Mark's Notebook

All Articles - February 2005

Challenge Dance of the Week: Saundra Bryant

Internationally-known challenge caller Saundra Bryant will be calling two sessions of advanced and challenge dancing at Midnight Squares in San Francisco on Sunday, March 6, 2005.

The first session, from 1:00-3:00 pm, will alternate tips of A1, A2 and C1.

The second session, from 3:30-5:30 pm, will alternate tips of C2 and C3A.

There will be a pizza break between sessions.

Midnight Squares is a member of the International Association of Gay Square Dance Clubs. They welcome all gay dancers and their friends to dance with them.

Midnight Squares has a web site here.

Here is a text flier for the March 6 dance.

Father of the Mac dead at 61

Ex-Apple Employee Helped Make Computers More User-Friendly

By Mary Anne Ostrom

Jef Raskin, who dreamed up the affordable, user-friendly computer that became Apple's Macintosh, died Saturday night at his Pacifica home.

Raskin, who had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer a few months ago, was 61.

He was employee No. 31 at Apple when he joined in 1978. By the next year, he began to pursue his goal of simplifying the computer user's experience, focusing on a faster and more logical interface.

But when he clashed with another Apple visionary, co-founder Steve Jobs, Jobs took over Raskin's team "by fiat," Raskin once said, and he resigned in 1981. Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak said many of Raskin's groundbreaking user-interface features remained part of the Mac when it was released in 1984.

"Jef's dream changed the world," Wozniak said Sunday. "Making technology work simpler, he was at the heart of that from the first days at Apple." Wozniak said Raskin also convinced Jobs to spend time at Xerox PARC to see how to develop cutting-edge technology. "Jef Raskin is one of the most important people in personal computers, to this day," he added.

http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/11013273.htm

Mark says: Jef Raskin has a web site that shows all his research:
http://www.raskincenter.org/

Dance of the week: Spring Fling

The Spring Fling hoedown is a September class level newer dancer hoedown sponsored by Single Squares of Sunnyvale every March. This year, the dance takes place on Saturday, March 5, 2005.

Sunnyvale Singles runs several beginner classes every year, and their members have always supported the newer dancer hoedowns. Please come support the latest group of beginners at the Spring Fling hoedown.

You can find out more about Single Squares of Sunnyvale on their web site.

And you can download a PDF flier for the Spring Fling hoedown.

'Chorus Line' remains a singular sensation

San Jose Mercury Stage Review

AMERICAN MUSICAL THEATRE OF SAN JOSE CAPTURES ESSENCE OF BROADWAY CLASSIC

By Karen D'Souza

Michael Bennett's high-kicking classic has become so beloved that it stands as the holy grail of modern backstage musicals, the show that made a whole generation want to quit their day jobs for a shot at a Broadway marquee.

At the opening-night performance, aficionados could be overheard not only humming to themselves but also blurting out favorite lines -- long before they were spoken on stage. Of course, with such devotion comes high expectations. But fear not: While this ``Chorus Line'' -- AMT's first homegrown production in a year -- may not be a perfect 10, it's still a singular sensation.

'A Chorus Line'

Where: Center for the Performing Arts, 255 Almaden St., San Jose

When: 8 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Saturdays, 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sundays Through March 6

Running time: 2 hours 30 minutes, with one intermission

Tickets: $41-$72; (408) 277-5277, www.amtsj.org

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/entertainment/performing_arts/1097429
5.htm

Mark says: My chiropractor Dean Scott has a role in this production, but he's not mentioned in the article. :-(

If a woman sees her child, she'll keep it

The Ottawa Citizen

By Joanne Laucius

A new weapon has entered the war over abortion in the U.S., and Canadian anti-abortion groups would like to see it introduced here, too.

The weapon? The ultrasound.

American church groups that operate pregnancy crisis centres are equipping themselves with the machines at a cost of $20,000 to $30,000 U.S. each, according to a recent report in the New York Times. They hope that by showing a pregnant woman images of her unborn child, she won't abort it.

An ultrasound image makes a far more effective case against abortion than any legal or bioethical argument, anti-abortion advocates say.

