Thou shalt be disrupted: welcome to the silicon church

Sally Davies:

Think of them as God’s back-office. Technology start-ups have spied an opportunity in helping Christian clergy manage their organisations – from using apps to harvest data about their parishioners, to administering assets such as cemeteries and church organs.

California-based Kaleo Apps offers a host of smartphone features to churches, including Facebook-like “prayer walls” and a service that lets churchgoers donate via SMS. The company says its tools have increased giving by up to 40 per cent.

“Churches have been managing themselves for thousands of years, but they’re being challenged on their story and their relevance,” says Klaus Nyengaard, chairman and investor in Danish start-up ChurchDesk. “They need to spend less time on administration and more time on the values they have and preaching the Gospel.”

Mr Nyengaard, who was previously chief executive of London-based online food marketplace Just Eat, says priests are working harder than ever before to “sweat” underutilised assets and get local community groups through the door by offering space for events, creating an ever-greater need for efficient management.

The calculus of contagion In the battle against disease, the difference between a raging epidemic and a passing fever comes down to a single number

Ad Kucharski:

When Ronald Ross tipped over the water tank outside his bungalow in Bangalore, it began a lifelong battle against mosquitoes. It was 1883 and Ross, only two years out of medical school, was the British Army’s new garrison surgeon. Overall, he was happy with the posting – he considered the city, with its sun, gardens and villas, to be the best in southern India.
 
 He was less enthusiastic about the mosquitoes. Having arrived to find his room filled with the sound of buzzing wings, he decided to hunt down and destroy their breeding ground in pools of stagnant tank water. The ploy worked: as he drained the tanks, mosquito numbers fell

The Slow, Inevitable Death Of Cable TV

Adam Singer:

I have long predicted the demise of cable TV (the dumb pipe). With services like Netflix, Amazon Instant, Google Play and more there is absolutely no reason to view content on someone else’s timetable.
 
 It’s also arrogant of anyone to think their content is so important or special users should have to watch at a specific time on a specific device or screen. Timeshifting is the new default and content should be available on whatever device a user prefers. Not via some archaic set of arbitrary rules because someone “says so.” The technology exists so that control is in the hands of users.
 
 More than that, cable providers have long provided awful customer service, ignored / lied to the market, held people hostage and clung to dated technology and trends that support their (ever-weakening already lost) grasp on content.

Innovations in payment technologies and the emergence of digital currencies

Robleh Ali, Roger Clews & James Southgate:

Modern electronic payment systems rely on trusted, central third parties to process payments securely. Recent developments have seen the creation of digital currencies like Bitcoin, which combine new currencies with decentralised payment systems.

 
 Although the monetary aspects of digital currencies have attracted considerable attention, the distributed ledger underlying their payment systems is a significant innovation.
 
As with money held as bank deposits, most financial assets today exist as purely digital records. This opens up the possibility for distributed ledgers to transform the financial system more generally

What does one ask a hermit on Mount Athos?

Martin Puchner:

I still don’t know. Fermor didn’t encounter any hermits, though he passed a hermit’s hut, wryly observing that it was the most desolate sight he had ever seen. Perhaps being a hermit was one step too far for the convivial Fermor. Despite his skepticism, I’m sure he would have known what to say: it would have been the ultimate test for this gifted conversationalist.

Periodically the monasteries on Athos crack down on the hermits, accusing them of encouraging personality cults. They undoubtedly do. But I think there is another reason for the crackdowns: the hermits capture a truth about Athos. Having set itself apart, the island lays in waiting for pilgrims and travelers, waiting for our questions, fears and desires, a Christian oracle speaking in voices that are not of this world.