A New Week, A New Approach

OK, so it's not really a "new" approach it's more of a refocused approach.



Still no job, still no prospects for a job but somehow I just know that it only means that when God opens the right door it is going to be simply amazing. See, I can ice skate on those waves, just like Peter.

Russell Would Have Been In This Picture, But The White Railing Ruined It

My good friend Russell (who, once upon a time, was going to run for office with me on what was going to be a groundbreaking bi-racial ticket) took his grandmother, Isaac, to the Inauguration. Isaac also happens to be the founder of our local NAACP chapter, and is also a very sweet lady. Somehow, she scored an inaugural ticket that also landed her in the second-tier, loge section.

I didn't realize that I might actually be able to see Russell and his grandmother on the Giant, ten-trillion Gigapixel, multi-stitched patchwork photo that is making the rounds. I called him up to ask him where he was sitting, and within the hour, Russell was at my place of employment with a photo album in tow. Man did he have some cool stories.

Their proximity and placement killed the chance for the hi-res thing, but Russell did manage to get a nice series of pictures of Alicia Keys (who was sitting in front of him), right along with Samuel L. Jackson, Don King, and Dustin Hoffman. That would be a bit surreal in and of itself.

Click on the picture to see an unbelievable pixellated composite. And before you write off this thing as a panoramic oddity, start clicking on an area (say the President), and see just how close it brings you. Amazing. Just for kicks, try to see the faces of the people pictured farthest away. Still recognizable.

Oh, and if you have a dial-up modem, just forget it.

-R

Quote For The Day

Nobody saw more clearly than the great political thinker de Tocqueville that democracy stands in an irreconcilable conflict with socialism: "Democracy extends the sphere of individual freedom," he said. "Democracy attaches all possible value to each man," he said in 1848, "while socialism makes each man a mere agent, a mere number. Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word: equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude."

To allay these suspicions and to harness to its cart the strongest of all political motives—the craving for freedom — socialists began increasingly to make use of the promise of a "new freedom." Socialism was to bring "economic freedom," without which political freedom was "not worth having."

To make this argument sound plausible, the word "freedom" was subjected to a subtle change in meaning. The word had formerly meant freedom from coercion, from the arbitrary power of other men. Now it was made to mean freedom from necessity, release from the compulsion of the circumstances which inevitably limit the range of choice of all of us. Freedom in this sense is, of course, merely another name for power or wealth. The demand for the new freedom was thus only another name for the old demand for a redistribution of wealth.

-F.A. Hayek, The Road To Serfdom

Stories for Our Time

Author Michael Lewis (Liar's Poker) is also an insightful journalist with far reaching interests who's comfortable in the long form.

For me, he wrote the definitive (accessible) piece on how the financial bubble burst, and the multiple stupidities involved, by focusing on a man who saw it coming - and made millions betting on its arrival while everyone else continued to only proclaim sunny skies ahead. It's all in The End of Wall Street's Boom:

"There was only one thing that bothered Eisman, and it continued to trouble him as late as May 2007. “The thing we couldn’t figure out is: It’s so obvious. Why hasn’t everyone else figured out that the machine is done?”"

Eisman shorted everything and everyone because no one could explain how everyone was making money. (Shorting is betting the price will fall.) That's good advice in any area.

And In The World of Sports

What are the characteristics of a basketball player who rarely scores points, makes assists, or blocks shots, but almost always ensures your team wins. Lewis covers it as a whodunit in The No-Stats All-Star:

"In the statistically insignificant sample of professional athletes I’ve come to know a bit, two patterns have emerged. The first is, they tell you meaningful things only when you talk to them in places other than where they have been trained to answer questions. It’s pointless, for instance, to ask a basketball player about himself inside his locker room. For a start, he is naked; for another, he’s surrounded by the people he has learned to mistrust, his own teammates. The second pattern is the fact that seemingly trivial events in their childhoods have had huge influence on their careers. A cleanup hitter lives and dies by a swing he perfected when he was 7; a quarterback has a hitch in his throwing motion because he imitated his father. Here, in the Detroit Country Day School library, a few yards from the gym, Battier was back where he became a basketball player. And he was far less interested in what happened between him and Kobe Bryant four months ago than what happened when he was 12."

Both are great articles that tell you a lot about our world today.

A Month in the Life . . . Collideoscope Style

I've been pretty much MIA from Collideoscope for months and months now. As many of you know, I was finishing my Masters degree and I'm happy to report that as of December I now posses a M.S. in Global Affairs!

That's the bright side.

The down side is that I've spent the last two months looking for a job, and probably to no one's surprise, have had zero luck so far. It's not all bleak, I'm working part-time for a wonderful organization and getting some paid experience in the field (which is much needed and appreciated). Anyway, the bottom line is that I've spent way too much time sitting in Borders, drinking coffee and trying to find ways to fill my days.

After talking to Kent, I've decided to start blogging about this experience. Personally, I'm hoping that it helps me process my feelings, thoughts and faith as I try to figure out what the next phase of my life has in store. I warn you in advance, I have every intention of being brutally honest and open. I welcome your feedback and input.

So let me bring everyone up to date on exactly where things stand.

I'm 31, living in New York City, just completed a Masters degree and am semi-employed. I have exactly one week to find a job or I have to tell my landlord that I'm moving out at the end of March. If that happens I will be moving in with a friend for the month of April while continuing to look for a job. Long-term - no job - scenario . . . if May rolls around without employment I am packing up my life and moving back in with my parents in Los Angeles.