In the U.S., the issue has sparked an ethical debate over whether presenting images of her fetus to a woman contemplating abortion is pushing an agenda or merely offering her useful information.

http://www.canada.com/fortstjohn/story.html?id=e65211d4-d06a-4072-9cf5-f6fdd6b11
534

Longtime Expert on A.L.S. Now Knows It All Too Well

New York Times

By John Schwartz

AN FRANCISCO - Dr. Richard K. Olney steers his motorized wheelchair toward the front door of the A.L.S. Center at the University of California, San Francisco.

Like other patients who visit the center, he has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a disease that destroys the nerves that control movement, trapping the victim in an increasingly inert body. It is inevitably fatal, often within a year or two.

Dr. Olney knows these bleak facts better than most because his name is on the door of the center, which he founded in 1993. As a neurologist and A.L.S. researcher, he has written more than 50 scientific papers. As a patient, he is now taking part in a clinical trial that he designed.

He is spending some of the time left to him speaking about his illness, in hopes of raising awareness about the disease, which has no cure, and money for research and treatment.

The causes of A.L.S. are still largely unknown; about 10 percent of cases appear to be linked to genetic flaws, while the other 90 percent are a persistent mystery.

People with A.L.S. remain mentally sharp. And, Dr. Olney said, in the early 1990's, "advances in molecular biology suggested that A.L.S. might become very treatable during my career."

While his once-crisp speech has become labored and indistinct, he is capable of a slow, tentative smile. And he does smile, often.

In fact, Dr. Olney explained, A.L.S. is not as uncommon as people think. The lifetime chance of getting what is commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease is actually 1 in 1,000, or about the same as getting multiple sclerosis.

The difference is that A.L.S. kills so quickly that the number of living patients at any one time is relatively small - which also means that there is not a large population of victims to agitate for research and relief.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/22/health/22als.html?pagewanted=2&th

See also:

Cruel irony -- Gehrig's disease expert stricken

My Playlist

Here's what I've been listening to on my new iPod recently:

Broken Wings - Dougie MacLean
Islanders - Eileen Ivers
Red Red Rose / Bonny Mary of Argyll - Phil Coulter
Quodlibet for Small Orchestra - P.D.Q. Bach
King Of Soul, A Little Bit Of Poison - David Olney
Pretty Polly - Davy Graham
My Conservative Girlfriend - The Foremen
Guitar Jump - John Renbourne
No - Mark Heard
Come On Come On - Mary Chapin Carpenter
I Dig Rock And Roll Music (also several others) - Peter, Paul & Mary
Tu Palabra (Spanish version of "Thy Word Is a Lamp Unto My Feet) - Hermanos Gutierrez
Peacepollutionrevolution (and many others) - Larry Norman
Fish Heads - Barnes And Barnes
Wet Dream - Kip Addotta
King Tut - Steve Martin
Who's Next? (and several others) - Tom Lehrer
Eat It - Weird Al Yankovic
A Burial At Sea - The Ladybug Transistor (downloaded from Playlist Magazine)
Blackbird (and several others) - The Beatles
Hitch A Ride - Boston
Tokyo - Bruce Cockburn
White Room - Cream
Who'll Stop The Rain - Creedence Clearwater Revival
All She Wants To Do Is Dance - Don Henley
Signs - Five Man Electrical Band
Nervous Night - The Hooters
Things Can Only Get Better - Howard Jones
Awfully Familiar (and many others) - Jacob's Trouble
Time - Pink Floyd
Bleeker Street (and several others) - Simon & Garfunkel
Shu Ba Da Du Ma Ma Ma Ma (and several others) - Steve Miller Band
We Work The Black Seam - Sting
Why Can't This Be Love - Van Halen
Moondance - Van Morrison
Boris The Spider - The Who
Dust My Broom - ZZ Top
New York's A Lonely Town - Trade Winds

Ten things that could land your vicar in trouble

BBC News

The prospect of heresy trials for Church of England vicars who don't believe key doctrines has been raised this week, following a vote in the church's House of Laity.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4273377.stm

Mark says:

The real problem is that only three of the ten topics raised are agreed on by most orthodox Christians: the existence of God, the Virgin Birth, and the Ressurection. Only those truly apostate deny these articles.

