid just to make a living. I think I’m astounded by the poverty but also the ingenuity; the hard work over generations in some cases that has allowed people to carve, not just a living, but a culture, where nature only grudgingly gives a toe-hold of survival. I’m astounded too by the camera work, the researchers who found the stories and the people; by the variety and size of this planet too. And it seems that there is a great deal of respect paid to the subjects of the series by the programme makers. Of course, each excerpt is presented as a little story, it is rather narrative driven. Dare I say it, this is one programme that justifies high definition, if not a whole cinema.

Either one of these programmes is worth the time to watch. The Justice series could easily be treated as a radio programme, a half hour of morals, ethics and dilemmas while you cook dinner. Then a luxurious hour after dinner, with the Human Planet. There. That’s the weekend dinner plan sorted.

Except on Saturdays, the only thing to cook dinner to is Craig Charles’ Funk and Soul Show on 6music. The Only Thing.

The height of pretty much everything is measured from sea level. That’s what we’re told. But, anyone who has seen the sea knows that it’s a very up-and-down sort of thing. Tides, waves and so on. So I checked, and according to Wikipedia, the geogeeks work out mean sea level.

But even that’s not completely usable. Take, for instance, this paragraph:

Traditionally, one had to process sea-level measurements to take into account the effect of the 228-month Metonic cycle and the 223-month eclipse cycle on the tides. Mean sea level does not remain constant over the surface of the entire earth. For instance, mean sea level at the Pacific end of the Panama Canal stands 20 cm (8 in) higher than at the Atlantic end.

Truly, some sentences that sing aloud to all readers, everywhere.