This is it. The very very end of Justice and compassion.com. It’s been enormously fun, and we couldn’t have done it without all the amazing commenters and occasional posters. You all rock. OTM will still be around and quite busy, so come over and say “hi” on the practicing church blog. Wish I could give you all a big hug. If you’ve ever commented even once, you’ve become part of the 7% of blog readers who *ever* leave a comment. Congratulations!
I can definitely say the experience has changed me. Just keeping my line in the water trolling for ideas for blog posts has made me look at the world differently. I see our planet, and other people, as a lot more valuable and precious than I did when JaC started two years ago. Y’all’s willingness to engage in conversation around MTWABP (Making the World a Better Place), and challenge me, and show me crazy awesome new ideas and ways of thinking I’d never had come across otherwise–all this has altered my paradigm. Although the blog is ending, I know for sure that in the future I’m going to be involved in big and small ways in trying to MTWABP. I’m so much more aware now of the amazing possibilities/hope, *and* of the astounding darkness and despair, out there in the world. And beyond that, I’m a lot more aware than I was two years ago of the fact that while I *certainly* can’t fix it all, I can totally make a difference, here, and there, and everyday somewhere. An enormous thankyou to Jim and Helen and Rachel and Joe and Martin and Elaine and Eliza and Seren and David and Craig and Peter and way too many more to name. You’re all awesome. You can and do make a difference in the world. Way to go.
In case you hadn’t heard about it, tomorrow, Saturday March 28th at 8:30 PM local time is Earth Hour. Earth Hour organizers are shooting for 1 billion people around the world turning off the lights for an hour. Hope you’ll join us. =)
At the end of March Off The Map will be closing the Conversation at the Edge, Justice and Compassion, and eBay Atheist blogs to new posts. They’ll stay open a little longer than that for comments.
We appreciate everyone who has blogged for us on these three blogs and participated in the comments conversations. We’ll keep the existing content up even though the blogs are being closed.
The reason for closing them and opening our new blog, The Practicing Church, is that Off The Map’s focus has changed. As Jim wrote in From Mirrors to Maps on The Practicing Church blog
As Off The Map enters a new season we’re going to focus less on mirrors and more on maps, less on critiquing the church and more on energizing the church.
I’m going to miss all the great conversation and ideas being thrown around. Thank you so much for hanging out over the last two years. After this blog closes you’ll be able to find me online at my personal blog http://oxymoronredundancyparadoxtrap.blogspot.com. I’ll probably also still be hanging out a bit over at Off the Map’s new blog, The Practicing Church.
Joe will still be writing at A Life Reviewed, as well as running the Freedom Clothing Project. You’ll probably continue to see articles and posts by him elsewhere on the web as well (here, for instance).
Our huge thanks and best wishes also to Rachel, who was cofounder of Justiceandcompassion.com (and without whom the blog just hasn’t been the same =).
So long and thanks for all the fish. Do well, friends.
Suw Charman Anderson has declared today Ada Lovelace day. Ada Lovelace, the daughter and only child of the English poet Lord Byron, is hailed by many as the first computer programmer. She wrote “software” for Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine back in the 1840’s. Suw complains of misogyny in the tech world, and references psychologist Penelope Lockwood, who found that women need to see female role models more than men need to see male ones (which is another interesting discussion all by itself). I kind of see Suw’s point, as I had certainly heard of Babbage, but never of Lovelace.
Towards the end of overcoming the aforementioned misogyny and giving women the tech industry role models to look up to, Suw promised to write a blog on March 24 about a woman in tech whom she admired, but only if 1000 others promised to do the same. Way more than 1000 people joined her, making today the first ever Ada Lovelace Day. The whole thing seems to be a rather huge success, as there are currently 76,000 google results for “Ada Lovelace day”. Here’s a list of many of the blog posts.
One of the women I learned about in reading through some of the posts is Ptolemais of Cyrene, who formulated the commutativity of multiplication: AB=BA. Who knew?
Do you know, or know of, any women who have excelled in mathematics or technology whom you would like to mention?
Honestly now, how many of you knew that today is not only the vernal equinox, and the beginning of spring in the northern hemisphere, but also the Iranian New Year?
After Arabic, maybe I’ll have to learn Farsi.
Do you think Obama’s rhetoric matches his actions?
93 countries in the world have abolished use of the death penalty. The U.S. is not one of them. This past Friday the New Mexico state legislature voted to do away with capital punishment in the state of New Mexico. The repeal of capital punishment is now awaiting New Mexico governor Bill Richarson’s [...]
Thanks to Martin for the suggestion (I like this unplugged version best. Here’s a version with the lyrics for the video. Or here’s a post with the lyrics written out.)
Jon Foreman is is the lead singer of the alternative rock band Switchfoot. (You can read about them at the wiki article)
Changing Lives Through Literature is a program which was begun by a judge, a probation officer, and an english professor in the state of Masachusetts. The three founders hypothesized that exposing criminals to good literature would be more effective in reforming them than would jail time. So 8 men, with 148 convictions between them, were [...]
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