But the remaining topics, theological issues like predestination, baptismal regeneration, and purgatory, form the traditional fault lines between Catholics and Protestants, Calvinists and Arminians, Lutherans and Reformed. While the Church of England might stipulate a particular stance for their clergy, opinion within the wider Christian community allows for variation and disagreement. Even the feedback appended to this article notes that the Church of England's 39 articles are are imposed only on their clergy, not on their laity, who are apparently free to believe whatever they'd like.

More cue sheets added to database

I added over 200 round dance cue sheets that are on the ECTA web site (European Callers and Teachers Association).

http://www.mixed-up.com/cgi-bin/cue/search?site=ecta

Cheated by the Affirming Church

Christianity Today

By Anonymous

Contrary to what some churches teach, it is homosexuality—and not its suppression—that enslaves people like me.

I feel cheated. Cheated by those who say that they love me and are trying to help me. Yet, if things were left up to them, I would still be in a prison of my own making—enslaved by homosexuality and without hope.

Like many other Christians, I have struggled for years with same-sex attraction. By God's grace I know freedom from a way of life that still holds too many others captive. Yet many within the so-called affirming church would deny us that freedom. They say homosexuality is God's plan for our lives, even though the Bible clearly says that homosexual behavior is a sin.

My pastor likens affirming Christians to the doctor who examines her patient and discovers life-threatening, but treatable, cancer. However, knowing that the patient cannot bear the thought of the painful treatment, she sends the man home with the "good news" that there is nothing wrong with him. Instead, the good doctor tells her patient that the symptoms of cancer are something "quite natural" that he should "accept."

In the same way, I've had Christians tell me that homosexuality is "natural," that I was "born this way," and I should "accept" the way I am. They have said that my marriage was a mistake; I should divorce my wife and affirm my gay identity. But I have heard countless stories of men and women who came out from affirming churches because they realized that they were not being who God wants them to be.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2004/012/36.50.html

The Gay Child Left Behind

New York Times Opinion

By Dan Savage, editor of The Stranger, a Seattle newsweekly

For gays and lesbians there's something particularly satisfying about watching a prominent antigay conservative learn that his or her own child is homosexual. It smacks of cosmic retribution: Mr. Keyes now has to choose between his antigay "pro-family" rhetoric and a member of his own family.

Sadly for Maya Keyes, her father apparently has more affection for his ideology than for his daughter. Perhaps Mr. and Mrs. Cheney could find the time to call Mr. and Mrs. Keyes and explain how parents who actually value their families react when they learn one of their children is gay.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/17/opinion/17savage.html?th

New Cue Sheets Posted

After a long hiatus due to health problems, personal problems, Christmas festivities, and general computer malaise, I've finally got almost up-to-date with the cue sheets that you all have sent to me over the last couple of months.

I've posted about 30 cue sheets, mostly by Daisuke Doi, but also a few by Kenji Shibata, Milo Molitoris, and Mary Trankel/Don Gilder.

I've also merged the recent uploads into the main set of cue sheets, so they will appear in their proper place in the list alphabetically.

You can always find the most recently posted cue sheets here:
http://www.mixed-up.com/round/all-over/recent.html

Also, I've linked in about 75 cue sheets from other web sites. These are mostly from the sites by Terri Cantrell, Pam Hurd, Susie Rotsheid, Curt Worlock, and Roger Ward, with a few from the other sites also.

Many thanks to all who have sent me cue sheets and who have kept me informed of cue sheets being posted on all the other sites.

Don't worry about Fiorina; she has a support network

San Jose Mercury News

Carly calls HP technical support

By Mike Cassidy

Tech guy: Hmmm. Maybe it's an internal conflict.

Fiorina: Internal conflict? What's that supposed to mean?

Tech guy: You know. It's like one bit of the system having a culture clash with another bit.

Fiorina: What are you talking about? Can you fix my problem or not?

http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/10904960.htm

e-fession

One click Absolution! Avoid Hell through HTML.

FATHR 4GIVE ME 4 I ½ SINNED, I 4NOCATED 1X, DRANK & 8 2 MUCH, HAD 6UL THOUGHTS

http://www.splendoroftruth.com/curtjester/e-fession.htm

Why Some Feasts Are Movable

How come Lent moves around while Christmas stays put?