I have no idea where God wants me to go or what he wants me to do with the next phase of my life. See, unlike with some people, the Lord has never written anything on my living room wall (lucky Belshazzar), he's never had a visiting evangelist (or my pastor for that matter) prophecy over me and I've never received a letter in the mail which directed me where I should go. Consequently, it's just me, a lot of prayer and moving toward an open door until the Lord either closes it or takes me through it.

I'm just beginning to wonder what you do when you've run out of options and there isn't an open door?

American Idol Alert!

Yes, we've had Apostolics almost make and make the American Idol cut in the past, but now we're told an ex-Apostolic is still in the running.

Excerpted from an email:

"Michael Sarver is from Jasper, TX and is in the top 36 on American Idol. Michael was formerly raised UPC too. Vote for him on American Idol and pray that he returns to his roots and can be a witness to others. Anyway, more than being famous, I pray he gets back in church."

I'm told his mother still attends a UPC church in August and was on the show tonight.

Irony Alert: Sloganeering, Atheist Bus Breaks Down

I post this, thinking that the atheists themselves got a sort of retroactive chortle out of the entire picture:

GENOA, Italy, Feb. 16 (UPI) -- Atheists' first rolling advertisement in Italy got off to an ignominious start Monday when the bus touting their doubt in God, perhaps inexplicably, conked out.

No sooner had the bus -- carrying the message "The Good News Is There Are Millions of Atheists In Italy; The Excellent News Is They Believe In Freedom Of Expression" -- headed out onto the streets of Genoa than it developed a battery problem and had to head back to the depot for repairs, ANSA reported.

''By pure chance,'' a member of the Italian Union of Atheists, Agnostics and Rationalists told the Italian news agency, ''the vehicle left the depot bright and early but had to go straight back because of a 'curious' problem with the batteries."

My favorite phrase in that cross section above? "By pure chance." Tell me they had a straight face when they said that, because I for one think it was a cleverly devised way to surf the moment. And a well done one at that.

-R

Save Money Now!

In tough times, it's always wise to figure out money-saving ideas. Here's a comprehensive article on how to "Save $50 a Day (and Feel No Pain)."

Take your time & go through it. Every little bit helps.

Trending Southward: Is Another Holocaust Possible?

Granted, you normally have to be paying hyper vigilant attention to actually catch the frequency of this kind of reporting. But this one was a bit too stark to be missed. For anyone wondering whether or not I gave more than a fleeting thought to my title question, please understand, I did. And since it truly appears that America will be emulating the European model in nearly every way and to its demise, this should be disconcerting at the very least:

The Anti-Defamation League said Tuesday that a survey it commissioned found nearly a third of Europeans polled blame Jews for the global economic meltdown and that a greater number think Jews have too much power in the business world.

The organization, which says its aim is "to stop the defamation of Jewish people and secure justice and fair treatment to all," says the seven-nation survey confirms that anti-Semitism remains strong.

The poll included interviews with 3,500 people - 500 each in Austria, Britain, France, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Spain.

It says that in Spain, 74 percent of those asked say they feel it is "probably true" that Jews hold too much sway over the global financial markets. That is the highest percentage in the survey.

Add this in with Geert Wilders' being out-and-out banned from the UK (and subsequently arrested and deported) for merely being critical of Islam in cinema, and the picture is gloomier than I wish it was. If these numbers continue to climb and the metastasizes to the west, we might just see the final full court press to abandon Israel completely.

Of course, the Bible simply lays it out as a default mechanism.

Maybe it's just me. But do. You. Feel. It. Getting. Colder?

-R

Katy Perry's Pentecostal Past

So while Katy Perry's Grammy moment had her shouting through her "I Kissed a Girl" hit while simultaneously struggling to dance without noticeable rhythmn, the song was easily (sadly) one of the big hits of 2008.

Turns out, she grew up Pentecostal:

"Couric pointed out that growing up with her preacher parents meant that she often spoke in tongues, channeling messages from God — which Couric added is a Pentecostal practice. "It's exactly that," Perry, who will be performing at the show on Sunday, explained. "There was a movie called 'Jesus Camp,' and I watched it and I went, 'Oh my gosh! I didn't know they had behind-the-scenes footage of my childhood!' " "

Her album is hooky, so it's perfect pop. It's just sad to see her choosing pseudo-lesbianism to get noticed.

Someone somewhere needs to do a study on all the people who grew up Pentecostal & then had their pop star moments.

Kadma Party For Israel?

Looks like the preliminary predictions for the Israeli election were off--at least by a slim margin:

With voting stations officially closed, exit polls at 10 p.m. suggested that
Kadima would win the general elections on Tuesday.

However, due to the dramatic rise in support of the Likud and Israel Beiteinu, it seemed that Likud chairman Binyamin Netanyahu would have a better chance than Kadima head Tzipi Livni of forming the next coalition.

Not sure exactly how the parliamentary stuff works with them. Maybe the Prime Minister's job is contingent on a plurality of seats. We'll see. read the rest, here.

-R

Apostolic Rascal Flatts Cover . . ?

Graphic Designer (and sometime 90&9 Youth Congress reporter) Rick Brewer has a chance at being the winner of the Album Cover Design Contest being run by the Rascal Flats. Fans were asked to submit their creations and the group narrowed the nominees to four possibilities. The winner, as voted by you, gets to see their creation produced for millions.

This contest has already garnered attention from USA Today, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, & Street Insider.

