Hamdan, Laser Monks, Malaria

Digital driftwood and news I’ve collected as of late:

1. The Hamdan trial has reached a verdict. This is the first of many pending trials of Guantanimo inmates (as well as the first war crimes trial since WW2), and though the sentence was light (5 and a half years, including the 5 years Hamdan has already spent imprisoned), there continues to be debate over the ability of military tribunals to be fair. The judge stated, “I hope the day comes that you return to your wife and daughters and your country, and you’re able to be a provider, a father and a husband in the best sense of all those terms,” but Hamdan nevertheless remains under the status “enemy combatant” and will only be freed in six months if a Pentagon review decides that he is no longer a threat.

2. Laser Monks: Monastery business enters the digital age as a Cisterian abbey markets printer ink and office supplies for cheap prices and donates 100% of profits to charity. “Commerce with compassion.”

3. Good news (finally). Possible breakthrough in the fight against malaria. The malaria virus creates a glue-like substance that causes the cells it infects to stick to the walls of blood vessels. Thus, they do not get filtered through the spleen, where the immune system would usually eliminate them. Researchers have identified eight of the proteins involved in making this glue; removing any of them would cripple the malaria virus.

4. “Key to feeding Africa called better farming”: Article about Africa’s need for improved agricultural technology and techniques. Crazy quote: “According to the United Nations, nearly two-thirds of Africa’s agricultural land has been degraded by erosion and misused pesticides. In Ethiopia, where bad farming practices have led to extensive erosion, 85 percent of the land is damaged.”

On the subject of Africa, I had no idea it was this large:

5. This site will tell you how to watch the Olympics online.

6. And finally, the quest for the perfect chocolate chip cookie.

A roadtrip, a denouncing, and Volf.

I found some thought-provoking things this week…

Firstly, Tony Jones goes on a roadtrip with a trucker:

On the other side, a view into the world of those who aren’t so enchanted with the emerging church:

And finally, Miroslav Volf (Of “Exclusion and Embrace” fame) on the relation between church and culture: http://www.npcts.edu/sem/exauditu/papers/volf.html

To draw these three items together, let me just say that I agree with Volf’s approach to the modern / postmodern debate: he critiques both sides. Instead of reducing postmodern thought to simply “the rejection of universal truth” and safely disposing of the caricature, in his writing he engages with philosophers such as Nietzsche and Lyotard and acknowledges both what they get right and where they fall short. Concerning Lyotard, for instance, he states “I am more persuaded by his critique than by his proposal…”