tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71019362011-04-22T13:34:12.884+10:00the wanderings of an Australian evangelical who grew up in the hard-right Reformed Presbyterian Church, passed through the Presbyterian and Sydney Anglican scenes, landing in a unique evangelical, socially engaged, charismatic Uniting Church.<p>Meanwhile he studied comparative religion and political economics and lived in four Christian communities approximating intentional community and halfway houses in equal parts.<p>Here he ponders: '<b>What are you doing more than others?</b>'(Matt 5:47)jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.comBlogger2261100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-44166791636522229972008-09-22T09:04:00.004+10:002008-09-22T09:14:17.044+10:00

Hey, check it out, pretty cool website this. It's all about keeping representatives accountable and all that. It's hot stuff.But the best part is just about anything Bill Heffernan says. The Heff is a veritable treasure trove of wacked-out, moonbat-crazy ramblings. And now I can get it in a weekly mailing. I love it.* disclosure: I am not entirely unassociated with the website above-linked ;)

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-13795487827126363142008-02-27T15:27:00.003+11:002008-02-27T15:48:42.006+11:00

For those who pooh pooh security threats or believe they're all a result of lazy programmers or devious marketers here's a story worth noting.In the classic security hack scenario a teenage geek with too much time on his hands reverse engineered the infrared protocol used to control tram track changes in Poland. He modified a TV Remote to send the appropriate signals and then treated the tram

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-90830714190422375802007-07-04T14:39:00.000+10:002007-07-04T15:03:46.473+10:00

If you can't takes the kids off the land, take the land off the kids.So it's been a little while since I posted and a lot has happened, but Howard's "send in the army" NT farce was a bit too much to ignore. Especially with the mainstream press dropping the ball 'children overboard' style. All we hear is victim-porn about all the horrible things happening in indigenous Australia. Since it's

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-28217189332410932812007-03-15T12:00:00.000+11:002007-03-15T12:34:55.662+11:00

Among the darkness of an urban cityscape a fleeting shadow leaves a sinister trail. Between graffiti, syringes and broken glass the dark figures dance and fade, impossible to discern for more than a moment. Then with a flash of needles and eerie laughter there is nothing - silence descends. In the morning an unassuming streetlight, a public monument or a power pole blooms with riotous polyester/

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-58888888088796569112007-03-05T17:35:00.000+11:002007-03-05T18:37:46.378+11:00

The following image was produced by NASA based on images of the Earth taken at night. City lights make major cities and populated areas easily identifiable - at least for those countries that can afford street lights (click for a closer view):Credit: C. Mayhew & R. Simmon (NASA/GSFC), NOAA/ NGDC, DMSP Digital ArchiveAstronomy Picture of The Day: 27th November, 2007.

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1168943269613732042007-01-16T21:27:00.000+11:002007-01-16T21:27:50.256+11:00

Late last year a blog called 'randomness exemplified' reproduced one of the best articles I ever seen on the subject of the Hillsong mega-church. The picture is not a pretty one. Remarkably this good journalism comes from News Limited of all places.Others have reported that Head Pastor, Brian Houston, while not earning anything directly from the church does earn significant "love gifts" for

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1165833972108567042006-12-11T21:46:00.000+11:002006-12-12T06:14:51.016+11:00

So it's green slips time for me and I've been wandering the net in search of enlightenment. I've never managed to get a straight answer out of anyone on exactly what green slips insure you against. Even Wikipedia turned out to be too US-centric to know. Resting my hopes on a Googling I finally discovered that green slips insure you against legal liability for personal injury to anyone else from a

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1155822924040132182006-08-17T23:55:00.000+10:002006-10-16T10:25:08.593+10:00

The Washington Post has a piece called "Diving for Dinner" on people who 'dumpster dive' in the DC area. Often less hardcore than the name sounds this is just when people take food from a supermarket that is in the process of throwing it away because it has reached the "sell by" date (they don't have "use by" in the States).The Web Editor from Sojourners who I work pretty closely with, Ryan

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1155748805367463812006-08-17T03:20:00.000+10:002006-11-07T16:26:34.303+11:00

I got published again. This time writing about a recent service trip a group of us did to the Gulf Coast where rebuilding in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, over a year past, still continues. There were some large cuts for the nicely edited final published version, but I'm posting the full original copy.Charity, Justice and Love on the Gulf CoastAs we rolled into New Orleans we left the Interstate

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1155594753430979162006-08-15T07:54:00.000+10:002006-08-15T08:35:30.516+10:00

One of my fellow interns gave the sermon at our office chapel service a couple of weeks back. I really liked the way he managed to critique both conservative and liberal preaching he had heard for the ways it had abused the Bible. His sermon was an exercise in walking the line between Biblical legalism and popular culture dressed up as Chrisitnaity. I asked and Steve agreed to let me publish the

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1155136270270406322006-08-10T01:11:00.000+10:002006-08-10T01:17:22.890+10:00

The Boston Globe's recent op-ed titled "The Nagasaki principle" is an eloquent reflection in the same vein as a something I wrote a couple of months back asking whether it is sensible to talk of Just War or honourable ways of using military force. The question being whether the nature of warfare doesn't inherently cause all combatants to commit attrocities."The Nagasaki priciple" outlines a