In 325, church officials at the First Council of Nicaea formalized the date of Easter in an effort to get everyone to celebrate on the same day. From then on, the holiday was celebrated on the Sunday following the first full moon after March 21, the start of spring.

http://slate.msn.com/id/2113321/

God and Evolution

New York Times Book Review

By Nicholas D. Kristof

Modern science is turning up a possible reason why the religious right is flourishing and secular liberals aren't: instinct. It turns out that our DNA may predispose humans toward religious faith.

Granted, that's not very encouraging news for the secular left. Imagine if many of us are hard-wired to be religious. Imagine if, as a cosmic joke, humans have gradually evolved to leave many of us doubting evolution.

In recent years evidence has mounted that there may be something to this, and the evidence is explored in "The God Gene," a fascinating book published recently by Dean Hamer, a prominent American geneticist. Dr. Hamer even identifies a particular gene, VMAT2, that he says may be involved. People with one variant of that gene tend to be more spiritual, he found, and those with another variant to be less so.

There's still plenty of reason to be skeptical because Dr. Hamer's work hasn't been replicated, and much of his analysis is speculative. Moreover, any genetic predisposition isn't for becoming an evangelical, but for an openness to spirituality at a much broader level. In Alabama, it may express itself in Pentecostalism; in California, in astrology or pyramids.

One bit of evidence supporting a genetic basis for spirituality is that twins separated at birth tend to have similar levels of spirituality, despite their different upbringings. And identical twins, who have the same DNA, are about twice as likely to share similar levels of spirituality as fraternal twins.

It's not surprising that nature would favor genes that promote an inclination to faith. Many recent studies suggest that religious people may live longer than the less religious.

Partly that's because the religious seem to adopt healthier lifestyles - they are less likely to smoke, for example. And faith may give people strength to overcome illness - after all, if faith in placebo sugar pills works, why not faith in God?

Of course, none of that answers the question of whether God exists. The faithful can believe that God wired us to appreciate divinity. And atheists can argue that God may simply be a figment of our VMAT2 gene.

But what the research does suggest is that postindustrial society will not easily leave religion behind. A propensity to faith in some form appears to be embedded within us as a profound part of human existence, as inextricable and perhaps inexplicable as the way we love and laugh.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/12/opinion/12kristor.html?th

All You Need Is Unconditional Love

Christianity Today Book Review

A judgmental assessment of judgmentalism is, predictably, full of contradictions.

Reviewed by John Wilson

It must have sounded like a suitably edgy title: Repenting of Religion. Why on earth, the slightly shocked reader is supposed to ask, of all the things to be repentant about, should we repent of religion?

Because, Gregory Boyd explains, springing the trap, religion is all about "getting life from the rightness of our behavior," a fatally delusive sense of self-satisfaction sustained by perpetually judging others and finding them wanting.

Such judgment, Boyd argues—based on his Bonhoeffer-influenced reading of Genesis—is in fact the primal sin from which all other sins derive.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/002/33.87.html

Mark says: This reminds me of Rick Ritchie's assessment of Martin Luther:

"Luther found true life when he repented of his youthful repentance. It was in abandoning the manufacture of a new life within himself (Yes, even with the help of the Holy Spirit--medieval Christians were quite familiar with that!) that Luther discovered the Gospel."

http://www.holytrinitynewrochelle.org/yourti17110.html

In the end, Wilson finds much to criticize in Boyd's book, "a book riven by self-contradictions and flawed by a hermeneutic so naïve it beggars belief." Of course, the main contradiction is that it is impossible to point out the flaws of repentance-based religion without passing judgement on it, which is the one thing we must not do.

Apple upstages Microsoft at VSLive?

CNET News

By Ina Fried

The iPod is everywhere these days, even at a Microsoft developer conference.

The exhibit hall at this week's VSLive, a conference for Visual Studio programmers, is filled with an eclectic bunch, from developer-training companies to hardware makers showing off their latest wares.

One thing that many of the exhibitors had in common was the raffle prize item they used to lure people to their booths: Apple Computer's iPod.

Although the iPod has little connection to Microsoft's Visual Studio developer tools, there is no question it is hot, hot, hot.

http://news.com.com/Apple+upstages+Microsoft+at+VSLive/2100-1041_3-5567992.html

'If you don't take a job as a prostitute, we can stop your benefits'

The Telegraph

By Clare Chapman

A 25-year-old waitress who turned down a job providing "sexual services" at a brothel in Berlin faces possible cuts to her unemployment benefit under laws introduced this year.

