Dave's back!

It looks like Dave Walker sensed my pain! Follow the link for his latest post.

Scary morris dancers

I heard about this on the today programme this morning. i think I saw some of this type of Morris dancer in Lancaster once - a scary experience!

Dave and the Brewers

The title of this post sounds like it could refer to a cheeky band from the 50s or 60s. in actual fact, it's a reference to Dave Walker and the SCK saga. It's apparently 4 months since the whole kerfuffle (I do like that word) concerning Dave and the Brewers kicked off. See below for further details.

The single most destructive thing that seems to have happened (though I accept there may be no causal link) is that Dave's Cartoon Church blog has been sadly quiet recently. Dave's blog has always been one of my favourites, and though he's doing great work with the Church Times, I can't help thinking that the 'kerfuffle' may have something to do with it all. Mostly, this is a selfish moan. I just miss Dave's cartoons and comments.

Here's some text from the Facebook group "We support Dave Walker" from David Keen:

It's 4 months ago - 22 July - that Dave Walker received his legal threat from Mark Brewer and was forced to take down his SPCK posts. If you have a blog, you might want to mention that today.
As you may know, Mark Brewer has been fined by the US courts for bringing a time-wasting court action for bankruptcy, and we now hear that his company is being investigated by the Charity Commissioners. These are all matters Dave would have reported if he had not been bullied and threatened.
If you'd like to do something supportive, you can sign a petition to Durham Cathedral to ask them to intervene over the SSG bookshop they host: http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http://spckssg.wordpress.com%2Fpetition%2F
Latest developments are online at http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http://spckssg.wordpress.com%2F%2C very interesting leaked email gone up in the last few days.
And finally, still no reply from Mark Brewer to the letter I sent (twice) on our behalf. Very disappointing. He expects Dave to respond within a few hours, and yet doesn't even bother to answer us within a month. Disgraceful.
thankyou for your ongoing support of Dave. Truth and justice will win, it's just taking longer than we'd hoped!
David Keen

Nice surprise

It's been a busy week at work, and today has been particularly manic, as I've been preparing for another week of leave. This time, it's not so much a holiday. We're off down-south on Sunday, Mrs Lanky to her family, and me to Ely for a Bishops' Advisory Panel.

I arrived home yesterday evening to find a nice surprise in the mail. The Diocesan Bishop has written to wish me all the best for the BAP, which was nice.

I thought about blogging a bit about how I think the BAP works, but I then had the idea of leaving that until later. I don't know if I'll have time to blog during the three days of the panel, and I'm not sure whether it would help or hinder me. We'll see. Anyhow, at some stage, I'll say a bit on the blog about what it was like. you never know, it may be useful to other in the same kind of situation.

Sprouts

I thought i should announce that tonight we had the first sprouts of the season. I love sprouts!

Happy World Philosophy Day

Even if you didn't know it was world philosophy day, I hope it's been good for you. As a philosophy graduate, I believe that everyone should do a bit of philosophy as part of their basic education. Sometimes it makes your head hurt, but mostly it's fun! It definitely helps you to write better essays! Take a look at the link above for a few classic philosophical problems to get your brain working.

Here's my mate Descartes looking a bit shifty!

Classic photographs on the web

The internet uber-brand Google seem to have done it again! If you appreciate classic photography, you need to take a look here. I've only had a quick look, but a load of great pictures are on there.

Back to work Monday

Following a refreshing holiday in the Mediterranean, it's back to work Monday! Always a joy.
My attention will need to turn very quickly to writing a 5 minute presentation and planning a discussion for my BAP which is next week!!! How did that happen? Time seems to be running quickly in Lankyland!
Sounds like a Tuesday night job to me.

How not to evangelise

Thanks to Dave Keen (and seemingly various others) for this post about how not to evangelise. I've been reading lots of things about mission lately as I approach my BAP in just over a week, and a lot of the observations in the original post echo the sentiments of what I've been reading. How can we expect anyone to take us seriously if we don't do the same for them?

Christmas is coming...

