If you're having trouble commenting, blame Facebook

Over the last few months I've had a few people tell me that they're no longer able to post comments here or on other blogs. Clearly, I've still be getting quite a few comments, so this puzzled me. I then found myself having the same problem from time to time, not even being able to get to the screen where comments are entered.

But I think I've now worked out what the issue is: Facebook. More specifically, the application known as Networked Blogs, which is an app that will automatically repost your blog posts to your Facebook page (and so to your friends' news feeds). Networked Blogs has been one of the main reasons I haven't (so far) given up on Facebook, since I know that quite a few of my readers come via this route. Until recently, if you clicked on a Facebook news feed item published by Networked Blogs this would take you to the actual blog post in question. But now Networked Blogs has changed its set up and creates a mirrored page identical to the original Blogger post, except that almost all internal links (apart from those in the body of a post) link to the mirrored site and links to comments are disabled. This very strongly encourages you to stay within the Facebook world if you want to post a comment and is another example of Facebook's attempt to become the internet within the internet (not that Google aren't also trying much the same thing).

I don't have a problem with websites expanding their range of services, but there is a significant difference between simple expansion and the parasitic exploitation of a competitor in an attempt to achieve or maintain hegemony. Another recent example of this is an application that enables you to scan barcodes on your smartphone from a physical bookstore and compare the price with Amazon.com.

In any case, if you want to post comments outside of the Facebook bubble, make sure your browser's address contains "nothing-new-under-the-sun". For future reference, click here to go to my actual blog and then set up a bookmark.
Another effect of this is that stat counters for visitors will systematically underestimate the number of readers. It has been some years since I've really looked closely at my stats, but this is somewhat annoying as well.

UPDATE: After posting this, the obvious solution hit me: post my own updates on Facebook and ditch Networked Blogs. Done.

On the brink

Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, has taken a challenge this year to become more mindful of and thankful for the food he eats. As part of this, he now only eats meat which he has killed with his own hands. This is quite a good discipline in order to learn what our diets actually mean.

Thirty-six of the world's forty dolphin species are in trouble. Dolphins have to come close to the top of the list of charismatic megafauna. Many of the other contenders for top place are also in trouble. Lions used to the be the second most widespread mammal (after homo sapiens), found throughout all continents except Australia and Antarctica, but have been hunted to extinction everywhere except parts of Africa and one tiny piece of India. Their numbers continue to drop precipitously: from perhaps 400,000 in 1950 to about 20,000 today.

John Cook: Are you a genuine sceptic or a climate denier? I've been planning a post along these lines for a while btu have never got to it. Now John has beat me to it.

Guardian: Australian ethicist Peter Singer is now leaning towards moral objectivism (that things are right or wrong independently of our desires) due to the difficulties faced by subjectivism in the face of climate change.

Seventeen Nobel Prize laureates and forty other experts warn: "we are transgressing planetary boundaries that have kept civilization safe for the past 10,000 years".

The World Meteorological Organization believes that extreme weather made worse by climate change will (continue to) undermine global food production.

Clive Hamilton argues the case for environmental radicalism. Asking nicely didn't cut the mustard for the suffragettes or the civil rights movement.

Joe Romm lays out the disturbing findings of a Royal Society conference last year discussing the impacts of a 4 degrees temperature rise. This is pretty much where we are headed at the moment with our all too modest attempts at mitigation. Or rather, this is where we are headed within the lifetime of those already born. Our ultimate destination may be far, far worse. This was the conference that convinced Clive Hamilton that it is necessary for us to despair.

Onion: Yet another species on the brink of extinction.

Digging our own grave, and other stories

Global resource use could triple to 140 billion tonnes p.a. by 2050 according to UNEP. We are currently at 59 billion tonnes, have been at 49 at 2000 and 6 at 1900. Where does it end?

Are you in an online filter bubble? How would you know? Not just Facebook, but Google and most other major online gatekeepers use algorithms to determine what you want to see, and then just show you that. Anything uncomfortable, challenging, different will eventually be filtered out. Bliss? Or a Brave New World...

Five stages of social collapse in five minutes. Based on the work of Dmitri Orlov, who lived through the collapse of the USSR. You can read a slightly longer version here.
H/T Desdemona.

Australian ocean study uncovers disturbing suggestions concerning the viability of marine life under rising levels of carbon dioxide.

CP: How academic integrity can be sold to the highest bidder. This is yet another area where the profit motive distorts and undermines human endeavour.

CP: We like to think of tasks as either easy or impossible. But sometimes, they are simply hard.

Onion: Be alert, but not alarmed. One from the archives to brighten your day.

Fixing Facebook (a little)

Speaking of Facebook, I was helpfully pointed to this advice, which shows you how to reverse a recent automatic change that Facebook unilaterally made (unannounced) to news feed settings. The new default settings means that you only seen items from people you interacted with in the weeks before the change was introduced or anytime since then. Any friends you haven't contacted in Facebook world during that window have been quietly excised from your feed. If you'd like to reverse this, instructions and further explanation can be found here.

