Blogging

I’ve been posting a couple times a day to different social media channels with helpful links and commentary I’ve found. This is changing (at least for now).

Kirk Lowery has recently rebooted his blogsite, The Empirical Humanist, with entries thus far on topics including manuscript transcription, Google indexing, and (of course) language. ...

Though it has apparently been on the chopping block for some time, Google Reader was a very useful tool. Even so, it has apparently come to the end of the road: Google Reader will be retired on July 1, 2013. If you’d like to download a copy of all your Reader data before then, you can do so through Google Takeout. You’ll receive your subscription data in an XML file, and the following information will be downloaded as JSON files: ...

Unfortunate news from the Biblioblog Reference Library: Our webhost, GoDaddy, decided to change the rules on us and has deleted the entire Biblioblog Reference Library database. Beforehand we had enough space to keep the database working and pruned down to a size that was feasible, but in the course of the last few months, they decided to halve the allowable database size which made it impossible to house all of the data and indices. What’s worse is that after requests for a full backup of the database were made, they refused to provide anything but a corrupted partial backup. We tried very hard to make the chunked backups necessary to put the entire database into a format that we could move, but in the midst of it (moving millions of records only tens of thousands at a time) they pulled the plug. ...

On the web: Rod Decker shares an update on his forthcoming Greek grammar. Logos Bible Software is wishing everyone a happy International Septuagint Day today with a substantial sale on their release of the Göttingen Septuagint (HT: Brian Davidson, Abram K-J). Jim Davila excerpts a Cambridge News story about funding that Cambridge and Oxford are seeking to keep together the Lewis-Gibson Genizah Collection at Westminster College.

On the web: Larry Hurtado comments on Alan Mugridge’s PhD thesis, “Stages of Development in Scribal Professionalism in Early Christian Circles,” which is currently under revision for publication. Nathan Eubank enters the biblioblogosphere (HT: Stephen Carlson). Baker is now releasing the “Teach the Text” commentary series. Currently available is Marvin Pate’s volume on Romans, and Robert Chisholm’s volume on Samuel is available for preorder (HT: M. Miller).

After several years’ blogging at jdavidstark.com, the site has now moved into its own domain at jdavidstark.com. All of the site’s links and RSS feeds should redirect automatically. But, you may see somewhat faster service by coming directly to jdavidstark.com or subscribing directly to jdavidstark.com/feed/rss/. ...

Tommy Keene notes the revival of an automatic link builder for Firefox and the Westminster Bookstore’s blog partner program. Tommy’s earlier Firefox search bar add-on for the Westminster Bookstore is also a very helpful tool. ...

Apparently, Michael Kruger, Professor of New Testament at Reformed Theological Seminary, is now blogging at Canon Fodder and tweeting @michaeljkruger (HT: Lane Keister). ...

Although it’s a bit belated, I just noticed this morning that February and March have been the busiest months at New Testament Interpretation to date. Thanks so much to all of you who have been interested in visiting.

Although the post is now comparatively a bit dated, Corey Tomsons still has some very good advice about academic blogging (HT: Kirk Lowery via Facebook). http://thoughtcapital.wordpress.com/2007/03/11/how-to-write-an-academic-blog/ ...

Jim West reports that the steering committee for the Society of Biblical Literature’s Biblioblog Program Unit has been formed. The committee will initially consist of April DeConick, Mark Goodacre, Stephanie Fisher, and Robert Cargill. The committee will begin working with plans for the 2010 SBL meeting in Atlanta. ...

Thanks to Mark Hoffman for introducing a version of the Biblioblog-SBL Affiliate badge with a non-white background. With this color change, in an effort at collaborative improvement, I was able to get OpenOffice.org Draw to translate this background to transparent for use on blogs or places on blogs with non-white backgrounds. ...

In his Justification: God’s Plan and Paul’s Vision, N. T. Wright reflects: It is really high time we developed a Christian ethic of blogging. Bad temper is bad temper even in the apparent privacy of your own hard drive, and harsh and unjust words, when released into the wild, rampage around and do real damage. . . . [T]he cyberspace equivalents of road rage don’t happen by accident. People who type vicious, angry, slanderous and inaccurate accusations do so because they feel their worldview to be under attack. Yes, I have a pastoral concern for such people. (And, for that matter, a pastoral concern for anyone who spends more than a few minutes a day taking part in blogsite discussions, especially when they all use code names: was it for this that the creator God made human beings?) ( Wright 26–27; cf. Köstenberger, “Internet Ettiquette”; Köstenberger, “Internet Ettiquette, Part 2”).1 ...