Here's a link to a review update on the Sony Reader that I have posted about in the past. My wife has one of these gadgets, and the news from Lankyland is that she would agree with Bishop Alan. She absolutely loves it!
When we bought it, Waterstones were bundling 100 free classics with the unit. Mrs Lanky has decided that she will not but any more ebooks until she has read all the free books. I think the logic is that by this point, she will have extracted great value for money from the £200 investment.
I have to say, I couldn't do it. I struggle to get past the first few pages of many books, so the idea of reading books that I really don't like does not appeal to me. I'm sure she'll manage it though.

One for the West Wing fans

I meant to post on this the other day. New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd persuades Aaron Sorkin to conjure up a script for a meeting between Obama and Bartlett.

Gods-on favourite

I enjoyed this story from Ruth Gledhill. The assertion that there probably isn't a God left an obvious area for a little fun. Well done Paddy Power.

the no-plastic challenge ends

Congratulations to Rose and Ele on completing their challenge to try to live without buying any new plastic for 3 months. Their efforts have certainly made me think a bit more about the choices I make on a day-to-day basis, and whilst I don't think I'll fully follow their example,  I like to think that my habits are a bit better than they were before.

Thanks to Rose and Ele for making us all think.

Lake District weather

We spent most of yesterday within miles of the Original Mountain Marathon and I've been interested to review the news coverage. As we travelled back through fairly nasty weather last night, we listened out for news reports on the radio in case our chosen route was affected by road closures. At that point, I recall thinking that the news footage was lacking in the usual hyperbole and judgementalism. I expect we'd be told how irresponsible the organisers and competitors had been, but instead there was a balanced tone of concern about the affected people.

In the end though, the media rose to the challenge with a mild example from the BBC here. I'm sure there will be more extreme examples in the kinds of papers I prefer not to read.

My opinion is that the competitors were experienced and well equipped outdoor enthusiasts. As we heard on a live interview on the BBC News channel when we arrived home last night, each competitor was required to carry kit which would allow them to survive in extreme weather conditions. 

My only reservation concerns the safety of the emergency workers who would probably have preferred a quiet day. I particularly feel for the mountain rescue volunteers who, along with the RNLI (and probably others), should be funded by the taxpayer.

Yet more on Dawkins

Have a look here for some alternative suggestions for Dawkins and his fellow campaigners.

St Pancras surprise

We were in London this weekend and chose to have our breakfast in the wonderful St Pancras Station (at the Betjeman Arms). I was impressed with the Betjeman statue. 

I was more impressed - perhaps somewhat oppressed - by the sheer scale of the statue of the kissing couple. It really is colossal!

More on Dawkins

Whilst reading about Dawkins' bendy-bus campaign, I was reminded of Ruth Gledhill's interview with the man himself.

Richard Dawkins

We had a great discussion about 'Dawkinsism' at our regular meeting for postgraduate students, staff and general misfits at the University Chaplaincy last night. We were led by an emeritus professor of Biology, who provided an interesting critical angle on some the notable omissions from Dawkins' books. He highlighted the fact that whilst Dawkins paints himself as an advocate of modern science, he only advocates a narrow part of the scientific landscape. Further to this, it seems to be the case that most biologists wouldn't name Dawkins as one of the notable academics in the field of evolutionary biology. So if he's not a leading figure in the world of biological research, and he doesn't even see theology as a legitimate academic discipline, where does his authority come from? For which academic community is he speaking? Anyway, there was much more in last night's discussion - I can't represent it all here.

I was amused to see that Dawkins was featured on the Church Times blog today, and I love the ironies that run through the story.

New boiler

Further to my previous post on the woes of a dysfunctional combi boiler, I am pleased to announce that we now have a fully working new boiler. It's great, it really is! We can actually have hot water and heat whenever we want it.

I realise that there are many people in the world for whom the notion of clean running water of any temperature would be a wonderful thing, but I'm trying to feel grateful rather than guilty.

The great thing about our new boiler is that it's much more effective and much more efficient. Good for our finances and good for the planet.

Laying down the Law

It looks like times are a little turbulent at (the proper) Old Trafford. First, stalwart Dominic Cork was given his P45, and now the club have decided not to renew to contract of captain Stuart Law.

This is reported to be in response to his commitments to the IPL, but I expect the fuss over Cork's exit probably had a bit to do with it too. When you add in the fact the the Lancashire batting lineup failed to perform this year, you can see why the club felt it was time for a change.

So good luck to Glen Chapple. I hope he succeeds where previous skippers have failed.