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1154713348413669582006-08-05T03:42:00.000+10:002006-08-05T03:51:00.303+10:00

...the scorching blazing sunlight of America's recent heatwave. He's been converted and now says he believes in global warming:"We really need to address the burning of fossil fuels," Robertson said on his "700 Club" broadcast. "It is getting hotter, and the icecaps are melting and there is a buildup of carbon dioxide in the air."Hallelujah! Whether it is sincere or just cynically reading the

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1154619767672170002006-08-04T01:42:00.000+10:002006-08-04T01:43:56.690+10:00

You know the evenagelical mood shift is penetrating the polical conciousness when even the Dallas Morning News is reporting it. They even have a prof from Dallas Theological Seminary (home of 'Left Behind'-style rapture theology and premillenial dispensationalism) saying:Evangelicals should lose their "Jimmy Cagney theology," he says. "Quit telling people they're dirty rats who shouldn't be doing

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1154363935448203202006-08-01T02:38:00.000+10:002006-08-02T05:50:05.990+10:00

The NYT is reporting that at least one mega-church pastor is distancing himself from the Republican Party machine, Religious Right politics and the nationalism that is America's civic religion. The Rev Gregory Boyd is a conservative, in that he believes abortion and homosexuality are wrong, but he outright rejects militarism, jingoism and reactionary outrage over sexual issues in society.“I am

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1154361825550189192006-08-01T02:03:00.000+10:002006-08-01T02:40:52.003+10:00

The Lexington Herald-Leader has an interesting article. The guy who runs the Wittenburg Door, "the world's pretty much only religious satire magazine," sounds quite remarkable. He has a private detective license and goes around checking up on and exposing corrupt televangelists. He and his supporters, under the auspices of the 'Trinity Foundation', live simply (he gets food, board and $55/wk),

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1152633024041424042006-07-12T01:50:00.000+10:002006-07-12T01:54:10.710+10:00

So it seems the Boston Globe has written the history of fundamentalism that I had had in the back of my mind for about a year now. It's an important read, especially if you ever want to use the terms 'fundamentalist' or 'evangelical' and not be completely ignorant about what they mean and have meant. For example, William Jennings Bryan - perhaps the most famous fundamentalist ever - while he

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1152627525344833062006-07-12T00:18:00.000+10:002006-07-12T00:18:46.146+10:00

A news source that monitors international Christian imprisonments and martyrdoms is reporting that Mexico is releasing 9 prisoners and lowering the sentences of 10 (out of a total of 90) all charged with the December 22, 1997, massacre of 45 Tzotzil Indians in Acteal, Chiapas. Investigators said it became clear that the 45 massacred Tzotzil Indians, including pregnant women and children, were

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1150725459158355432006-06-19T23:57:00.000+10:002006-07-08T01:18:17.513+10:00

The Register reports that an email (or "phishing") scam has tricked 1,000 NAB customers into downloading a trojan virus from a fake information page after claiming that the NAB had gone bankrupt. It then instructed them to access their accounts online at which point the trojan intercepted their account details.It's a good reminder that online scams do happen and can target even the humble

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1149959128031264662006-06-11T01:51:00.000+10:002006-06-11T03:15:17.193+10:00

The recent New York Times article 'Will Same-Sex Marriage Collide With Religious Liberty?' is rare among mainstream media articles for its recognition of religious liberty as a human right.Human rights are the language of humanism and although humanism derived from both Christian and atheist thinkers during the Renaissance in modern times it is almost synonymous with non-religious secular

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1149546154100135722006-06-06T08:22:00.000+10:002006-06-06T08:23:07.433+10:00

The Christian Century has another article in the long line of "Wow, not all Christians want to kill the planet and eat the poor (even in America)!" pieces. This time the focus is on the younger generation, specifically those on evangelical campuses. Our old friend Rich Cizik makes another appearance, but overall the picture that emerges is of a conservative evangelical backlash against the

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1149264777631107382006-06-03T02:12:00.000+10:002006-06-03T02:21:28.406+10:00

The BBC has video footage of remains from an attack in Ishaqi, alleged by Iraqis to have been the site of a US massacre of civilians. They are reporting that the footage contradicts US claims that the building collapsed, killing eleven, and sides closer to the Iraqi claims that the US soldiers entered the building and summarily executed all 11 inhabitants (including three children). They note

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1148568353466000422006-05-26T00:45:00.000+10:002006-06-09T15:35:27.013+10:00

The Scientific American reports on a large study of pot and tobacco smokers. Marijuana smokers end up with significantly more tar (4x) and more carcinogens (1.5x) in their system than tobacco smokers and yet the study found they are no more likely than non-smokers to get lung cancer and significantly less likely than tobacco smokers to get it.Why this is is not known, though one speculation is

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1148486946006105572006-05-25T02:09:00.000+10:002006-05-26T08:50:48.646+10:00

So I finally got published again. The following is a review of an interesting documentary about child silver miners in Bolivia.Subtle advocatesby James FergusonSojoMail 5-24-2006The Devil's Miner is Basilio Vargas, a fatherless 14-year-old "indio," or indigenous person, who has been mining silver in Potosi, Bolivia, since he was 10. Despite being a practicing Catholic, Basilio offers gifts to "