Take a moment and vote for his cover (It's the top left design). You can vote every 24 hours, so help a fellow Pentecostal out!

Netanyahu Poised To Win Israeli Election

At least that's how it looks from some of the targeted polling and research by The Jerusalem Post. And since platforms regarding national security tend to ring a whole lot clearer over there than they do here, one can understand why:

"Jerusalem will not be divided and Gamla will not fall again," Likud chairman and prime ministerial candidate Binyamin Netanyahu said Sunday during a tour of the Golan Heights.

Accompanied by Likud members Moshe Ya'alon, Yossi Peled, Bennie Begin and Efi Eitam, Netanyahu arrived in the North to participate in Tu Bishvat tree planting.

"If Kadima wins," he said, "we will not have the Golan Heights and will only continue ceding territory. Peace is made with the strong, not the weak. Israel with the Golan Heights is a strong state and not a weak state which gives away its assets."

And even the dullest of military tacticians or even an array of guys that infuse Tzun Tzu rhetoric into their paintball tournaments know that self preservation and safety for one's people will not include a real estate deal that cedes the hills that overlook the valleys. And Tuesday, the world will find out whether the Israeli population assents to the primary crux of the election--that the Kadima party will try to advance the cause of peace by handing over the Golan heights. And the world will see whether or not Israel has learned the lessons of Gaza.

But Israel, for all their vain, backslidden fog, still seems to understand that they are surrounded--literally--by nations that want to eliminate them. Thus a less-euphonious-but-no-less-audible reverberation of the need for the strong man to guard the house.

-R

Wikipedia: Authored By A Core Group Of 500?

It never occurred to me that Wikipedia's giant, user-edited database may actually garner most of its updates from a benevolent cabal of Trivial Pursuit Goliaths. And that's what my favorite tech-blogger, Jeff Atwood, tries to iron out:

When you visit Wikipedia's entry on asphalt, you get some reasonably reliable information about asphalt. What you don't get, however, is any indication of who the author is. That's because the author is irrelevant. Wikipedia is a community effort, the result of tiny slices of effort contributed by millions of people around the world. The focus is on the value of the aggregated information, not who the individual authors are.

But who is that community? According to Jimmy Wales, most of the work on Wikipedia is done by a tightly knit Gang of 500:

The links in the quote go to the places Atwood references. But check out the lengths he goes to to check the veracity of this.

Only a programmer . . .

-R

Alas, Poor America, I Hardly Knew Ye

So the pressing question of the day is this: When more journalistic and intellectual energy is devoted to Jessica Simpson's weight gain controversy than a Congressional mortgage that spends more money than we ever borrowed between the revolutionary war and the Carter Administration, what exactly does it say about our country?

Instead of endless reporting on something that isn't a flaw, just a collateral effect of affluence, comfortable living, hormones and age indexes (something that may affect a career), perhaps our media should focus their energies on an emerging weakness that may have a profound effect on our nation. A president's pedestrian rhetorical ability invested with preposterous spiritual gravity.

Captain Cook's claims of incarnation were quickly dashed, when, as Mark Twain put it, "betrayed his earthly origin with a groan." His entire protracted imperialist blueprint was obliterated--right along with him--when the Hawaiians discovered he was but a mortal.

Worth noting, as the days become more and more occluded and tumultuous. What's it going to take for America to lose its Brangelina trance?

-R

Pentecostal in the White House

Did you know that President Obama is revamping the faith-based initiatives program and that the new White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships is being headed by a 26-year-old Pentecostal minister?

Some background on Joshua DuBois, who calls Nashville home.

And A Follow Up On The Heroic

Seems Captain Sullenberger demonstrated the kind of coolness that doesn't befit the panicked opportunists in the halls of Congress right now. I wonder how a "stimulus bill" might go down if Captain Sully were at the helm?

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Off the hook.

-R

The Truth Project

On the invitation of someone that attends a denominational church in my town, I have attended for the last two weeks what is in reality, the second and third installments of a modular series called The Truth Project.

This work, produced by Focus on the Family, is a DVD series, each lesson broken down into hour-long segments. The group at large is then broken down into smaller "discussion groups," where what is taught during the lesson can be given at least a small degree of traction in the mind before one leaves.

This program is stunning. And though I am one who demurs from any real criticism of apostolic organizational issues (as I'd have to get in a very long queue do do it anyway), I do feel that this kind of thing is something we rarely see. And since apostolics are entering the world of academia at unprecedented rates, it would be wise to fully comprehend the philosophical, anthropological, musical, and humanistic poisons that await--not the blatant things that assault one's faith at face value, but the subtle "pernicious lies" as Dr. Tackett calls them--that place us in handcuffs we aren't even aware are being applied.

The Cosmic Cube

The video features a one Dr. Del Tackett, who using an apologetics framework derived from CS Lewis' Mere Christianity. The first session I attended involved a central theme of the program, involving the "Cosmic Cube," or "The Box." This box contains every philosophy, moray, theory and prognostication man can possibly conjure to explain the universe. God, of course, lives outside the box, where his Transcendency is ignored, impugned, and explained away. Dr. Tackett-- supremely gifted teacher--illustrates how luminaries like Carl Sagan, Rousseau, Maslow and Hawking, along with a myriad of ancient philosophers--all try to explain a cold, limited accidental existence, while battling with the very voice of creation which proclaims God is who He is.

What Is Evil?

