Ben's Synthesis for week10 on The Weight of the World

This week’s reading was great. The Weight of the World by Pierre Bourdieu was written and put together well. This book was much refreshing compared to the other two. I really enjoyed reading this book and might finish reading the rest of it. Ok, now on to the synthesis. I would say that each story/interview or write up by the various authors was dynamic. I felt that I was right there with the authors as they interviewed people or told their stories. There were so many issues in every interview or story that one could analyze the data through qualitative means and come up with many findings.

I liked reading the chapter titled "The Order of Things" and how the author, Pierre Bourdieu, interviewed the two young men who lived in the projects. As I was reading their conversations during this interview, I noticed many similarities of conversations that I have had with both adults and young people living in poverty or with vary little. It is amazing of how insightful they are to their problems and what goes around them, but all they do is talk about it. They are willing to talk about it to anyone who would listen, but it is just talk. They will most likely do nothing about the situation they are in. Most of what they talk about is the past and dreams of both the past and the future. For example, the two young men kept talking about getting jobs and for the interviewer, he was thinking, "Ok why don't you get jobs?" However, the two young men said all the jobs are two far, no one will hire me because I am Arab, I have no car, the bus doesn't go to such and such a place, etc. Everything these two young men said are true and not true.

I know at one point in their lives they tried at least once, but where rejected because of various factors. Therefore, they just gave up. The system in which they live in does not help them any. There is corruption all over the place. No one in the place they live can really survive to live outside that community. The system does not allow for it. The police just seem to give up on the problems and crimes that go on and if some one gets hurt, it is that persons fault whether or not it is. The system there has brought hopelessness in that community. Instead of people working together everyone keeps to themselves and they all let the problems pass they by.

It is sad, but true. Any attempt to make a better life for one's self goes up in smoke or is rejected. These young men know that there is a better life out there for them and they want it, but their community is holding them back from doing it. This is their home and in a sense of security no matter how bad, it is.

So what? That is the question that is now brought to the table. You might be saying that is a good story, but what does it have to do with me? I am glad you asked. If we as Jesus-Followers want to do any Kingdom building or create social transformation we need to hear more of these stories and then get involved in the lives of these people. You might say I do not want to go to France or God is not calling me to live overseas. Good, because right in our own backyard here in Los Angeles are broken communities that need to see the social gospel. When I say, see the social gospel I do not mean preaching the gospel in the form of evangelism. I am saying living out the gospel so that transformation can happen. When we live out the gospel, we are preaching the gospel.

I know I could go on but I won't unless I get at least ten people to comment telling me to go on. I have just given you a small taste of what our world is really like today. My question to you is what are you as a Jesus-follower going to do about it?

Ben's Synthesis for week 9 on Inventing Popular Culture

Inventing Popular Culture by John Storey was an insightful book. There were a few things that I read that were intriguing to me. The first came from the first chapter, which talked about folk culture. Folk culture came about because American intellectuals too interest in the middle class person and wanted or “demanded” stories and songs from them (Storey 2003:1). Folk culture was more of the intellect and not really for the average person. This was interesting to me because the intellectual only wanted to study the average person and hear the stories and songs from them rather than from the elite or high-class societies. I was thinking what right do these people have to demand such things from the middle class. It seems to me that it is only those who have the power we do the controlling.

The second thing that I found intriguing came from chapter three, which talked about how the high culture turned some things that were popular among the mass culture and made it “unpopular” (Storey 2003:45). An example that came from this chapter was opera and Shakespeare. What was once popular with the mass culture because it was more for entertainment soon became more of an appreciation for the art rather than for entertainment. Again, it was the high culture that controls how culture is done or what it should look like. They took what was popular and cool and transformed it to something that only intellectuals could enjoy and that was culture. Storey defines this period as the “modernism” (Storey 2003:32).

The third thing that I found fascinating is the fifth chapter, which talked about the postmodern culture. It was if the masses, the common, average person was taking back their culture from the modernist and modifying culture. It was if the postmodern person was asking, “Why can’t I enjoy an opera for both art and for entertainment?” Because of this thinking, floods of material on “How to …” books were being written. It was if the information for appreciation and entertainment exploded. What was unpopular was made popular by the postmodern culture. It was giving back the freedom of the average person. It was taking the past and making it cool again.