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1147985866320575072006-05-19T06:57:00.000+10:002006-05-19T06:57:49.730+10:00

You may've heard of the spate of recently retired generals blasting Bush and especially Rumsfeld for the duo's mishandling of Iraq. Foreign Policy magazine has a not-so-recently retired Lt. General writing a very short but incredibly deft piece on why even the most persuasive arguments for 'staying the course' are duplicitous rubbish. From civil war to the need for further training of Iraqi

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1147967203467681622006-05-19T01:46:00.000+10:002006-05-19T02:04:57.070+10:00

"This one is ugly" NBC reports an official saying. It appears a group of Marines lost the plot when one of their own was killed by a roadside bomb. They entered a nearby town and executed 15 civilians, ten of whom were women and children, in a cold-blooded and indiscriminate revenge spree. A number of the victims were in the middle of prayer when they were shot.The story is currently under

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1147276676313174562006-05-11T01:57:00.000+10:002006-05-12T01:19:58.556+10:00

I remember a really thoughtful, genuine, non-political story in one of the Uni rags when I was at USyd. It was almost unheard of, and you could tell because the editors were desperate to try to make it funny or clever or witty or anything other than genuine. It was called "I was a teenage post-ironist" (the editors choice of title I suspect) and just lamented the way our generation had gotten

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1147116452787486062006-05-09T05:27:00.000+10:002006-05-09T05:28:19.033+10:00

Puzzled? It's about the Orange Revolution, a virtually spontaneous and grassroots response to election fraud by a regime struggling to hold onto control of the Ukraine.It contains some great quotes too, such as:"Protest that endures," Wendell Berry said, "is moved by a hope far more modest than that of public success: namely, the hope of preserving qualities in one's own heart and spirit that

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1147098120261820302006-05-09T00:22:00.000+10:002006-05-09T00:22:00.996+10:00

The Toronto Star has an inspiring story about a few IT academics taking on China's censorship regime. By creating software that allows anyone to provide an internet proxy to friends the geeks at the University of Toronto are hoping to encourage the Chinese diaspora to funnel uncensored internet to friends and family back home.A proxy lets Computer A connect to Computer B and have Computer B look

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1146666343343876692006-05-04T00:25:00.000+10:002006-05-04T00:25:43.443+10:00

Reuters has a pretty interesting story. The US United Methodist Church's tribunal has cleared a pastor whose bishop removed him when he refused membership to a gay man. The bishop and his conference (Virginia) had earlier been ordered to reinstate him and give him back pay but had requested that the tribunal reconsider.The UMC has the same policy that Australia's Uniting Church voted in a couple

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1146174862986498092006-04-28T07:54:00.000+10:002006-04-28T07:54:23.086+10:00

John's Background Switcher is a tiny little program I found that takes a folder on your computer (or your Flickr account) and periodically changes the image on your desktop to a random selection from those you give it. With all the pictures I now have floating around, it's nice not to have to choose between them all and instead to just cycle through.

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1146089199591087862006-04-27T08:06:00.000+10:002006-04-28T11:41:48.490+10:00

This is interesting reading. Mother Jones, liberal San Francisco magazine, writing a positive piece about an evangelical Virginian farmer who describes his practices as "beyond organic."I might never have found my way to Polyface Farm if Joel Salatin hadn’t refused to FedEx me one of his chickens.Salatin refuses to sell long-distance, to supermarkets or wholesale. It harks back to the simple

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1143920213885721472006-04-02T05:36:00.000+10:002006-04-02T06:25:08.370+10:00

Jim Wallis a co-founder of Sojourners, where I'm interning, is coming to Australia for a book launch and speaking series. He'll be speaking at the University of Sydney on Tuesday April 11th at 6:30pm in the Great Hall. The event is sponsored by World Vision, and Tim Costello, their CEO, will also be speaking. It should be fairly interesting. When Jim launched his book in the UK he caused quite a

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1143918558019401852006-04-02T05:09:00.000+10:002006-04-02T05:09:18.093+10:00

So I'm kind of in print again in the April Fools issue of SojoMail. I would hasten to qualify that by saying its only two headlines, and they aren't very good and the whole issue was a bit of a rushed job, but there you go.If you find the warnings and gratuitious "Satire" labels to be against the whole spirit of April Fools rest assured that everyone involved in the production of the issue agrees

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1143570978197204782006-03-29T05:36:00.000+11:002006-03-29T05:36:18.276+11:00

The SMH reports that the NSW state government has voted ex-council-powerbroker now Minister for Planning Frank Sartor what we might call Total Power when it comes to development planning. Sick of having to stack local branches across the state, win local elections and deal with local people who actually live next to the repulsive eyesores developers are hocking these days, the ALP has decided to

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1142205646722056882006-03-13T10:20:00.000+11:002006-03-13T10:30:51.546+11:00

In a Washington Monthly piece whose WWJD-spinoff title I do not care to encourage by repeating, Amy Sullivan reports on evangelicals leaving the Republican party.Randy Brinson is a moderate Republican evangelical who set up Redeem The Vote, an evangelical analogue to MTV's Rock The Vote with Christian bands promoting voter registration and political involvement. "Redeem the Vote registered more

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1141853605967534422006-03-09T08:28:00.000+11:002006-03-09T08:33:25.980+11:00