The third installment details the over saturation of Abraham Maslow's teaching particularly his "Hierarchy of Needs." By the time one has written about this goofy, pyramidic chart for tenth consecutive class, Maslow becomes the default standard, even if it is from narcoleptic coercion.

Dr. Tackett doesn't shy away from the world's foremost humanistic thinkers, but plunges headlong into what they've really established. And using Maslow's assertions that there is no "inherent evil" in man, coupled with his "self-actualization" capstone, Tackett exposes alarmingly inconsistent theories, incapable of marrying at the altar of logic. Footage from various adversarial events, interviews from notorious killers claiming "self actualization devoid of a God," and man-on -the-street comments intersperse throughout, giving cultural snapshots of these theories in play.

But his main point being, that even atheists admit to there existing what they call "evil." They just can't see it emanating from a fallen state. And to do so means they have to admit to a "broken" plan, with an "unbroken" one being preferential. Thus an arrow--pointing upward.

I know I ran long here. Click here to view the trailer (see the long version), or the picture to see the events surrounding this. A smart, and scriptural, look at rebuilding our arts and sciences.

UPDATE: Or . . . just watch this:

-R

Too Funny Not to Share

I've seen this in cartoons, but in real life..?

Pop Music Alert: Beyonce

Okay, I don't live for music & I'm always late to the party on new releases, but...

Beyonce's "If I Were a Boy" makes me ache. Of all her songs (that I've heard), it's the first genuine hit that only she could have sung. (Which is the 2nd level of Greatness.) To me, she's a secular Sandi Patti--amazing voice without a signature sound. (Which is the 1st level of Greatness.)

But, when you're lovely to look at and barely clothed on your album photos, you don't need a signature sound. But that doesn't mean you're doing much besides making money.

So, I've always felt she was overrated and soon-to-be-forgotten; but now . . . maybe not. (Can't say the rest of her new album impressed me, but we'll see what else she sings in the near future.)

The music video is tepid and almost completely disconnected from the song lyrics, so if you haven't heard it, listen closely but don't bother watching it. Then let me know what you think.

Every Parent's Dream

From this week's New Yorker.

Sexting Anyone?

So it had to happen - any technology can be used for positive or negative. Turns out the great freedom that cell phones give each user, also allows teens to send nude pictures of themselves to each other, mainly girls to guys ...

"Some teens send the graphic photos of themselves to boyfriends, and some teens send them to prospective boyfriends or girlfriends in a graphic update of the old calling card. Either way, the images might meet the legal definition of child pornography, and the trend is raising moral and legal dilemmas along with a heavy dose of good old-fashioned shock."

While this isn't a shock, just an unwelcome surprise, the legal ramifications are severe and largely uncharted. (I've even heard second-hand that this has been an issue at some of our youth camps, though I can't verify that.)

What's most interesting to me is a teenager commented on this story (at the bottom of the article) proclaiming:

"EVERYONE NEEDS TO STOP BEING SO PARANOID ABOUT THIS.

First, PLEASE stop calling it ''sexting''. No one uses that word. It's dumb. Second, guys don't pressure girls into sending nude pictures. EVER. They always ALWAYS ask (if they ask at all) "wanna send me some pix" and it is completely the girl's decision whether she will or not, and then if she does she can always just send a picture of her face. I was asked just the other day for these pictures, and I told him my camera was broken. He kept pushing, so I sent a picture of my face. He called me "stunning" and then proceeded to send me two pictures of himself with his shirt off without me saying anything! It was, needless to say, disgusting."

So, is this our sex-crazed media latching onto a story of a few sex-crazed deviants and blowing it out of proportion, or is this the unveiling of a persistent problem that will always be with us?

In Case...

...you don't check our other blogs:

* "Month in the Life" offers its final missive.

* CompassionART is out. Ann offers her response to this lively CD that features Israel, Chris Tomlin, CeCe and others in a review and on Notes.

Have a Darwin Day

A UGST graduate is celebrating Darwin's (upcoming) 200th birthday and the 150th anniversary of The Origin of Species on February 12th (Darwin Day), by daily blogging on evolution, creationism, intelligent design, and the Genesis account of creation.

So go visit Creation Moment. It's definitely worth perusing.

Dutch Lawmaker Faces Possible Prison Over Criticism Of World's Most Peaceful Religion

Of course I say that last part tongue-in-cheek, as I currently retain both. This man, however, may not in a few months:

A member of parliament in the Netherlands who has been charged with "insulting" Muslims says he fears he will be found guilty and sent to prison in only a few months.

An appeals court on Wednesday overturned a previous decision by prosecutors not to charge Geert Wilders, and ordered that he stand trial.

Sounds almost like Nancy Pelosi's running the Kangaroo court over there. This--is downright chilling. And anyone that believes these things will be isolated to the Dutch shores doesn't know the meaning of "Jihad." A man like me isn't given much hope in this life, anyway, when the new President's first concern in office was to make sure the genocidal maniacs at Guantanamo Bay aren't forced to acknowledge the five pillars in substandard housing, possibly moving them into a congressional district that doesn't even have a proper prison (the sheer irony of Jack Murtha, a congressman that slandered our Marines at Haditha with no evidence, would wind himself into a tortured little ball of hospitality for terrorists. next thing you know, tax evaders will be running the IRS).

I already feel safer. Hope and Change, baby!

-R

All The Best, Mr. President

As you acclimate to the tangible shift of gravity, may God be with you and your family, sir. I'll be praying for you. As will many. And though the upcoming days will have their sheer moments of ideological logrolling and dispute amongst peaceful men, today is not that day.