Finally, the last thing that I found intriguing is the last chapter on the global cultural. Today our culture is all about the world as a whole. The internet, radio, TV, Film, music, magazines, newspapers, Podcasts, and blogs can connect us to the world. We are not as isolated as we where once before. We are forced to stretch our minds to think about what is happening around the world. Storey states:

There is a great temptation to think of the local as authentic and the global as an inauthentic imposition. I think we should be careful avoid romanticizing the local as the organic expression of a more “real” way of life. . . It is as if the local is an authentic folk culture and the global is a homogenizing mass culture. But it is always more complicated than this: the global is always part of the local; the local is what resists the global (Storey 2003:116-117).

Today we cannot separate the two and I can see how frustrated some are when they try too.

Ben's Synthesis for Week 8 looking at Chapter 5 of Global Transformation

This week’s reading in Global Transformations was bringing out a weakness of mine. When it comes to economics, finance, production, corporations, etc. I get totally lost. I felt like I was wading in a pool of thick mud trying to make sense of this chapter on “Corporate Power and Global Production Networks”. Try as I did there was one section of this chapter that I could make sense from and that was the part on Global production networks: sectoral comparisons, which had to deal with four components.

The first of these components was the car industry. The car industry exploded during the post war “boom” (Held, Mcgrew, Glodblatt, and Perraton 1999:262). The car industry in the US and in Europe saw growth and gaining dominance, but it was the Japanese who “made competitive inroads into both the US and European market” (Held, Mcgrew, Glodblatt, and Perraton 1999:262). The reason for their success was a technique known as ‘lean production’, which helped reduced cost and raised the quantity of their products. It also allowed for them being able to introduce their new cars faster. What happened after this was that the US and European started to adopted the same techniques of the Japanese. What is interesting is the dominate Western powers were looking to a developing Asian country in how to develop the car industry. Today Japan is a huge leader in the automobile production market.

The second component is the electronics industry. This industry started out to be the same where the US and Europe powers were dominate during the post war era, but soon the East Asian market began to be a contributing factor. Both the US and East Asian corporations where exporting more of their product to other regions. At first, the US looked to Europe to be the partner source for manufacturing, but regions such as East Asia and Latin America became more viable. Today many corporations are outsourcing to countries like China, India, and parts of South East Asia. The cost for these corporations to outsource is cheaper, but it also affects the US economy by taking away jobs in the US.

The third component is the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. Production in this area began before the first World War, however after the Second World War there was a “intense global competition” (Held, Mcgrew, Glodblatt, and Perraton 1999:265). Multinational production is more common in this field because of markets all over the world are in heavy demand. From the most part I see that this area is where more regions are working or trying to work together.

Finally, the last component is the textile and clothing industries. This industry is all over the global, but main in developing countries. There is a lot of subcontracting to independent firms through out North Africa, Mediterranean, Caribbean, Latin America, and East Asia. Again more dominate regions are outsourcing or having their products made and manufactured in developing countries like East Asia and China who have become a “key global supplier” (Held, Mcgrew, Glodblatt, and Perraton 1999:267). The problem that I have with this is that these regions are using cheap labor to make a profit. A small percentage of the profit actually goes to the people who make and manufacture the product. The aspect of corruption is ever present in places like these.

So what can Jesus- Followers do in regards to the aspect of abuse of labor in these developing countries? What should our role be? These are questions that we must look into deeply.

Works Cited

Held, David. 1999. Global Transformations: Politics, Economics and Culture. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press.

Ben's Synthesis for Week 7 looking at Chapters 3 and 4 of Global Transformations

Now I am not into financing and trading, but I am not ignorant to the fact that it exists and plays a huge factor in globalization. However reading the chapters on trading and financial globalization it interesting to see how historical this issue has developed. It started with the Pre-Industrial Revolution, moved to the Classical Gold Standard, to the Bretton Woods period, and to Contemporary period where we are now. It is interesting to see how starting with small states trading back and forth with each other the resources needed to develop to now with computer technology connecting not just households to other households, but individuals to the rest of the world globally.

I found it interesting how European banks surfaced and when they started to generate money how they would lend it out instead of converting the money to national currency. Thus, the name “Eurodollar” came about. Now instead of local investing as what was done before. National and Global investing, lending out money was capable. Those who had money could now invest or do business in other places.

I was also intrigued how just by one statement or declaration moved the Bretton Woods period into the contemporary period. When President Nixon, in August of 1971, declared that the dollar would no longer be freely convertible to Gold, it not only ended fixed exchanged rates, but also transformed the world. His decision effected how doing “business” was done.