"The church has historically avoided seeing itself as family and as community.... It would have necessitated communion and communication instead of law and dogma.... Quite frankly, it would necessitate falling in love and losing a bit of precious control. It would lead us into pursuit of understanding when what we want is certainty." - Richard Rohr"The greatest need in our time is not simply for

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1141853227800979292006-03-09T08:01:00.000+11:002006-03-13T09:47:19.016+11:00

The so-called Emerging Church hasn't really hit Australian shores but in the US it's a pretty big deal. The Wall Street Journal (pay to read) did an article on it recently. It's something between a postmodern remodelling of the way we do church and a pomo-chic skin for the traditional church, depending on how cynical you are. One disillusioned pastor explained in an aside in a novel that pastors

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1140644186898682332006-02-23T08:36:00.000+11:002006-02-23T08:36:26.966+11:00

If you have high speed internet then this video of Crazy Horses by The Osmonds can show you a true slice of seventies excess...

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1140629995016924752006-02-23T04:39:00.000+11:002006-02-23T04:50:31.476+11:00

So after six months at Sojourners I finally wrote a full article which went out in today's SojoMail to 200,000 people. Whoopee!

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1140450457730294812006-02-21T02:47:00.000+11:002006-02-23T04:50:51.550+11:00

Slashdot reports that the US plans to bring freedom and democracy to the Middle east don't include any plans for a robust free press. The U.S. is running its own media outlets in Iraq and bribing Iraqi journalists to make them look good in others. Even then, Donald Rumsfeld thinks they need to do more if they're ever going to convince Iraqis that bombing their children and stealing their oil was

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1140217230797840452006-02-18T10:00:00.000+11:002006-02-18T10:00:30.863+11:00

I want this game!

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1139935059358592052006-02-15T03:37:00.000+11:002006-02-16T02:30:33.023+11:00

Forget all the prevarication in the corporate press, you can trust a military man to give it to you straight (United Press International, 'Videogames integral to U.S. military'). What effect do violent computer games have on people? With videogame shooting experience before and after entering the military, today's recruits "probably feel less inhibited, down in their primal level, pointing their

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1139675888794556432006-02-12T03:38:00.000+11:002006-02-14T05:12:38.516+11:00

Is your computer behaving weirdly? Do ad windows pop up at random times for no reason? Has your internet connection noticeably slowed for no discernable reason? Do weird and horrible things sometimes happen? Crashes? Freezes? Worse?What browser do you use? Internet Explorer or something else?Yahoo News reports that researchers recently set up four computer systems, two with Internet Explorer, two

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1139415896124028912006-02-09T03:24:00.000+11:002006-02-09T06:05:19.296+11:00

I was very disappointed recently when the NAE, an organisation representing millions of evangelicals in the US whose spokesperson, Rich Cizik, has featured on this blog a few times, failed to agree on a firm position on climate change. The Washington Post reported that a letter from 20 evangelical leaders, "a Who's Who of the Religious Right" including James Dobson and Chuck Colson, had been

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1139261873637456692006-02-07T08:37:00.000+11:002006-02-07T08:43:56.020+11:00

Whatever you think of Bono (and I live with people who have issues with the way he gives the impression he's the only one doing anything about Africa), the man knows how to give a speech. In this case, at the US National Prayer Breakfast. It's religion and politics at their best.This is a dangerous idea I’ve put on the table: my God vs. your God, their God vs. our God… vs. no God. It is very

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1139255579248245132006-02-07T06:52:00.000+11:002006-02-07T06:54:24.616+11:00

Unless you've been ignoring the rest of the world for the last two weeks, you probably know about the international fracas over some derogatory cartoons published in a Danish paper. The cartoons were crude caricatures that basically implied that all Muslims were terrorists and that Islam as a whole taught terrorism. One, for example, portrayed Mohammed with his turban made our of a bomb.This

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1139098044748156162006-02-05T11:07:00.000+11:002006-02-05T11:12:21.503+11:00

the simple way are a bunch of evangelical, activist hippies - yes, all at the same time. They sound like what Sojourners were when they started out, just updated for the 21st century. Shane Claiborne, one of their members, has recently written a book, The Irresistible Revolution : Living as an Ordinary Radical, and an excerpt is available in one of the recent issues of Sojourners.It's good to

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1138636673905387642006-01-31T02:57:00.000+11:002006-01-31T02:57:53.970+11:00

The NYT reports that Bush, like Howard, is politicising the entire civil service in an unprecedented way. In this case a NASA scientist talking about climate change and global warming:In one call, George Deutsch, a recently appointed public affairs officer at NASA headquarters, rejected a request from a producer at National Public Radio to interview Dr. Hansen, said Leslie McCarthy, a public

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1138220991987522172006-01-26T07:29:00.000+11:002006-01-26T07:29:52.070+11:00

The Washington Post has an interesting profile on Rick Warren. Warren is the pastor of a mega-church (38,000 congregants over Christmas), author of a best-selling book on faith, 'The Purpose Driven Life', founder of an unmatched international network of 400,000 churches and millions of people and the heir apparent for title of 'America's Pastor' to Rev Billy Graham. His number one priority right

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1138137784574342722006-01-25T08:23:00.000+11:002006-01-25T08:25:07.826+11:00

Aljazeera has an interesting angle on the Palestinian elections. A Greek Orthodox Christian candidate on the Hamas ticket. He supports armed resistance to occupation but rejects actions which target civilians, pointedly mentioning the Israeli willingness to target civilians as well as resistance groups and the language games that go on around that. Still, his association with Hamas seems

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1138130780580466452006-01-25T06:26:00.000+11:002006-01-25T06:26:20.646+11:00

Wow.