All the best, Captain.

-R

From The "Shooting Fish In A Barrel" Column

Bro. Curry asked us to provide our "predictions" for the year 2009, which was then pooled here. The above title refers to the non-clarivoiant nature of one of my predictions:

"That our new and energetic President will discover that those that hated America before he was president will hate America after he was president as well. "

Looks like Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez, is already running with the template:

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez apparently doesn't appreciate Barack Obama's classifying him as a supporter of Colombian terror group, FARC, likening the president-elect's odor to that of Chavez nemesis President Bush.

In an interview airing on Venezuelan television and reported by The Washington Post Monday, Chavez said Obama has "the same stench" as Bush. The comment harkens back to September 2006, when Chavez followed Bush at an appearance at the United Nations General Assembly opening and said he could still smell the "sulfur" left behind by the U.S. president's presence at the podium.

The thing that should be the most disconcerting isn't the fact that the nefariously addled, possessed and intoxicated are going to continue fulminating and calling for the death of America. The thing that should concern all is an insular media that will pretend that all dangers and perils facing this country face an exit on January 20th. The American press is far more than just a little infatuated with Mr. Obama, but are given to near intercessory moments in his presence. This is neither healthy for a press that--in my opinion--needs to die a structural death anyway, nor Mr. Obama, who will hopefully overcome the throng of "yes men" who actually see in him a messianic backdrop.

To the media, it was funny when Chavez told the UN General Assembly he could "smell" Mr. Bush's stench. Now it isn't so funny anymore to them. Looks like the only stench now is the one emanating from the New York Times and the Seattle Post-Intelligencier.

-R

The Wonderfully Obligatory Post

Not even sure where to begin.

I'm sure a higher-resolution video will manage to surface eventually, but this one gets more amazing every time I see it.

At 3:31:02 we see the plane enter from the left, already broaching the water.

By 3:31:41, after the Coast Guard camera zooms in, we already see a good number of people evacuated to both wings.

At 3:33:58, we see just how fast the Hudson River's current is actually moving.

At 3:34:42, we see the first ferry boat reach the plane to provide assistance. Let's do the math:

3:34:42

-3:31:02

_________

0:03:40

I'm downright blown away by this. 155 souls, including one infant. Saved. Quite possibly the most gratifying thing I will see for a very long time.

Honorable mention here. Notice how that ferry boat races to the plane, makes the proximal arrival, and immediately assumes a congruent, downward current trajectory with the plane. Those crew members--all of them--the pilot, the flight attendants, the rescuers--every last one of them--are my heroes.

-R

Download Info, "Gig Economy" & More

Get a nice cultural snapshot of the moment at my post on "Month in the Life".

The Perfect Job

As I'm currently in the market for a new job when I saw this one posted I KNEW it was for me.

It's being billed as "the best job in the world" - six months working as a "caretaker" on Hamilton Island in Australia's Great Barrier Reef. As if these weren't enough, the job comes with a pay packet of nearly £70,000 (that's almost USD$105,000) and a rent-free three-bedroom villa, complete with pool. In return, the successful applicant will be expected to spend the six-month contract exploring the idyllic surroundings, filing weekly blog, photo diary and video updates and conducting "ongoing media interviews".

The job is open to applicants from around the world, starts in July - which is Australia's winter but where temperatures on the island rarely drop below 80, and seems way too good to be true. So, now the question is how do I go about beating out the other 2 million unemployed people who are so busy trying to apply that they've crashed the website?

Kudos to the marketing genius who came up with this idea in an effort to bolster Australia's tourism industry.

Free "Fiction Family" Download!

Jon Foreman of Switchfoot and Sean Watkins of Nickel Creek have joined forces to create “Fiction Family.” Their self-titled debut album will be released on January 20 via ATO Records/Credential Recordings.

They’ve graced ninetyandnine.com with a free download off the CD, to be available Tuesday night, January 13-January 20, 2009. Don’t miss out on this exclusive listen on this exciting new project or read/hear more at their website!

The Best Job in the World

Tired of winter yet?  Ready to escape?  How about spending a few months relaxing on a tropical island.  How about living in a multimillion dollar beach home and snorkelling the Great Barrier Reef.  How about getting paid for it .

 

josh r

Gospel is Good News to Atheists Too

After hearing the remarkable remarks of the pro-proselytizing atheist, Penn Jillette, it was fascinating to read this article by another committed atheist, Matthew Parris.  In it he makes a strong case--based on his own personal experiences--that Africa needs Christian missionaries more than secular aid organizations.  Having grown up in and toured Africa he concludes that where Christian missionaries where hard at work, the people were better off.

 

Now a confirmed atheist, I've become convinced of the enormous contribution that Christian evangelism makes in Africa: sharply distinct from the work of secular NGOs, government projects and international aid efforts. These alone will not do. Education and training alone will not do. In Africa Christianity changes people's hearts. It brings a spiritual transformation. The rebirth is real. The change is good.

 

He goes on to claim that many in Africa are suffering under the burden of an oppressing paradigm.  The only thing that can change this oppression is supplanting it with another paradigm.  So why not atheism or pure secular humanism?  While Parris doesn't venture an opinion, is it possible that he feels the logical oppression of his own paradigm?  At any rate, two atheists calling for more evangelism from Christians has brought me to a place of personal repentance.  Because it is not just in Africa that Christ brings spiritual transformation, rebirth, and change, it should also be in Clermont, FL.