As I look at this, I see a pattern. I do not see radical transformation happen at a Macro level, but starting at a Micro level. I see it starting with individuals, then with groups or tribes, then slowly emerging between societies, then states, then countries, and then nations. This also did not happen overnight be it was accelerated as new forms of technology, especially in communication began to connect people from all over.

Technology has changed how we do things even today. People now can bank on online. People can buy food and clothing online. People can trade online. People can do business either locally in State or country or globally with other countries and even nations. It is just one simple click of a button and you are connected to the whole world.

But can Jesus-Followers produce change or transformation today? Yes, they can, but how? One way is by making smart investments. Smart investments are not just about money, but empowering others who do not have the means to invest. We need to do our research so that as we aim for transformation we are still considerate of others and their culture. Just like Nixon though not a strong example, but an adequate one moved the world from one period to another with just a declaration, we too as Jesus-Followers can do the same. As Paul R. (Bobby) Gupta said:

…lets not be traditional…let’s not get institutionalized…let us be dynamically powerfully present in the realization that we have a powerful God who is working through political movements and in times of eras and history of the world. And we must remain continuously dynamic so that God is taking us and he is releasing us and using us in the most powerful ways contemporary and contextual to the peoples that we are working with so that the world can be reach for the gospel of Jesus Christ….[1]

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[1] This quote was taken from Paul R. (Bobby) Gupta at SIS 40^th anniversary chapel during the on November 9, 2005 at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, CA.

Week 6: Global Transformations Chapter 1 and 2 analysis

This week our class had to read chapters one and one from the book Global Transformations:Politics, Economics and Culture by David Held, Anthony G. McGrew, David Goldblatt, Jonathan Perraton. Chapter one was called “The territorial State and Global Politics”. At first I thought how boring, but this chapter opened up some cool issues in regards to how territorial states form and even how global politics came about. You know what was one of the key factors of territorial states and global politics, it was the Chinese (well ok I am a little bias here), no it was the technology that Chinese came up with. What was this technology? It was the invention of ocean fleets (Held, McGrew, Goldblatt, and Perraton 1991:33). The invention of ocean fleets allowed the Chinese to do trading with other territories. When the some countries like Spain, Portugal, and eventually the Britain picked up on this technology and helped improved it.

Before many territories (now are called countries), where either run in two ways. They were run imperialistically, mean one main ruler ruling the whole territory or the territory run by divided authority, which were under one big authority and this, was called Absolutism. So when these territories under absolutism began to use ocean fleets they could go by sea or ocean to one territory to another trading with them. Territories that were close to each other also began to trade or exchange resources over land. This became the Interstate system and “technological innovation became a dominant political force” (Held, McGrew, Goldblatt, and Perraton 1991:36).

This meant ships began to run faster and the nineteenth century a time of international order and industrial capitalism. Global politics soon followed as countries formed and exchanging resources continued. The technology of communication began to connect these countries together, which is called internationalization.

This chapter dealt with military power and how it has been a dominate factor to territorial expansion. Military power only gave strength to certain territories because of technology. There were several forms of technology that gave strength and power to one territory over another. Some of the technologies included navigational technology (ships could travel farther and faster), defensive technology (construction of fortresses), offensive technology (attacking techniques), gunpowder, steamships, railroads, breech-loading rifle, the Gatling gun, gunboats, and machine guns.

Technology as I can see played a huge factor in the rise of some territories, mainly the western societies, and the fall of others. I am not saying that technology is bad or good. We must be careful of how we use technology. Technology today is changing cultures, but it is also destroying cultures. What should our role be as Jesus-Followers in regards to technology? That is something that our techi group is trying to work out. I just mapped out how technological advancement has made our world as it is today.

Works Cited

Held, David. 1999. Global Transformations: Politics, Economics and Culture. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press.

Ben's Synthesis for Week 5

I mentioned in my resource blog that this will be the last week for our internet research on resources for our sub $100 laptop. I thought what should I research. What would help enhance this laptop to developing countries? I realized that software is needed to run and even operate such a piece of technology. In developing countries, even here at Fuller many of us cannot afford to purchase software and good software at that. Sure, some computers have bundled software, but it is usually the barebones. If one had to go out and buy just the necessary software to do the basic things such as word processing, spreadsheets, and even create presentation slides. It would probably cost more money than the computer I bought. If I want to buy photo-editing software that would be very expensive. I know Scott, the other techi in our group was looking into open source stuff and so I thought what free software could I find that would just give me the basics to operate and use on a laptop computer.