Under Germany's welfare reforms, any woman under 55 who has been out of work for more than a year can be forced to take an available job – including in the sex industry – or lose her unemployment benefit. Last month German unemployment rose for the 11th consecutive month to 4.5 million, taking the number out of work to its highest since reunification in 1990.

The government had considered making brothels an exception on moral grounds, but decided that it would be too difficult to distinguish them from bars. As a result, job centres must treat employers looking for a prostitute in the same way as those looking for a dental nurse.

"There is now nothing in the law to stop women from being sent into the sex industry," said Merchthild Garweg, a lawyer from Hamburg who specialises in such cases. "The new regulations say that working in the sex industry is not immoral any more, and so jobs cannot be turned down without a risk to benefits."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/01/30/wgerm30.xml

New Bible Troubles. How Interesting.

Magic City Morning Star

By J. Grant Swank

Zondervan has come out with a new Bible take that’s geared to get the attention of ages 18 through 34. It’s called Today’s New International Version (TNIV).

So, according to FOX News, which interestingly enough now owns Zondervan Publishing, such passages as Genesis 1:27 have been changed from "man" to "human being." That is, ". . .so God created man in his own image" now reads ". . .so God created human beings in his own image."

Of course, what we need more than a rewrite of the Bible is simply to have all who profess "Christian" to obey the Bible-already-in-hand. That would help immensely, especially with widespread apostasy throughout various denominations.

http://magic-city-news.com/article_2971.shtml

Gas Prices

Cool way to fold a t-shirt

ReadyMade Magazine

by Laura Allen

I recently discovered a riveting how-to-fold-a-shirt video from Japan that's been blogging about for months. Using a simple method, anyone can pinch and flip a tee into a perfect rectangle in less than three seconds (see below). I quickly became obsessed, showing off my new skill at parties. Would this suit my holiday gift-folding needs? Was this method a welcome revolution or common heresy?

The article:
http://www.readymademag.com/feature_14_foldem.php

The video:
http://www.cs.hut.fi/~demi/cloth_folding.mpeg

Mark says: I tried it and it really works!

Why Does Windows Still Suck? Why do PC users put up with so many viruses and worms? Why isn't everyone on a Mac?

San Francisco Chronicle

By Mark Morford

Are you using a PC? You probably have spyware. The McAfee site claims a whopping 91 percent of PCs are infected. As every Windows user knows, PCs are ever waging a losing battle with a stunningly vicious array of malware and worms and viruses, all aimed at exploiting one of about ten thousand security flaws and holes in Microsoft Windows.

Here, then, is my big obvious question: Why the hell do people put up with this? Why is there not some massive revolt, some huge insurrection against Microsoft? Why is there not a huge contingent of furious users stomping up to Seattle with torches and scythes and crowbars, demanding the Windows Frankenstein monster be sacrificed at the altar of decent functionality and an elegant user interface?

There is nothing else like this phenomenon in the entire consumer culture. If anything else performed as horribly as Windows, and on such a global scale, consumers would scream bloody murder and demand their money back and there would be some sort of investigation, class-action litigation, a demand for Bill Gates' cute little geeky head on a platter.

Every Mac owner everywhere on the planet simply looks at all this viral chaos and spyware noise and Microsoft apologia and shrugs. And smiles. And pretty much ignores it all outright, and gets back to work.

It's very simple. The Mac really has few, if any, known viruses or major debilitating anything, no spyware and no Trojans and no worms, and sure I've been affected by a couple e-mail bugs over the years, but those were mostly related to my mail server and ISP. For the most part and for all intents and purposes, Macs are immune. Period.

I am online upward of 10-12 hours a day. I run multiple Net-connected programs at all times. I receive upward of 500 e-mails a day, much of it nasty spam that often comes with weird indecipherable attachments that try, in vain, to infiltrate my machine. My Mac just shrugs them off and keeps working perfectly. I dump them all in the trash and never look back. I have yet to suffer a single debilitating virus or worm or spyware or malware whatsoever.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2005/02/04/notes020405.
DTL

Spammers' New Strategy

Washington Post

Unsolicited E-Mail Sent Using ISP Computers

By Jonathan Krim

An advanced spamming technique could push the volume of unwanted e-mail to new heights in coming months, straining the integrity of the online communication system, according to several top experts who monitor the activity of spam gangs around the world.

