The work of Cognitive Media is fascinating on so many levels. It is simple but at the same time extremely educational and fun.

http://cognitivemedia.co.uk/index.php/

The third talk in the statistics colloquium series 2011-2012 at the University of Iceland will be given on Friday November 18th, see details below.

Speaker: Jenný Brynjarsdóttir, Postdoctoral Fellow, Statistical and Applied Mathematical Sciences Institute (SAMSI)
Title: Statistical Polar adventures – Downscaling temperatures over the Antarctic using a dimension reduced space-time modeling approach
Location: Room V-152 in VR-II building on the UI campus
Time: Friday November 18th, at 12:10 to 13:00.

Abstract: Dimension reduced approaches to spatio-temporal modeling are usually based on modeling the spatial structure in terms of a low number of specified basis functions. The temporal evolution of the space-time process is then modeled through the amplitudes of the basis functions. A common choice of bases are data-dependent basis vectors such as Empirical Orthogonal Functions (EOFs), also known as Principal Components. I will discuss ways to extend these ideas to modeling of two spatio-temporal processes where the primary goal is to predict one process from the other. I incorporate these methods in a Bayesian hierarchical model and show an example of downscaling surface temperatures over the Antarctic.

Ég hef nokkrum sinnum skrifað um tillögur mannréttindaráðs Reykjavíkur um trú og skóla. Nú hafa tillögurnar í endanlegri mynd verið samþykktar á vetvangi Borgarstjórnar, en samþykktina er hægt að finna á vef Reykjavíkurborgar.

Ég tala ekki fyrir aðra en sjálfan mig (sjá fyrirvara hér til hliðar) þegar ég segi að þessi endanlega útfærsla samþykktarinnar er gleðileg. Vissulega er þar ekki allt eftir mínu höfði, enda er ég ekki viss um að heimurinn væri endilega betri ef ég væri alvaldur, nema auðvitað fyrir sjálfan mig.

En hvað um það. Nú hafa tillögurnar verið samþykktar og óvissunni um hvað má og hvað ekki í skólum Reykjavíkur hefur verið eytt. Framhaldið liggur í höndum okkar sem störfum í kristilegu starfi innan og utan kirkju að aðlaga starf okkar að nýjum aðstæðum og hætta skotgrafahernaðinum.

Helpful information how to add a lot of events into Google Calendar. It can be come useful if we decide to use gCal for YMCA/YWCA in Iceland.

http://gocards44.wordpress.com/2008/03/28/how-to-import-a-csv-file-to-google-calendar/

Freedom without responsibility, is not a real freedom. To be free does not take away our responsibility for each other. The message is clear in the movie about the Fast Folks. We are responsible for our own kin, our people, our family. We are called to care for the community we belong to, are part of.
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One of my absolute favorite “boyish” theologians (isl. strákaguðfræðingur) is Rev. Nick Billardello. It is probably important to point out that in my mind “boyish” theology is a name for a theology that gets straight to the point, is not afraid to sing “Onward Christian Soldiers” when it is appropriate (and sometimes when it is not), and has a Summer Camp, athletic, “jumping from a cliff into the streaming river” feel to it. Being a “boyish” theologian is to understand that God is here among us. We should have fun together and proclaim God’s reign without hesitation.

Well, enough about that. Pastor Nick is writing a Bible blog and today he wrote something I had not seen before. It is clear and precise, no complicated words, without complicated sentence structures. It is just out there:

Jesus is holy, set apart from all creation. He is sacrificed by the unholy, for the unholy. Did God need Jesus to be sacrificed for us to be forgiven?

No.

But we needed to sacrifice Jesus so that we could point to something and say “because of that we know that we are forgiven.” BloggingTheBibleWithNick: Numbers 19.

“Rising Restrictions on Religion,” a recent report by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life, finds that restrictions on religious beliefs and practices rose between mid-2006 and mid-2009 in 23 of the world’s 198 countries 12%, decreased in 12 countries 6% and remained essentially unchanged in 163 countries 82%.

via Rising Restrictions on Religion – The Pew Charitable Trusts. (via Arni Svanur)

Lewis Center brings attention to an interesting research about lay staff in the church.

Lewis Center Update: Lay Staff Ministry Research.

On my way to Iceland I decided to listen to Krista Tippet’s interview with Robert Wright about his understanding of god, based on his reading, mostly of the Hebrew Scripture. Robert Wright is a self acclaimed agnostic, and his thoughts are exciting for me as a religious person. They are honest, kind of scientific, and respectful in their way of addressing religious systems from the outside.

His book The Evolution of God (Back Bay Readers’ Pick) sounds interesting.