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1138116998120265542006-01-25T02:36:00.000+11:002006-01-26T13:03:50.900+11:00

The true story behind Steven Speilberg's Munich is quite disturbing. It makes you wonder why any country would allow Israeli citizens on their soil, especially any with links to Mossad (Israel's version of the CIA or KGB).Consider:"Mossad operative T remembers: 'We were given explosives and someone had to mount them in her car. I did it.'Erika's car was parked on the side of the road beneath the

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1138114863320188032006-01-25T02:01:00.000+11:002006-01-25T02:01:03.386+11:00

The International Herald Tribune reports a victory for the Conservatives in Canada. Central to the election was Canada's relationship to the US. It seems after initially opposing the Bush government Canadians are now happy to go along to get along, especially if it boosts their economy and makes them all a little richer. The other factor of course is that the left-wing Liberal Party has been

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1138042732899974092006-01-24T05:58:00.000+11:002006-01-24T06:06:27.350+11:00

The Washington Post is following a story about US phone companies plans to start charging a premium to website owners for priority delivery. Violating an unwritten rule of Internet commerce that says the networks between a website and a consumer should treat all traffic equally (a.k.a. 'Network Neutrality'), the proposal would have phone companies speed up delivery of websites that could afford

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1137788823062898272006-01-21T07:27:00.000+11:002006-01-24T01:42:34.903+11:00

In a sorely needed critique from within Charles Marsh, a professor of religion at the University of Virginia, the author of "The Beloved Community: How Faith Shapes Social Justice, from the Civil Rights Movement to Today," and an American Evangelical, takes that movement to task in the New York Times op-ed pages. But Marsh measures Evangelicalism against its own standards instead of the

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1137605396692186792006-01-19T04:29:00.000+11:002006-01-19T04:31:21.016+11:00

"Now that most of the black African villages in Darfur have been destroyed, sexual violence against women and children is being used to break the will of the population that remains"-- The Guardian's Glenys Kinnock.If you haven't seen Hotel Rwanda yet then you really, Really should. In 1994 Rwandan ethnic conflict boiled over into all out genocide. Bill Clinton did nothing and the UN pulled its '

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1136500817865542972006-01-06T09:40:00.000+11:002006-01-06T09:46:21.876+11:00

Mourn not the dead that in the cool earth lieDust unto dustThe calm, sweet earth that mothers all who dieAs all men must;Mourn not your captive comrades who must dwellToo strong to striveWithin each steel-bound coffin of a cell,Buried alive;But rather mourn the apathetic throngThe cowed and the meekWho see the world's great anguish and its wrongAnd dare not speak!Ralph Chaplin, "Mourn Not the

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1136398347647133422006-01-05T05:12:00.000+11:002006-01-06T00:49:22.450+11:00

Something Australians don't talk about nearly as much as Americans is the scope for each newly elected government to reinterpret its own powers. It's a 'Who will police the police?' problem.If history has taught us anything it's that the more decentralised power is the less likely it is to be abused or corrupted: 'Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely'. So we separate the judicial

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1136253779302129402006-01-03T12:03:00.000+11:002006-01-03T14:44:01.566+11:00

In 2005, the liberal bleeding-heart brigade were still mostly a-hollerin' and a-complainin' about the illegal war of aggression against some tin-pot dictatorship in the Middle East and the subsequent rape, plunder and torture that killed some 100,000 of its people. Don't they understand that "stuff happens", all fair and balanced journalists ask themselves.Nevertheless, you could be forgiven for

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1132244411206150122005-11-18T03:20:00.000+11:002005-11-25T02:18:45.003+11:00

Dennis Kucinich was a hopeful for Democratic Presidential nominee and is a popular and respected Democrat. He spoke on the floor of the House in Congress and opened his comments with Deuteronomy 15:7:"'If there be among you a poor man of one of thy brethren within any of thy gates in thy land which the Lord thy God hath giveth thee, thou shalt not harden thine heart nor shut thine hand from thy

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1132170318715774332005-11-17T06:45:00.000+11:002005-11-18T06:31:42.026+11:00

According to a report from the Open Source legal news website GrokLaw.net Sony has been up to some fairly unscrupulous antics to control how customers use their CD's... and their computers.A media storm struck a few days ago when it was revealed that some Sony CD's deployed a rootkit when the CD was used with a computer. A rootkit is an advanced technique pioneered by hackers and writers of virii

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1131405388732306622005-11-08T10:16:00.000+11:002005-11-08T10:16:28.803+11:00

The New York Times has a (free subscription only*) piece on the National Association of Evangelicals (US) and their attitude to pollution reduction. It's quite interesting. Remeber Richard Cizik? I circulated an article to some of you about him and his beliefs about the Biblical command that Christians care for the environment. It turns out he's the Vice President for Government Affairs at the