In search of the perfect Bible

Stumbling briefly last night through the mirky recesses of Facebook, I noticed that for some reason many Sydney Anglicans currently seem obsessed (once again) with the question of the merits of various English translations of Holy Scripture. Some are saying "I follow Paul", others "I follow Apollos", and yet others "I follow Christ". Extravagant claims are made for one version or another, one opening the eyes of the blind, a second making the lame to walk while a third comes with a free set of steak knives.

Removing tongue from cheek, there are indeed relevant differences between the various options and such discussion is not empty of benefit, but all the major and well-known translations are generally very good and the benefits of one over another are relatively slight. Yet the marketers are not content with this, seeking to create artificial scarcity to generate an economy of fear and desire (and sell more units), and so claims are made that cannot possibly be true of any one translation.

The question of which translation is the "best" is context-dependent. It depends who is reading and for what purpose (and sometimes even the passage in question). The ideal study version for a scholar is going to be different to the ideal version for children and those still learning English. The merits of different approaches shine in different contexts.

And this is how it ought to be. The search for the perfect English Bible is a chasing after the wind. The Scriptures may be venerated, but not worshipped. The are holy, but not themselves divine. We are happy to translate them because their value ultimately lies not in the words, but in the word they communicate, that is, in their message, the good news about Jesus. The words are our access to this word, and it is our delight to pay close attention to them (and for some to work hard at the difficult and imperfectible task of translation), but in the end we pay attention because they point to the life, death, resurrection and ascension of the one who is the true Word.

But don't take my word for it, read this excellent piece by a translator of Holy Scripture with years of experience in the craft.

Or better still, follow the simple advice that transformed the life of Saint Augustine: take and read.

You are not Facebook's customer; you are their product

Facebook has frequently been at the centre of privacy concerns and this is no surprise, since their business model consists of getting as much information from you as possible and selling it to their real customers: marketing companies. It is in their interests to keep making more and more of your details public (as long as you are no so annoyed that you leave). However, even then, notice how difficult it is to delete information from your profile (and Facebook most likely retains that information even once you've taken it down) and that it is very difficult (though not impossible) to delete your profile; if you try, you are encouraged to simply "deactivate" it until the point in time you wish to take it back up.

You are not Facebook's customer, you are their product. Keep that in mind.

Debate aftermath

I mentioned the other day that my friend Mike Paget was going to be debating an atheist on the topic "Which makes more sense: Atheism or Christianity?". Since one always comes up with the best replies about 20 minutes too late, Mike is putting some post-debate thoughts on his blog: "Oh, and another thing...". I bet McCain wishes he could do the same.

Since tomorrow is my birthday (divisible by both 5 and 3), I am about to pick up a hire car for a weekend away with Jess at a mystery destination (if I tell you, then future points might be too easy). Cue birthday wishes (I felt that those without Facebook might like some gratuitous help). See you next week.
Speaking of points, I'll give fifteen to the first to correctly guess the location this Sydney shot was taken from (on my birthday last year).

Welcome to Edinburgh

Having spent the last few weeks in India, it is something of a relief (and a disappointment) to be back in a country in which seat belts, traffic lanes and stop signs are not optional and in which long pants and a collar in stifling heat and humidity are. Not that Scotland has any stifling heat or humidity, and that is the biggest relief of all. Nevertheless, we had a great time in India (thanks to the Toulmins, our wonderful and very educational hosts) and now have a slightly larger appreciation of the enormous diversity and vibrant colour of the world's largest democracy.

We arrived in Edinburgh late on Sunday night, and Jess celebrated her natal anniversary the next day and started her new job two days later. Our newly adopted home town is very beautiful, very walkable and so far, very grey.

However, I don't intend for this blog to be filled with personal updates. For that, you will have to wait for Jessica's new blog, due to be launched in the next few days (d.v.), or become friends with me on Facebook. Regular posting will resume shortly, and as always, there is more to come.

O'Donovan coming to Sydney

Oliver O'Donovan, one of the world's leading scholars in theological ethics and politics and currently Professor of Christian Ethics & Practical Theology at the University of Edinburgh, is coming to Sydney. On 4th-6th September, he will be giving the 2007 New College Lectures, entitled Morally awake? Admiration and resolution in the light of Christian faith. Entrance is free, though RSVP to New College is required.

I've often posted O'Donovan quotes in the past, but was reminded of these lectures by seeing Andrew Errington post yet another one (this time on infant baptism). There is even a Facebook fanclub (that fact alone may tempt Erro onto Facebook).
Image from O'Donovan's homepage at Edinburgh University.

Becoming friends with Kevin

Kevin Rudd, leader of the opposition, now has a Facebook account. Someone is trying hard to win the young 'uns.

Speaking of which, of course it would be our most media savvy bishop, the Right Reverend Robert Forsyth, who would be the first episcopal face of Sydney Anglicanism on Facebook.

Also no prizes for noting that Kevin's picture goes on the left, and the good bishop's on the right. Rob interviewed us on 2CH on Sunday night (he also married us seven years ago) and during the ads confessed his interest in Facebook.
Images from their respective Facebook profiles.

Facebook

Yes, I've succumbed. It's all downhill from here.