For me, I was not surprise on how much free software one could get, but I was surprised that there are some free software that is almost equivalent or maybe better than the main stream software that is out their. What puts the icing on the cake is that the software I found is free and you can make duplicates, you can even modify the software to meet your needs if you know how too. It was all there in cyberspace.

I will not repeat what I put in the resources for this week because you can check out which software you may or may not want to use. It is really up to you. My challenge to you and to Jesus-Follows is to at least try this free stuff and see if you like it over the regular software you buy. Do not be ignorant and refuse to use something that does not have a price tag on it. Why do you think there is a shift or has been a shift on how some Jesus-Followers see church or view church? In fact there are Jesus-followers who do not see a church in the community, but a community I would say building the Kingdom of God. In all this I am referring to the lecture, we had today in class about having a missiological approach to Kingdom building in the western context. It is not about how can we invite people to our church it is more about where are the people at.

I want to focus on one site that I visited in which I thought they have something going here in regards to technology or the technology they have created. The site is Ubuntu. On their site they posted what Ubuntu means.

“”Ubuntu” is an ancient African word, meaning "humanity to others". Ubuntu also means "I am what I am because of who we all are". The Ubuntu Linux distribution brings the spirit of Ubuntu to the software world.”

Ok, not so “Christian”, but there are some principles that Jesus-Followers can draw out. Jesus-Followers want to see the Kingdom of God expand with more Jesus-Followers. How do we do that? We need to bring Jesus to them. That’s what Jesus did. Jesus came to us.

Another thing that I found interesting on Ubuntu is in a sense their vision or purpose why they have this free software.

“The Ubuntu community is built on the ideas enshrined in the Ubuntu Manifesto: that software should be available free of charge, that software tools should be usable by people in their local language and despite any disabilities, and that people should have the freedom to customise and alter their software in whatever way they see fit.

These freedoms make Ubuntu fundamentally different from traditional proprietary software: not only are the tools you need available free of charge, you have the right to modify your software until it works the way you want it to.”

Whether Ubuntu knows it or not they have a strong missiological approach that is indigenous and even contextual. They want people not to convert to English, but use their software in that person’s local language and to have the freedom use and alter the software to meet their needs or even culture.

Ubuntu also has a wiki site, which shows people how to add and edit with in that wiki and they also have links of the same wiki in different languages. Ubuntu I believe their strategy is not for people to just download their software, but to become a part of a bigger community, a community that is not just local, but global.

I am not trying to patronize or even glorifyUbuntu, but again there are things that I can see we as Jesus-Followers can learn from them, in regards to the use and creation of technology to reach out to people in the local and global setting or you can say micro and macro setting as well.

Week 5 Resources: Free Stuff (There are more than ten resources here.)

Since this is our last time that we will use the internet to find resources on technology. I thought I would leave you with some things that everyone can walk away for “free” and I mean “free”. Below are resources on free software that you can either download or get on a cd. You can make as many copies as you want and put them on as many computers as you want. You will not be busted for doing this at all.

Free Software sites

Ubuntu is a good example of a site that is trying to reach out to people globally. It has a ton of cool programs and I think their vision is pretty cool. I will probably do an analysis on this one.

The GNU project has produced a majority of the Unix-like tools that together with the Linux kernel makes up the GNU/Linux operating system. The GNU project is principally sponsored by the Free Software Foundation (FSF), which is also responsible for the General Public Licence. (This description comes from Opencd.org site)

TheOpenCD is a collection of high quality Free and Open Source Software. The programs run in Windows and cover the most common tasks such as word processing, presentations, e-mail, web browsing, web design, and image manipulation. We include only the highest quality programs, which have been carefully tested for stability and which we consider appropriate for a wide audience. (This description comes from Opencd.org site)

This is an article about how the editor tried and used these free software.

These resources here are resources I felt that are the necessities. There I some free programs that I thought were cool to have. I broke down the resources into main sections.