Illegal bulk-mailers have been able to deploy massive blasts of spam by routing it through the computers of their Internet service providers, rather than sending it directly from individual machines, the experts said.

The result is that "blacklists" of known spamming computers -- which other network operators rely upon to block mail from those machines -- are no longer effective. To block spam coming directly from an ISP's computers, all mail from that ISP would be have to be blocked, which would cripple electronic communication.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61901-2005Feb3.html

Cash, charge or biometrics?

San Francisco Chronicle

/By Jo Best, Cnet News.com/

A Washington supermarket chain that gave customers the choice of paying by fingerprint says the experiment was so successful that it made the biometric service a standard option at a Seattle-area store.

Thriftway Stores of Washington introduced the system in 2002, using technology from San Francisco's Pay by Touch, and said it now sees thousands of transactions a month using the payment method.

Fraudulent transactions have dropped substantially because of the system, which now handles 30 percent of Thriftway's electronic payments.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/02/02/BUG7QB413P1.DTL

JavaSlide: the WWW's very first Java Slide Rule

This Java applet implements a fully functional slide rule on your computer screen.

Looks very realistic!

http://www.taswegian.com/SRTP/JavaSlide/javaslide.html

Hide Your IPod, Here Comes Bill

Wired News

To the growing frustration and annoyance of Microsoft's management, Apple Computer's iPod is wildly popular among Microsoft's workers.

"About 80 percent of Microsoft employees who have a portable music player have an iPod," said one source, a high-level manager who asked to remain anonymous. "It's pretty staggering."

The source estimated 80 percent of Microsoft employees have a music player -- that translates to 16,000 iPod users among the 25,000 who work at or near Microsoft's corporate campus. "This irks the management team no end," said the source.

So popular is the iPod, executives are increasingly sending out memos frowning on its use.

Of course, Microsoft's software is used by dozens of competing music players from manufacturers like Creative Technology, Rio and Sony.

"These guys are really quite scared," said the source of Microsoft's management. "It shows how their backs are against the wall.... Even though it's Microsoft, no one is interested in what we have to offer, even our own employees."

At the company's Macintosh Business Unit, which publishes a wide range of software for the Mac, owning an iPod is almost de rigueur.

But at the Windows Digital Media Group, which is charged with software for portable players and the WMA format, using an iPod is not a good career move.

http://wired.com/news/mac/0,2125,66460,00.html

Mark says: I got my iPod (2G 10GB) on eBay just a couple of days ago. I'm already using it for working on my music projects while away from the computer.

Study: Cell Phone Use Ups Accident Risk

Washington Post

By Leon D'Souza, The Associated Press

A report from the University of Utah says when motorists between 18 and 25 talk on cell phones, they drive like elderly people - moving and reacting more slowly and increasing their risk of accidents.

In fact, motorists who talk on cell phones are more impaired than drunken drivers with blood-alcohol levels exceeding 0.08, Strayer and colleague Frank Drews, an assistant professor of psychology, found during research conducted in 2003.

Their new study appears in this winter's issue of Human Factors, the quarterly journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56468-2005Feb2.html

Gatecrashing for Jesus

Christianity Today

Brother Andrew discusses ministry in the Middle East.

Interview by Stan Guthrie

Brother Andrew, author of the book God's Smuggler and a former missionary to the Soviet Union, now focuses on ministry in the Muslim world via Open Doors. Stan Guthrie, senior associate news editor for Christianity Today, interviewed Andrew about his new book, Light Force (Revell, 2004, with Al Janssen). The book details the struggles of churches trying to survive in the Middle East and Andrew's attempts to reach out to militant Islamic groups.

The reaction of the West to September 11 was one of panic and overreaction. There was an exodus of thousands of Arabs and Muslims from [the United States]. We want to take fear away. We deal with people. I object personally to the term terrorism, because I want to give [the terrorists] a face. Hamas is not terrorist. Hamas is people who lose all hope in the future and in life. When they decide to blow themselves up and die, it's not because they're politically motivated or want to attack the West. It's because they have not found a reason for living.

We, as Christians, are the only ones in the world that, on the basis of the Book, can offer everybody in the world a reason for living. If that reason for living is not there, do not blame them to find a reason for dying, because that's the only alternative—living or dying. We want to dive right into the very center of the conflict. That's why we go to those groups.