 

josh r

Astronomy On Steroids

Think this picture is some pixellated, CGI construct? Think again:

Explanation: In the shadow of Saturn, unexpected wonders appear. The robotic Cassini spacecraft now orbiting Saturn recently drifted in giant planet's shadow for about 12 hours and looked back toward the eclipsed Sun. Cassini saw a view unlike any other. First, the night side of Saturn is seen to be partly lit by light reflected from its own majestic ring system. Next, the rings themselves appear dark when silhouetted against Saturn, but quite bright when viewed away from Saturn and slightly scattering sunlight, in the above exaggerated color image. Saturn's rings light up so much that new rings were discovered, although they are hard to see in theabove image. Visible in spectacular detail, however, is Saturn's E ring, the ring created by the newly discovered ice-fountains of the moon Enceladus, and the outermost ring visible above. Far in the distance, visible on the image left just above the bright main rings, is the almost ignorable pale blue dot of Earth.

Click the image for even larger luminosity.

-R

Atlas Shrugged: From Farce To Fact In Only 50 Years

And Stephen Moore from the Wall St. Journal's not sure anything close to resembling America will be around for a sequel:

Many of us who know Rand's work have noticed that with each passing week, and with each successive bailout plan and economic-stimulus scheme out of Washington, our current politicians are committing the very acts of economic lunacy that "Atlas Shrugged" parodied in 1957, when this 1,000-page novel was first published and became an instant hit.

And:

For the uninitiated, the moral of the story is simply this: Politicians invariably respond to crises -- that in most cases they themselves created -- by spawning new government programs, laws and regulations. These, in turn, generate more havoc and poverty, which inspires the politicians to create more programs . . . and the downward spiral repeats itself until the productive sectors of the economy collapse under the collective weight of taxes and other burdens imposed in the name of fairness, equality and do-goodism.

* * *

David Kelley, the president of the Atlas Society, which is dedicated to promoting Rand's ideas, explains that "the older the book gets, the more timely its message." He tells me that there are plans to make "Atlas Shrugged" into a major motion picture -- it is the only classic novel of recent decades that was never made into a movie. "We don't need to make a movie out of the book," Mr. Kelley jokes. "We are living it right now."

Wouldn't be holding my breath for a follow-up, entitled Taxes Shrugged, either.

-R

Shocker: Parents Matter

I know. I know. Only the behind the vaunted walls of science can we arrive at the following conclusions:

The difference between male and female brains may come down to something as simple as a mother’s touch.

Treating a baby boy like a girl and vice versa can change the way their brains work, new research suggests.

It had previously been thought that such things were decided long before birth.

This, of course, on the informative-to-revelatory ratio, pales in comparison to the following conclusion, achievable only through the most labyrinthine research methods:

The research, reported in the New Scientist, challenges the long-accepted belief that the physical differences between a male and female brain are genetic.

Celia Moore, of the University of Massachusetts, said: “Sex may not be just genes and hormones.”

Copy that. Color me informed.

-R

Michael Moore Already Thorn In Obama's Side

If it isn't bad enough that Rick Warren's got people rending their clothes for sackcloth and ashes, now, the President-Elect can't even appoint a legitimate doctor to the highest medical position in the land without having to run them through the "Castro-is-god" prism:

Citing a lack of experience, Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) is leading an effort to thwart Barack Obama’s expected nomination of CNN’s Sanjay Gupta to become surgeon general.

But there are also indications that Conyers’s opposition is linked to a 2007 public clash between Gupta and the liberal filmmaker Michael Moore.

The House Judiciary Committee chairman doesn’t have a vote, or a formal role, in the anticipated Gupta nomination. Yet, he is lobbying the Senate and the incoming president to reject Gupta.

Michael Moore, of course, being the picture of health himself. The coming clash with Conyers points up a very vivid intersect between Mr. Obama's idealist protractions with the "real world" of entrenched congressional dogmas. I don't know terribly much about Mr. Sanjay, above and beyond his telegenetic appeal, but man. Just because he might think that, you know, Michael Moore's affinity for Cuba's free and horrible health care system may not be the best template for the American model . . . I for one hope Mr. Obama sticks to his guns on this one.

-R

Extraterrestrials Now Attacking Alternative Fuel Sources

Or . . . something:

At the nearby wind farm one of the 60ft blades from a 200ft turbine was found ripped off. Another had been left twisted and useless.

So far, so mysterious, except - of course - to the UFO experts.

For them, the strange goings on at a wind farm in Conisholme, Lincolnshire, can be explained by a flying saucer crashing into the turbine in a close encounter that could, at last, provide the evidence of other life forms they have been waiting for all their lives.

John Harrison, of nearby Saltfleetby, saw the ball of light and its 'tentacles' over the farm. 'It was an incredible sight, I have never seen anything like it before,' he said. 'I have no idea what it was.'

Odd. Not odd enough for me to buy the whole Roswell/Hangar 18/Megadeth validation thing, but odd nonetheless.


-R

An Interesting Geek: Coding Horror.com

I don't remember what got me reading Jeff Atwood's blog, but I go back to it every few days just to see what he's got going over there.

Don't know what his daily traffic stats are, but anyone that can distill computer programming experience into something I actually want to read is quite a feat. Currently, he's addressing the recent Twitter hijackings, and manages to analyze the human proclivity to create predictable--and therefore vulnerable--passwords for on line accesses. In fact, the guy's a veritable analysis freak. Seems to have tables, charts, breakdowns and stats for nearly everything.

Worth a look.