Productivity:

OpenOffice.org is a full-featured productivity suite including a word processor, spreadsheet, web page editor and presentation program. Notable features in this version are native PDF and Flash export at the click of button and a macro recorder for increased productivity. OpenOffice.org provides you with the ability to create mail merged documents from Outlook or Mozilla address books, spreadsheets, or other data sources and its tightly-integrated modules help to simplify work flow. Documents are stored in a compressed, open-standard XML format to ensure future availability of your data and to reduce file sizes. You can read and write documents in a wide range of formats including Microsoft Office. (This description comes from Opencd.org site)

AbiWord is a light weight, stand alone word processor that can read and write a large number of document formats, including MS-Word. Due to its small size it is well suited for use on older hardware, and will run happily on a 486DX with 16MB of RAM, while still letting you edit all the relevant document formats of today. Key features include HTML export, unlimited undo and redo, support for spell checking, styles, columns, tables, images, and bulleted/numbered lists. (This description comes from Opencd.org site)

Use PDFCreator to generate PDF documents directly from any Windows program. PDF (Portable Document Format) files are the de facto standard in electronic publishing, because the author can be sure that the document will look as intended on all platforms, regardless of local fonts or lack thereof. PDFs can also be generated with commercial packages, but PDFCreator is by far the easiest and cheapest option (free). Once installed, simply select 'Print' from the File menu of your word processor or drawing program, and select 'PDFCreator Printer' from the list of printers. Click 'Save' and enter a name for your PDF output file. That's it!(This description comes from Opencd.org site)

Adobe Reader allows you to read PDF files that you receive, download, or even create.

Design:

The GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP), is a powerful and comprehensive imaging solution, suitable for those wanting to manipulate digital photographs, design and export graphics for the web, convert from one file format to another and even produce complex high-resolution compositions for print. The GIMP features a number of paint tools with sub-pixel sampling for high quality anti-aliased brush strokes, a powerful gradient editor and blend tool, layers and layer masks with over 20 blending modes, support for importing and exporting in a myriad of image formats, unsharp mask, levels and curves tools for enhancement of digital photos and much more! (This description comes from Opencd.org site)

TuxPaint is a great drawing program for young children. Its simple, easy to use interface, fun sound effects and tips offered by Tux, help to make the creative process as engaging and entertaining as possible. TuxPaint may be simple, but it's also feature packed. You can paint with a variety of different brush shapes, add text in a number of styles and sizes, apply cool effects with the magic tools, and use stamps to add clipart style pictures to your drawing. Loading and saving files is handled by use of a thumbnail gallery, which means that no knowledge of filesystem structure is required and only gallery images can be manipulated. The additional stamps package will install a large collection of photographic and cartoon stamps, including fruit and vegetables, animals, currency, the solar system, and festivities. (This description comes from Opencd.org site)

Nvu (pronounced en-view) is the open source world's answer to Macromedia's Dreamweaver. It is a fully featured what-you-see-is-what-you-get web page editor, enabling you to create compelling web pages without having to devote months to learning HTML. Nvu includes an integrated FTP site manager, a style sheet editor, tabbed workspaces, and all the features you've come to expect from a fully-featured web page editor. Nvu also features integrated support for HTML code validation, to help you make your HTML as clean and light-weight as possible. Because Nvu is built based on the award-winning Gecko rendering engine that also powers the Firefox web browser, every moment is a live preview: what you see is truly what you get. (This description comes from Opencd.org site)

Internet/Networking

Firefox light-weight web browser based on Mozilla technology. It empowers you to browse faster, more safely, and more efficiently. Key features include: Popup Blocking to stop those annoying ads popping up. Tabbed Browsing lets you view multiple web pages in a single window. Open links in the background so that they're ready for viewing when you're ready to read them. Text zooming is a quick way of enlarging or decreasing the text of any web page to make it more readable. You can expand this lightweight core by adding plug-ins that do everything from automatic form completion to blocking Flash animations. There is also a range of themes available to let you alter the look of the browser and you can further customise the toolbars and functionality. The Easy Transition system imports all of your settings, including favorites, passwords and other data from Internet Explorer and other browsers, so you can start surfing right away. (This description comes from Opencd.org site)

Thunderbird is a modern email client with features such as intelligent spam filters, a built-in spell checker, a range of themes and customisable layout. Thunderbird provides IMAP/POP support, HTML e-mail composing, quick search, address book, advanced message filtering, address completion, import tools, and the ability to manage multiple e-mail and newsgroup accounts. With Thunderbird Extensions you can add additional features to help you build a mail client that meets your specific needs. (This description comes from Opencd.org site)

Gaim is an instant messenger (IM) client. Use it to chat with others in real time using any supported network, including AIM, ICQ, MSN Messenger, Yahoo!, IRC, Jabber, Gadu-Gadu, and Zephyr. Gaim can be simultaneously connected to several networks, so if you have contacts on different networks, you can talk to them all at the same time, from one easy to use program. (This description comes from Opencd.org site)

