ropata

The rejection of science seems to be part of a politically monolithic red-state fundamentalism, textbook evidence of an unyielding ignorance on the part of the religious. As one fundamentalist slogan puts it, “The Bible says it, I believe it, that settles it.” But evangelical Christianity need not be defined by the simplistic theology, cultural isolationism and stubborn anti-intellectualism that most of the Republican candidates have embraced. Like other evangelicals, we accept the centrality of faith in Jesus Christ and look to the Bible as our sacred book, though we find it hard to recognize our religious tradition in the mainstream evangelical conversation. Evangelicalism at its best seeks a biblically grounded expression of Christianity that is intellectually engaged, humble and forward-looking. In contrast, fundamentalism is literalistic, overconfident and reactionary. - ropata

Rome’s creditor oligarchy wins the Social War, enslaves the population and brings on a Dark Age Aristotle did not mention empire building as part of his political schema, but foreign conquest always has been a major factor in imposing debts, and war debts have been the major cause of public debt in modern times. Among Rome’s leading historians, Livy, Plutarch and Diodorus blamed the fall of the Republic on creditor intransigence in waging the century-long Social War marked by political murder from 133 to 29 BC. Populist leaders sought to gain a following by advocating debt cancellations (e.g., the Catiline conspiracy in 63-62 BC). They were killed. By the second century AD about a quarter of the population was reduced to bondage. By the fifth century Rome’s economy collapsed, stripped of money. Subsistence life reverted to the countryside. - ropata

Stunning graphic from the NYTimes shows how the US middle class was hollowed out over the last 30 years. The Great Prosperity, 1947-1979: productivity growth of 119% correlated to strong growth in wages and overall compensation for all workers. The Great Regression, 1980-Present: productivity growth of 80% was accompanied by almost STATIC wages or other compensation for workers. Almost all the productivity gains went to a tiny percentage of people at the top. More women went into work and debt piled up. [Bill Marsh/The New York Times] - ropata

John Phillip Walker Lindh, my son, was raised a Roman Catholic, but converted to Islam when he was 16 years old. He has an older brother and a younger sister. John is scholarly and devout, devoted to his family, and blessed with a powerful intellect, a curious mind, and a wry sense of humour. Labelled by the American Government as "Detainee 001" in the "war on terror", John occupies a prison cell in Terre Haute, Indiana. He has been a prisoner of the American Government since December 1, 2001, less than three months after the terror attacks of 9/11. John is entirely innocent of any involvement in the terror attacks, or any allegiance to terrorism. That is not disputed by the American Government. Indeed, all accusations of terrorism against John were dropped by the Government in a plea bargain, which in turn was approved by the United States district court in which the case was brought. [...] - ropata

Self-organizing teams are a hallmark of Agile software development, directly affecting team effectiveness and project success. Agile software development, and in particular the Scrum method, emphasizes self-organizing teams but does not provide clear guidelines on how teams should become and remain self-organizing. Based on Grounded Theory research involving 58 Agile practitioners from 23 different software organizations, this thesis presents a grounded theory of self-organizing Agile teams. These teams take on spontaneous roles in order to become self-organizing. The roles are: Mentor, Co-ordinator, Translator, Champion, Promoter, and Terminator. Teams learn freedom and responsibility, cross-functionality and specialization, under iteration pressure. Influences are senior management support and level of customer involvement. This thesis will help teams and their coaches better understand their roles and responsibilities as a self-organizing Agile team. - ropata