Author: Stephanie Booth

Heat [en]

Today is beyond doubt the closest swiss equivalent to indian “waiting-for-the-monsoon” heat. It has been unbearably hot for over a week now, and I can’t remember when it last rained.

“Unbearably hot” means something like 30°C+ at night. It means you don’t sleep well at all (if you sleep). Remember, no A/C or fans in swiss houses, and no high ceilings to allow for air circulation.

I spent the last days dumping water on my balcony and living with the blinds down most of the time (apart from strategic moments like the morning where I open everything up to let the cool air in). Bagha spends his days stretched out somewhere on the floor, snoozing.

There is now a lid of misty clouds high above our heads – could it please rain soon?

For Blogomaniacs [en]

Freshblogs allows you to set up a list of blogs you watch. It then keeps track of which was updated last, and allows you to publish the resulting list to your site.

I’m only just starting to test it, but it does seem interesting!

[link via Anil]

Life News [en]

My appointment at the hairdresser’s was last week, not this week. I learnt that when I called to say I would be a little late because my car battery was dead.

By some sort of miracle (somebody had just canceled their appointment, somebody else managed to make my car start, and I set a record for the distance Lausanne-Vevey) my hair is now somewhat shorter than it was this morning.

This is an important point, because I have my judo black belt exam tomorrow afternoon, and my hair was really getting in my face.

Other than that, I almost completely ripped out the phone cable – I guess another miracle left those two tiny wires connected. I’m astonished the ADSL works.

Aleika and Akirno are coming to spend a few days with me next week. Plans: a trip to France, watch Girl Fight, see some judo (for her) and maybe roll on the mats a bit (I can imagine Akirno tearing round the dojo while we do that), learn how to give punches to a punching-bag. Oh, and talk talk talk talk talk. Of course.

Globalgasm [en]

Warning: Grandma, just close your eyes and think of England. Don’t blame me if you go ahead and read it anyway 😉

If you are curious about some colourful inhabitants of cyberspace, you should not miss Jeri’s account of the latest Globalgasm.

Control [en]

Today at work: spent a very exciting day learning about Control.

A pretty piece of software to manage and integrate company processes. Map out how things are done, and allow each member of the “big picture” to see and understand where he/she fits in.

I feel ready for a revolution at work.

Standards-Compliant Redesign [en]

The Leaky Cauldron is looking for somebody to redesign their site. The person in question must have extensive knowledge of HTML and CSS and web standards.

Congratulations to The Leaky Cauldron for putting forward web standards in their “job proposal”.

Science des religions n'est pas thĂ©ologie… [en]

Je fais des Ă©tudes en histoire et sciences des religions. La plupart des gens à  qui je le dis s’imaginent tout d’abord que j’Ă©tudie la thĂ©ologie. Ce n’est pas la mĂȘme chose.

Quelques rĂ©flexions tirĂ©es du dernier cours d’epistĂ©mologie en science des religions, qui a eu lieu aujourd’hui.

  • La science des religions est non-apologĂ©tique.
  • Elle n’a pas de visĂ©e eschatologique ou sotĂ©riologique.
  • Elle vise à  une transparence de mĂ©thode.
  • C’est une approche qui est le produit d’une culture occidentale et judĂ©o-chrĂ©tienne.
  • C’est une discipline scientifique qui vise à  une certaine objectivitĂ© (avec les rĂ©serves dĂ©taillĂ©es ci-dessous).
  • Discipline en phase d’Ă©mancipation (de la thĂ©ologie en particulier), elle tend à  se dĂ©finir par la nĂ©gative: elle n’est pas de la thĂ©ologie, elle n’est pas de l’anthropologie religieuse, elle n’est pas de la sociologie de la religion…
  • De mĂȘme, elle peine à  dĂ©finir son objet (les “religions”).
  • La science des religions vise à  produire un discours “de l’extĂ©rieur” qui soit la transposition d’une comprĂ©hension “de l’intĂ©rieur”.

Ce dĂ©sir d’objectivitĂ© (bien lĂ©gitime), visant à  produire un discours qui soit dĂ©tachĂ© de toute appartenance religieuse, pose problĂšme. Tout discours est idĂ©ologique – mĂȘme celui des sciences dites “exactes”.

MĂȘme si je n’ai aucune affiliation religieuse, cela me met dans une certaine classe d’appartenance religieuse. L’exemple de cela que j’aime à  donner est celui de l’athĂ©isme – c’est une prise de position idĂ©ologique aussi forte que l’adhĂ©rence à  une religion ou à  une croyance.

Ce dĂ©sir d’objectivitĂ© paraĂźt aujourd’hui ne pouvoir ĂȘtre exaucĂ© que par cette transparence de mĂ©thode que j’ai mentionnĂ©e aussi: je dis qui je suis, comment je procĂšde, ce que je veux montrer – je mets tout sur la table afin que l’on puisse me suivre.

Je ne veux pas dĂ©battre ici de terminologie. Que l’on dise histoire des religions, science(s) des religions, histoire et science(s) des religions, history or religions, ou encore religious studies… je considĂšre pour le moment que si on parle de la mĂȘme chose, il est inutile de nous battre sur les termes.

Feast for Geeks [en]

A few nice geeky links on the menu for today.

First, Web Standards Project II is live. Check the updated Browser Upgrade Initiative page, and see what the Dreamweaver Task Force has been up to. Stroll around the rest of the site too, there is lots of new stuff hidden everywhere.

Second, the definitive study on sizing text with CSS. See how all these browsers react to your attempts to control the size of your text (screenshots, 264 of them).

Third (and last for today), the CSS1 recommendation, annotated with relevant Mozilla bugs. Yay!