Skype is a little program for making free calls over the internet to anyone else who also has Skype. It’s free and easy to download and use, and works with most computers. (This description come from Skype site)

Multimedia

Audacity is a sound editing program which can record, playback, and mix sounds or apply effects using a variety of filters. Edit your sounds using Cut, Copy and Paste (with unlimited Undo) and mix multiple tracks together. Save your files in a number of formats, including WAV, Ogg Vorbis and AIFF, or use Audacity's native project format for high performance editing. MP3 support is available using the external LAME MP3 encoder, which is included with CDex, or can be installed from here after installing Audacity. It also has a built-in amplitude envelope editor, a customisable spectrogram mode and a frequency analysis window for audio analysis applications. Built-in effects include Bass Boost, Wahwah, and Noise Removal. This full-featured program is fast and stable, and is also available for Linux and MacOS X. (This description come from Opencd.org site)

http://www.shatters.net/celestia/ -Celestia is a simulation of the entire universe, based on current astronomical information. It includes beautifully rendered planets, moons, and some smaller orbital bodies such as Mir and the International Space Station. Celestia is not limited to our solar system; you can visit other stars, or even travel outside the galaxy. You will find models of extra-solar planets in orbit around those stars for which we have evidence of planetary bodies. You have complete control over time and space, so you can view the stars from your chosen location and epoch. In addition, it is possible to create scripted presentations for complex demonstrations. (This description come from Opencd.org site)

CamStudio is able to record all screen and audio activity on your computer and create industry-standard AVI video files and using it's built-in SWF Producer can turn those AVIs into lean, mean, bandwidth-friendly Streaming Flash videos (SWFs) (This description come from camstudio site)

itunes is a music player and now a video player that will let you watch videos and listen to your favorite tunes.

Utilities

e-Sword is a fast and effective way to study the Bible. e-Sword is feature rich and user friendly with more capabilities than you would expect in a free software package. The fact that e-Sword is free is just one of the blessings and does not speak of the quality of the software. I make my living writing software and I believe I have put forth my best effort in this endeavor. The real work, however, was put in by the godly men and women who devoted countless years creating the texts that have been made available for our benefit. (This descriptions come from e-sword site)

7-Zip is a program for creating or unpacking archived and compressed files. It can unpack 7zip, ZIP, CAB, RAR, ARJ, GZIP, BZIP2, TAR, CPIO, RPM and DEB files, or create file archives in those formats. For the standard ZIP and GZIP formats, 7-Zip provides a compression ratio that is 2 - 10 % better than that provided by PKZip or WinZip, and the native 7zip format can provide a 45% reduction in file size from the common zip format. The program is highly configurable, allowing the user to balance the level of compression and speed. The interface is designed to mimic the standard Windows shell, Explorer, and is localized to 40 languages. Though 7-Zip is free of charge, you have the option of "registering" if you would like official technical support for the program. (This descriptions come from Opencd.org site)

Notepad2 is intended to be a replacement for the Notepad program that is included as part of Windows. Like Notepad, Notepad2 is small, fast, and has few frills. It does, however, add some functionality such as colour syntax highlighting that many people will find useful, especially those that have to edit the odd HTML page or script. You can select the level of zoom and select the editing font. Notepad2 supports Unicode, UTF-8, Unix and Mac text files. (This descriptions come from Opencd.org site)

Games

GNUWin II is a similar project to TheOpenCD, but contains a much larger selection of software, from games to server applications and programming languages. If you are ready to get up to your elbows in Free software, then GNUWin II is a good place to start. (This descriptions come from Opencd.org site)

A Paragraph on Jesus and the Jewish Experience

I actually had the wonderful opportunity to get sneak peek of the Jesus and the Jewish Experience. Dr. Glaser came and shared in another class I had on Wednesday. Anyway, back to the kick-off on Thursday. Dr. Glaser spoke again showed us a PowerPoint presentation on some stats about where are all the Jews presently reside. I knew that there were more Jewish people in the USA than in Israel, but Dr. Glaser pointed out that soon there will be more Jews in Israel than in the USA.

Dr. Dauermann gave interesting talk. He talked about how telling a Jew that "50 generations of their people" are going to hell because they did not believe in Jesus. For a Jew to hear that, it makes Jesus the enemy. the point that I believe Dr. Dauermann was that we as Jesus-Followers need to see through the eyes of the Jewish people. They are the chosen people of God. God in His awesome grace allowed me, a gentile, to enter into the covenant of God and His chosen people through Jesus Christ.