-R

Psychic Finds Caylee In Exact Spot Where She Was Already Located By Mere Mortals

In the Old Testament, these people were killed outright. Now I think I know why. Not because of the direct, abominable vocation of hanging out one's necromancer shingle, but because you look like an out-of town turtle, just now showing up to the forest fire. Being really annoying must have been 9/10ths of Mosaic Law:

Meanwhile, a psychic said this week she sensed that 2-year-old Caylee's remains were in the wooded area where they were found last month.

The skull and bones were discovered in a bag a half-mile from the Anthony family home in Orlando by a water meter reader, Roy Kronk, who says he called investigators months earlier about a suspicious find there.

Psychic detective Gale St. John, who will star in a forthcoming reality show called "The Body Hunter," told MyFOXOrlando.com she was drawn to the same area on the same day in August that Kronk was — and caught her hunch on video.

Is this even news? Isn't it bad enough that this little girl's death was cruel and heartbreaking, only to have this second-tier Nostradamus pouring retroactive salt into the wounds?

Although, I just called MyFoxOrlando a few minutes ago and told them that President Lincoln would be shot at Ford's Theater. Provided them details too. Maybe they'll get back to me.

-R

Update: Arianna Huffington Aks Forgiveness For Blasphemous Global Warming Article

. . .because, you know, Mother Earth could come back any minute, and she wants to be ready.

This, of course, references my post from the other day, in which I wondered, somewhat sarcastically, how such a well-written piece of anti-totalitarian apostasy ever made it to her site, anyway. Via NewsBusters:

Harold Ambler reached out to me about posting a critical piece on Al Gore and the environment. We are always open to posts that present opinions contrary to HuffPost's editorial view . . .

But,

When Ambler sent his post, I forwarded it to one of our associate blog editors to evaluate, not having read it. I get literally hundreds of posts a week submitted like this and obviously can't read them all -- which is why we have an editorial process in place. The associate blog editor published the post. It was an error in judgment. I would not have posted it. Although HuffPost welcomes a vigorous debate on many subjects, I am a firm believer that there are not two sides to every issue, and that on some issues the jury is no longer out. The climate crisis is one of these issues.

I expect that "associate blog editor" will meet a Trotsky-like fate and be airbrushed from the final manifest.

-R

Atheists Regale British Buses Displaying Slogan Skeptical Of Own Slogan

The irony of these guys is what I enjoy the most.

I have a good many friends--and I mean legitimate friends--who profess to be atheists. I find most of them to be an avatar of the sign to the right, despite their more resolute professions to me verbally. Mainly because their arguments about war, poverty, genocide and pain being either a subset of an impersonal god or no god at all also latently argues that we exist in a broken model of something that had a higher ideal to it. And of course we all know what--or more imporatnly who--that points to.

Now as far as Richard Dawkins goes, I've got to give him props for at least decorating his prevaricating, inaugural slogan in non-threatening pinks with accompanying balloons for the trial run. I think the campaign may be successful. Probably.

-R

Meanwhile, Outside The Static, Academic Bubble . . .

Imagine a siren that gives you 30 seconds to find shelter before a Kassam rocket falls from the sky and explodes, spraying its lethal shrapnel in all directions. Now imagine this happens day after day, month after month, year after year.

If you can imagine that, you can begin to understand the terror to which hundreds of thousands of Israelis have been subjected. Three years ago Israel withdrew from every square inch of Gaza. And since that withdrawal, our civilians have been targeted by more than 6,000 rockets and mortars fired from Gaza. In the face of this relentless bombardment, Israel has acted with a restraint that other countries, faced with a similar threat, would find hard to fathom . . . We fight to defend ourselves, but in so doing we are also fighting a fanatical ideology that seeks to reverse the course of history and throw the civilized world back into a new dark age. The struggle between militant Islam and modernity -- whether fought in Afghanistan, Iraq, India or Gaza -- will decide our common future. It is a battle we cannot afford to lose.

--Benjamin Netanyahu--Wall Street Journal, three hours ago.

Counterpoint

 

Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime.

 

--Ernest Hemingway

 

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed.

 

--Dwight D Eisenhower

 

Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love.  It destroys community and makes brotherhood impossible.  It leaves society in monologue rather than dialogue.  Violence ends by defeating itself.  It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers.  A voice echoes through time saying to every potential Peter, "Put up your sword."

--Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

Do not resist the one who is evil.  But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also...  You have heard that it was said "You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy."  But I say to you love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be sons of your Father who is in Heaven.

--Jesus

 

josh r

War

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.

John Stuart Mill--English economist & philosopher (1806 - 1873)

Al Gore's Glacial Influence Melting

Earlier in the month, I was going to be self-serving and reference something that buttresses the position I've taken from the beginning, but after all, it is 650 scientists making these claims--that the giant, yawning chasm between what can be called "Climate change" and "man-made global warming" is joined only by a suspension bridge of fraud. Click the link. The language is unequivocal, and at least as acerbic as me on the subject. So whatever you may think about the subject, scientific consensus doesn't get to fortify your position anymore, because it doesn't exist.

Me? I'm a man who endures verbal persecution on a daily basis for simply contesting that we've gone from "Don't litter" into an entire secular religion. Being a global warming denier on the modern campus is equated to telling the Nazis that Anne Frank is hiding in the attic as they invade Poland. I may as well be a holocaust denier, according to one of the correspondents in my local paper--all for simply asking how Halliburton managed to cause the ice age, or the global cooling that still has Greenland isolated from its lush, foresty potential.

