Brights News Feed

As announced in the most recent Brights Bulletin, next year’s Brights calendar is now available through Lulu. Profits from each calendar go to the Brights Net at www.the-brights.net.

This calendar is the result of a collaborative effort. Its producers are Brights who meet in the Action Forums of The Brights’ Network. As Brights, they have in common a naturalistic worldview, free of supernaturalism. The photos and quotes included are meant to show just how awesome our universe is. The various events marked in this calendar have been chosen by individual Brights. They represent a spectrum of achievements selected to remember that humanity has always been striving forward, trying to improve both ourselves and our environment. Check out The Brights’ Net site at www.the-brights.net.

A local constituency of Brights in North County, California, made the local newspapers last week, with a fairly long article discussing their group, the movement as a whole, and issues affecting Brights. The story is at North County Times (via the Brights Net Forum). As the Forum Administrator Maike said, “I should add that I think this is the type of newspaper article that there need to be more of - in the US and elsewhere. Great job, Dwain and co-members!”

Like many Brights Local Constituencies, the San Diego North County Brights’ group can be found at brights.meetup.com.

As announced in the most recent Bulletin from “Brights Central”, a collaboration at the official Brights Forums have designed and produced a naturalistically themed calendar for 2007, from which profits go to the Brights Net. You can purchase the first ever Brights calendar here. (It’s only February, and maybe it will have souvenir value!) A 2008 calendar is also in the planning.

But what to do this year?

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Wired Magazine features an article today, the “Battle of the New Atheism” by Gary Wolf. It uses the term “Bright” several times in its survey of what Wolf calls “New Atheism” and features interviews with Enthusiastic Brights Richard Dawkins and Daniel Dennett, as well as words from Paul Geisert and Mynga Futrell, a snippet from London Brights meetup representative Glen Slade, and a conversation with philosopher polemicist Sam Harris.

In summary, this article probably falls in the “all publicity is good publicity” category. But it is marred by a conflated, homogenized conception of “New Atheism” which blurs away some of the distinctiveness for the Brights’ umbrella.

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Having mentioned BrightsOnline.net in the latest Bulletin (reported here) the Brights’ Net official homepage has now joined the Brights Webring (see the-brights.net/community). I’m also happy to say that the owner of BrightsOnline.net, Bob Churchill (disclosure: that’s me), has been made an “Ethusiastic Bright” for his troubles. See “Enthusiastic Brights (Page 4)“.

This is what enthusiasm looks like

I would also like to welcome to the team our first two News Feed “correspondents”, Mr Rolland Everitt and Mr Michael A. Lewis. Both are based in the US but may be reporting on stories anywhere in the world.

As noted in the official Brights Bulletin #39 (31 July 2006) from the-brights.net:

There’s a new node for Brights to check out. You can visit it at www.brightsOnline.net. This new site is intended as a clean space to host various initiatives by Brights which need an internet presence. Anything from interesting creative projects to collaborative secularist campaigns might be hosted there. And originality will not be frowned upon!

The new site is the independent creative endeavor of Bob, a Bright in the U.K. (Please read Bob’s statement at the bottom of the home page concerning the site’s relationship to The Brights’ Net site.) His first two projects are likely to be of most interest to Brights who run their own websites. There is a BrightsOnline Webring and an aggregate blog called BrightsOnline Blogs. Both of these projects will encourage communication between diverse Brights’ sites and very likely bring new signatories to www.the-brights.net.

A WEB-RING FOR BRIGHTS AND “BRIGHTNESS”
Any personal site run by a Bright (your blog or homepage, for example) can join the Webring, as can any site on the topic of civil rights of Brights, Brightness, naturalism, secularism, etc. Actually, any site of probable generic interest to Brights may join. For overview information and instructions on joining the Webring, visit www.brightsOnline.net/webring.

BLOGGING BY BRIGHTS
An aggregate blog pulls together the feeds from lots of different blogs. If you want your blog “syndicated” to the new aggregate blog at www.BrightsOnline.net/blogs, then email your RSS or Atom feed details to contact@brightsonline.net with “BLOG” in the subject line. (Or visit www.brightsOnline.net/blogs/help if the above doesn’t mean very much to you!)

Feel free to offer further ideas, or to request hosting of projects in need of a web presence, by making contact@brightsonline.net.

NOTE FROM BRIGHTS CENTRAL: The main motivation for the Brights’ endeavor was to awaken more people who have a naturalistic worldview to the merits of their outlook and to their civic situations. BC seeks to facilitate positive endeavors that nourish the former and improve upon the latter. Consequently, we hope that the new Webring and blogging capacities for Brights will foster movement in constructive directions. For example, we anticipate more sites that will focus on, contribute to, or align well with the civic aims and principles of the overall movement. (You can read those aims on the main page at www.the-brights.net and examine the nine principles at www.the-brights.net/vision/principles.html). If you have developed such a site already, you are encouraged to become part of the new Webring right away. Thanks!

In addition to the Webring and the aggregate BrightsOnline Blogs, we’re also hosting a campaign against “Sect Schools” (UK) as well as this very News Feed you are reading right now. There’s a Featured Sites page up, and we’re mirroring the Brights Constituency Frappr map.

Also in development is a Brights “Radio” podcast show, for which submissions of content would be greatly appreciated. We’re looking especially for people who can independently produce short items for inclusion in the show, for example: music, interviews, reviews, commentary, perhaps even a drama!, Brights-related stories from your part of the world, testimony, messages, one-liners, or reports of Brights taking action. Bear in mind: we want to keep the quality high, that’s the quality of the audio and the content!

Thank you

A big thanks to The Brights’ Net for the Bulletin announcement.

And I’d like to thank all the bloggers and web masters who are already contributing to the aggregate blog and to the webring.

Hopefully more blog contributors and webring member sites will continue to trickle in. Now it’s time to get thinking up your own ways to use BrightsOnline to help achieve the aims of the Brights’ movement.