I see Muslims as God-seekers. I almost feel like Paul in Athens. We should have that boldness to go to them and say, "What you seek, I have." It's our attitude, politically, and often theologically, that keeps us away from them. If we view them simply as members of an evil religion, and Allah as a demon, they'll never get there, that's for sure. That [attitude] blocks the door for us.

But you need to be sure that Jesus lives in you, and then you can go to anyplace and approach any single Muslim, because they want to know God. And it's our attitude, politically, and often theologically, that keeps us away from them.

I go gatecrashing all the time. Evangelism, by nature, always has to be aggressive. We have deviated from that whole concept of Acts 1:8, and we've reversed the roles and say, "Well, they've got to invite us." No way. Jesus says blessed are the peacemakers. Where do peacemakers go? Where there's a war. That's aggressiveness. That is taking risks. That's meeting the enemy, looking into his eyes.

They say, "Andrew, you are wrong, because you make friends with Israel's enemies." To which I reply, "This is the greatest service I can do to Israel, to turn their enemies around." This is a definite attempt to turn them around. Because once they become brothers, they're not enemies anymore.

They're studying the life of Jesus because Islam does not and can never satisfy. It doesn't satisfy any Muslim. There's no forgiveness, no love, no eternal life. And they want to go to heaven. Everybody wants to go to heaven. But we live now in a time when Islam has been radicalized. And they now [think they] know the way to heaven—die in the jihad.

That's why I've been predicting that America will get another dose of terrorism, violence, because Muslims want to go to heaven. And we don't show them the way to heaven. Why don't we do that? That's the only way. They have no reason for living, for they found a reason for dying.

They want a messiah; they expect a messiah. But the Messiah has holes in his hands and he came riding on a donkey, not in a cockpit of an F-16. And they want to see that Messiah. So when we are vulnerable enough to go to them, and this being the only weapon, the Word of God, they accept us and see our message as the alternative, which, deep in their hearts, they fear.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/105/12.0.html

Law Barring Junk E-Mail Allows a Flood Instead

New York Times

By Tom Zeller Jr.

A year after a sweeping federal antispam law went into effect, there is more junk e-mail on the Internet than ever.

Since the Can Spam Act went into effect in January 2004, unsolicited junk e-mail on the Internet has come to total perhaps 80 percent or more of all e-mail sent, according to most measures. That is up from 50 percent to 60 percent of all e-mail before the law went into effect.

To some antispam crusaders, the surge comes as no surprise. They had long argued that the law would make the spam problem worse by effectively giving bulk advertisers permission to send junk e-mail as long as they followed certain rules.

"Can Spam legalized spamming itself," said Steve Linford, the founder of the Spamhaus Project, a London organization that is one of the leading groups intent on eliminating junk e-mail. And in making spam legal, he said, the new rules also invited flouting by those intent on being outlaws.

Some bulk e-mailers have also teamed with writers of viruses to steal lists of working e-mail addresses and quietly hijack the personal computers of millions of unwitting Internet users, creating the "zombie networks" that now serve, according to some specialists, as the de facto circulatory system for spam.

A survey from Stanford University in December showed that a typical Internet user now spends about 10 working days a year dealing with incoming spam.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/01/technology/01spam.html

Adults better Web surfers than teens, study shows

San Jose Mercury News

By K. Oanh Ha

Despite their image for being tech savvy, teenagers aren't as adept as adults when it comes to using the Internet, according to a report released Monday.

Teens ages 13 to 17 were able to complete assigned tasks on the Web 55 percent of the time, compared with 66 percent for adults, according to Nielsen Norman in Fremont, a firm known for studying how consumers use technology. The teens were hampered by poor reading and research skills and were more prone to leave a site after encountering difficulties.

"If things aren't immediately apparent, they go away," said Jakob Nielsen, co-founder of the firm. "Their distaste for reading was a big surprise. It has to be very short, brief text and big pictures."

The teens in the study, from California, Colorado and Australia, didn't like to read long blocks of text, preferring illustrations and pictures. They quickly gave up on sites once they encountered navigation and other problems. They also displayed poor searching skills, usually clicking on the first hit after a search query.

http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/10787236.htm

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Last updated Monday 3 August 2009