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1131315496322723342005-11-07T09:18:00.000+11:002005-11-07T10:10:46.073+11:00

Omar Deghayes is a refugee from Libya, a country that executed his father, but had lived in the UK for some time. He became a trained lawyer and traveled to a number of countries before going to Afghanistan, where he married. After September 11 he fled to Pakistan and was planning to return to the UK when he was arrested - reportedly for a bounty of $5000 - and illegally imprisoned with no legal

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1131146698444776682005-11-05T10:24:00.000+11:002005-11-05T10:24:58.506+11:00

Care of the Bruderhof's Daily Dig again: Everywhere in these days people have, in their mockery, ceased to understand that the true security is to be found in social solidarity rather than in isolated individual effort. But this terrible state of affairs must inevitably have an end, and all will suddenly understand how unnaturally they are separated from one another. It will be the spirit of

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1131052604701189702005-11-04T08:16:00.000+11:002005-11-05T05:25:48.430+11:00

According to The Register the rebel browser, Firefox, now holds 11.51% of the browser market share with its arch-nemesis Internet Explorer dropping 1.18% since April 2005.Tabbed-browsing is a key enhancement in alternative browsers like Firefox. It was invented in 1997 and included in Mozilla/Firefox in 2001/2002. Microsoft has recently announced that it would be added to Internet Explorer 7

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1131046573712419552005-11-04T06:36:00.000+11:002005-11-04T06:36:13.770+11:00

CNN has one of the most revealing stories I've seen in a long time. A Senate committee has released the emails circulating around FEMA offices while hurrican Katrina was going down and the view they give is chilling. Imagine the most clueless, air-headed, out-of-touch manager you've ever worked under or seen, and then imagine a dim-witted frat-boy President putting this guy in charge of the

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1131032034436204612005-11-04T02:33:00.000+11:002005-11-07T10:30:12.670+11:00

This Washington Post column is very interesting reading. It explains why the left has to do more than just belittle people of faith if it is going to be anything more than the stereotypical elitist intellectual minority. It goes to Baton Rouge in Louisiana, where some of America's poorest live - the people the Left supposedly champions - and shows how religion and moral restraint are woven into

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1130862408241174312005-11-02T03:26:00.000+11:002005-11-07T10:18:20.010+11:00

Hospitality is a paper put out by The Open Door Community in Atlanta, a Catholic Worker house. I wrote something earlier about their work in protesting anti-panhandling (ie. anti-begging) laws in Atlanta.This time I'm writing about the September issue which on page four has a very interesting reflection on an animal cruelty case. It recounts the story of a malnourished dog and the charges brought

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1130166090628453362005-10-25T01:01:00.000+10:002005-10-25T01:01:30.666+10:00

The Christian Century is a vagualy similar magazine to Sojourners and this month has an interesting article on 'the new monasticism'. It surveys a number of Christian intentional communities that see the way forward for Christianity as requiring the formation of small counter-cultural communities that embody a different social contract and system of values. The Christian Century sees the movement

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1129772255422062782005-10-20T10:11:00.000+10:002005-10-25T01:06:31.673+10:00

So I'm finally doing it: writing the fabled blog post on just exactly where on earth I've been and what I've been doing for the last 53 days (egad that's longer than it seemed). The fabled travel post is fabled no more.I'm sitting at the office after a potluck and chapel service in the conference room. The speaker this week was Brian McLaren who scored extra brownie points with me by featuring St

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1129650003133578872005-10-19T01:40:00.000+10:002005-10-19T01:40:03.176+10:00

I was forwarded this piece from the blog of a writer named John Scalzi. It is an unusually successful effort at getting readers to empathize with the life of the poor. For example: "Being poor is knowing exactly how much everything costs. Being poor is getting angry at your kids for asking for all the crap they see on TV. Being poor is hoping your kids don't have a growth spurt. Being poor is

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1128613644084540282005-10-07T01:37:00.000+10:002005-10-07T01:47:24.090+10:00

I finally found the Nietzche quote (see aphorism 58) about busy-ness and the Protestant work ethic squeezing faith and spirituality out of Europe and the West in general:Has it been observed to what extent a genuine religious life (both for its favourite labour of microscopic self‑examination and that gentle composure which calls itself `prayer' and which is a constant readiness for the `coming

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1127425664521757002005-09-23T07:24:00.000+10:002005-09-23T07:47:44.540+10:00

"The one who is the richest is not the one who has the most but the one who needs the least." -- Lao TseNGO's sooner or later have to grapple with the question of who is 'poor' and how rich does a person 'deserve' to be. As we will probably see in our lifetime the consequences for the environment of China's 1bn inhabitants achieving Western-consumerist lifestyles are not pretty. Although we don't

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1126903906854388632005-09-17T06:28:00.000+10:002005-09-17T06:51:46.860+10:00

"Why is it that we act like the problem of homelessness is homeless people themselves? Central Atlanta Progress has proposed, and City Hall has often agreed, to the designation of the Central Business District as a "Vagrant Free Zone", a "Sanitized Zone", a "Hospitality Zone". And dozens of "Quality of Life" ordinances have been churned out of here like counterfeit bills: throwing bad money after

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1124189509995472342005-08-16T20:33:00.000+10:002005-08-16T20:51:50.003+10:00

As I head overseas cheap phonecalls become more relevant. This is actually quite easily achieved to some people via Skype. And if you want to hear from me while I'm in the states, this is the way to go.It's a quick and painless download and install and then if you have a microphone and speakers/headphones you can talk to anyone else on Skype for free and you can tell when they're online too. You

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1124169178765688792005-08-16T15:12:00.000+10:002005-08-16T15:16:49.136+10:00

This one is just for the programmers out there. For a long time I've heard great and wonderous stories about what is possible with Lisp. Basically it's made to sound like all programming languages ideas were already fleshed out in the early 50's when John McCarthy created a language that defined languages (and no doubt implemented it on a machine he'd hacked together from a vacuum cleaner and a

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1124166880393489072005-08-16T14:34:00.000+10:002005-08-16T14:34:40.426+10:00

Here's a lesson in not mincing words: The matter is quite simple. The Bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand we are obliged to act accordingly. Take any words in the New Testament and forget everything except pledging yourself to act accordingly. My God

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1122472478410673532005-07-27T21:12:00.000+10:002005-07-30T10:34:17.130+10:00

Jonathan Daniels from New Hampshire in the US was enrolled to become a high-church Episcopal (Anglican) priest in 1965. He was 26. In a little over three weeks it will be the anniversary of his death on the 20th August 1965. A white supporter of civil rights protests in Southern USA, he was killed while shielding a black girl from a shotgun blast.He had earlier written:I lost fear in the black

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1121852946029963772005-07-20T19:49:00.000+10:002005-07-20T19:49:06.090+10:00

I've worked out how to get a copy of my credit rating and I'm pretty chuffed. It's geeky, I know, but I have a good reason. If you go here, the good people at Dun and Bradstreet let you print an application and send it to them for a free copy of your credit file (unlike the bad people at Baycorp Advantage who try to push a $23 fee on you for the same info which the Privacy Commissioner says "are

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1121690313907208492005-07-18T22:38:00.000+10:002005-07-18T22:38:36.480+10:00

"Now, for all its failings and its perversions over the last 2,000 years--and as much as every exponent of this faith has attempted to dodge this idea--it is unarguably the central tenet of Christianity: that everybody is equal in God's eyes. So you cannot, as a Christian, walk away from Africa. America will be judged by God if, in its plenty, it crosses the road from 23 million people suffering

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1119585350340629222005-06-24T13:46:00.000+10:002005-06-24T14:18:10.903+10:00

It seems like its good news week this week, Sojo reports:"The G8 recently announced that, finally, 18 desperately poor countries will receive full cancellation of their debt to the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and African Development Fund. This is fantastic news for those countries, many of which now spend more on debt service than on health care or education."I think this is the last

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1119584688988364322005-06-24T13:21:00.000+10:002005-06-24T13:44:49.010+10:00

Sojo has good news:"Last week, a bipartisan group of members of Congress, led by Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC) and Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-HI), introduced the "Withdrawal of United States Armed Forces from Iraq Resolution." It calls for the administration to announce a plan by the end of the year for troop withdrawal - and to initiate the plan as soon as possible."Sadly it is only the first step in

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1119582995994941212005-06-24T10:08:00.000+10:002005-07-28T00:16:12.626+10:00

"When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist."-- Dom Helder Camara, a Brazilian bishop[1]There's a strain of rhetoric going around that would be amusing if it wasn't so deceptive. Earnest looking concerned journalists ask left-leaning advocates of income redistribution if they are, in fact, fomenting 'class war'. It's one of

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1119489457683525622005-06-23T11:08:00.000+10:002005-06-23T11:17:37.700+10:00

Care of a Mennonite mailing list linked to Christian Peacmaker Teams comes this PDF detailing probably about 20 movies with social justice themes. Everything from 'Pay it Forward' and 'Erin Brokovich' to 'Gandhi' and 'The Corporation', plus a lot more that I'd never heard of. I'd certainly like this library.On a side note I was interested to see they list 'Inherit the Wind' as one of the social

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1119340034012194772005-06-21T17:39:00.000+10:002005-06-21T17:47:14.286+10:00

Love the earth and the sunand the animals,despise riches, give almsto everyone that asks,stand up for the stupidand crazy, devote yourincome and labor to others,hate tyrants, argue notconcerning God...--Walt Whitman

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1118754760050272772005-06-14T22:59:00.000+10:002005-06-14T23:24:03.376+10:00

...or the wage slave. This nifty little program is just a timer that interupts you every so often when you're at the computer to ensure you stretch, get away from the machine every now and then and ever so slightly reduce your risk of carpal tunnel syndrome, RSI, eye strain, trauchoma, cancer or whatever else being bombarded with electrons 8 hours a day could plausibly do to you. It's Open Source

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1115040934082053422005-05-02T23:05:00.000+10:002005-06-14T22:49:17.460+10:00

There's something perversely appropriate about using Flash cartoons to communicate genocide (and international political side-stepping of said ongoing genocide) to the MTV generation. Darfur is the ongoing genocide that doesn't just go away, no matter how many people want it to. With 300,000 dead, not to mention 2 million people without homes or proper living conditions it stretches the limits

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1114251809259073922005-04-23T20:23:00.000+10:002005-04-23T20:25:25.736+10:00

It's that time of year again... break free my friends, viva la revolucion!This card care of my increasingly prolific cousin David. Perhaps in this card we may see some hint as to his prolificacity...

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1114088488902682522005-04-21T23:01:00.000+10:002005-04-23T21:04:24.120+10:00

----- Forwarded message from "david..." -----Date: Thu, 21 Apr 2005 10:51:31 +1000I don't want to forward this! My friends definitely don't want this kind of spam! It's so wet! I'd rather forward Jennifer Anniston's attendance at a baby christening before this.... whatever this is!Gagh!~david.----------------------------------------------------------------------I too think I shall have to pass

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1114074071337558622005-04-21T19:01:00.000+10:002005-04-23T20:27:25.646+10:00

So there's a new Pope and he used to run the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (linked by some to the Inquisition), a position his friend John Paul II appointed him to. My first reaction however was not dissatisfaction with the Roman Catholic Chruch's choice for a leader, not even disappointment that Latin America and indeed non-Europeans had missed out again - my first reaction was

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1113992371966284952005-04-20T20:14:00.000+10:002005-04-20T20:19:31.966+10:00

This is trippy! A moving background causes fixed spots to appear and disappear in seemingly random ways if you hold your focus on a single point.One of those very practical limitations of some of the easy ways our senses can be tricked. Even more impressive, you can slow the movement right down and increase the size of the dissappearing dots without it making much difference at all!

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1113908119786580942005-04-19T20:55:00.000+10:002005-04-19T20:59:30.050+10:00

Eternal gratitude goes to my cousin David for sending me a link to PostSecret. It's a standard Blogger formula blog, just like mine, but the idea is that readers post the blogger a postcard, preferably a creatively presented handmade one, and he posts them. The postcards contain a secret the sender wants to share but is too scared to tell anyone they know. Be warned, some of them are quite

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1113905807223084602005-04-19T20:16:00.000+10:002005-04-19T20:22:59.910+10:00

Geek news website Slashdot has new news on the asteroid MN4, discovered last year (full name '2004 MN4'). It initially seemed it would hit earth in 2029 but further research is fairly certain it will miss but by the closest margin on record (and if you trust the scientists it's best to be in Europe, Africa or Asia in 2029 to catch the lightshow).However, the new news is that calculations of its

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1113734732021000932005-04-17T20:45:00.000+10:002005-04-19T21:01:10.663+10:00

Did you know housing is more affordable in New York than in Sydney and more affordable in Miami than Melbourne? Would it concern you to know that it would take twice as many years salary in Sydney to buy a house as it would in Chicago?Crikey logged a reference to the Demographia International Housing Affordability Ratings & Rankings which is an American group's comparison of average wages and

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1113698075111879792005-04-17T10:34:00.000+10:002005-04-17T10:45:58.836+10:00

The Christian Science Monitor has a story on speculations in Latin America leading up to the decision on the next pope. There is widespread hope for a Latin American pope, and after all "As many as 450 million of the world's 1.1 billion Catholics live in Latin America".The implications are profound: "While the top issues in the US and European Catholic communities are things like homosexuality,

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1112004927576915142005-03-28T20:04:00.000+10:002005-03-28T20:15:27.583+10:00

ZUG has a humorously presented and informative prank. I've had a number of those 'They never bother to check the signature' conversations but this guy gets practical and tests the boundaries, and in the US at least they seem to be pretty broad. The blurb:"Every time you make a credit card purchase, they're supposed to match your signature against the one on the back of your card. Nobody seems to

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1111586436067895032005-03-24T00:16:00.000+11:002005-03-24T01:01:36.840+11:00

I was coming back from Macquarie uni at about 9:30 tonight wand my bus driver had been getting a little tetchy. Mostly at a Westy boy who first forgot to move out of the way of the back doors when they opened, which earned him a stern talking to from the driver and then pressed the red emergency button in the disabled seats section which brought the bus to a stand-still for a few seconds... and

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1111583719966327212005-03-23T23:32:00.000+11:002005-03-24T01:02:52.216+11:00

Steve Davis, who a few of you may know, and one of you may be :), recently remarked in his best pedagogical style "You build community by eating together, by having fun together and by working together". I thought that was rather succinct.How does your church (or socio-political organisation du jour) rate at community building in that assessment? Where does community come in its priorities?My old

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1111116153377262522005-03-18T14:22:00.000+11:002006-02-24T08:29:42.313+11:00

This is a very interesting read. A freelance jounalist writing for the SMH sees a link between consumerism and a reduction in the number of people having kids. She reflects on the decisions her parents made to have kids and just make ends meet.So, what is the generational effect of all the influential, trendy, cosmopolitan professionals deciding they can't afford kids? ... a shift to the Right

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101936.post-1110941579118578162005-03-16T13:52:00.000+11:002005-03-16T13:52:59.116+11:00

Mystery shoppers hit London churches | The Register An interesting article on the world-wide web church, the 'eChurch' you might say, aka Ship-of-Fools.com. They're sending out Mystery Shoppers (or Mystery Worshippers) to review the sermon length, pew comfort and coffee quality of London's churches this Sunday. Their online, virtual church is their other big idea, but it was hit by racist/

jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16448193289603574422noreply@blogger.com0