Now, it looks like one of the uber-leftys from Arianna Huffington's site has had enough, too. I'll get out of the way, and let him have at it, since he does it so well. In part:

Indeed, it is Mr. Gore and his brethren who are flat-Earthers. Mr. Gore states, ad nauseum, that carbon dioxide rules climate in frightening and unpredictable, and new, ways. When he shows the hockey stick graph of temperature and plots it against reconstructed C02 levels in An Inconvenient Truth, he says that the two clearly have an obvious correlation. "Their relationship is actually very complicated," he says, "but there is one relationship that is far more powerful than all the others, and it is this: When there is more carbon dioxide, the temperature gets warmer." The word "complicated" here is among the most significant Mr. Gore has uttered on the subject of climate and is, at best, a deliberate act of obfuscation. Why? Because it turns out that there is an 800-year lag between temperature and carbon dioxide, unlike the sense conveyed by Mr. Gore's graph. You are probably wondering by now -- and if you are not, you should be -- which rises first, carbon dioxide or temperature. The answer? Temperature. In every case, the ice-core data shows that temperature rises precede rises in carbon dioxide by, on average, 800 years. In fact, the relationship is not "complicated." When the ocean-atmosphere system warms, the oceans discharge vast quantities of carbon dioxide in a process known as de-gassing. For this reason, warm and cold years show up on the Mauna Loa C02 measurements even in the short term. For instance, the post-Pinatubo-eruption year of 1993 shows the lowest C02 increase since measurements have been kept. When did the highest C02 increase take place? During the super El Niño year of 1998.

Ouch. And this is just one paragraph. His entire takedown is brutal, factual, and not only backed up with pointed data, it also simultaneously addresses the repulsive, totalitarian hand in the puppet that is Global Warming:

To be told, as I have been, by Mr. Gore, again and again, that carbon dioxide is a grave threat to humankind is not just annoying, by the way, although it is that! To re-tool our economies in an effort to suppress carbon dioxide and its imaginary effect on climate, when other, graver problems exist is, simply put, wrong.

How this essay made it to Huffington's Post, I have no idea.

-R

US Lawmakers Worried About Coming Apocalypse

You guess which apocalypse has lawmakers laying awake at night:

a) A sudden, lightning fast invasion of our shores by a raping and pillaging Chinese military.

b) The detonation of a crudely-formed, radioactive dirty bomb by Islamic fundamentalists.

c) America's television viewing making a precipitous drop.

If you guessed "c," you are correct:

The Feb. 17 transition from analog to digital television broadcasts looms and as many as 8 million households are still unprepared, but the government program that
subsidizes crucial TV converter boxes is about to run out of money.

People who still rely on analog TV sets to pick up over-the-air signals — whether it is through rabbit-ear aerials on TVs or antennas on the roof — will see their screens go dark when the changeover happens. To avoid that, those people have to switch to cable or satellite TV, buy a television set with a digital tuner or buy a converter box that can translate digital signals from the airwaves into analog.

If you surf over to the article proper, you won't find even the faintest hint of indignation--the kind that should exist when the government is willing to toss this kind of money at a frivolity. But no. We are literally talking about saving the very fabric of American culture; falling far short of heroic measures and simply providing the water and air needed for life essential:

Now the NTIA is warning that unless lawmakers step in quickly with more funding or new accounting rules, it will have to create a waiting list for coupon requests. That would mean it could send out additional coupons only as unredeemed ones expire, freeing up more money for the program.

Do you feel the extreme, "imminent threat" to Americans? Do you see the grappling hooks of the apocalypse coming over the starboard side? You don't? Well, let the Associated Press paint the picture for you:

In other words, if Congress doesn't act soon, consumers who apply for coupons in the final weeks leading up to the digital transition might not get them in time.

If Congress doesn't act soon? I have a feeling MSNBC , the AP , and Congress would support waterboarding children in the HeadStart program if it meant keeping their influence on the air. They know a real crisis when they see it. television access is not only a phantom inheritance enumerated in the Bill of Rights, but the lifeblood of all that matters. Islamic terrorism, H5N1 viruses, and the Jackals at our national gates will have to take a financial back seat until Charm School and Flavor Of Love are over.

-R

Why Does All the Weird News Come from Florida?

 

Thousands of shoes were discovered on a Miami highway early this morning.  Authorities had to get a front-end loader and a dump truck to clear a half-mile stretch of road of the offending footwear.  Nobody knows where they came from or how they got there--evidence, the authorities say, that the shoe-dumpers were probably wearing sneakers.  My suspicion is that Miami was mobbed by angry Iraqi journalists.

 

josh r

Dude.

Gotta love those scientists when they do something cool:

A clinic is offering mothers bronze models of their unborn babies.

The London Ultrasound Centre, near Harley Street, is the first in the country to offer the service, which allows parents to 'celebrate' their babies in the womb.

A 3D printer uses ultrasound images to build a cast of the child. The models cost £1,200, take up to two-and-a-half weeks to make, and are created when the mother is at a safe stage of pregnancy at 24 weeks.

Doctors say the technology could also help improve survival rates for sick babies. Accurate casts of birth defects could be taken in the womb then studied by surgeons before they operate.

Which . . . oh I don't know could still manage to aggravate someone out there. Anyway, the technology--nearly similar to that toy-store novelty--the one where you can shove your face into a canvas of movable "nails" and then see your own mask--is intriguing to say the least:

Instead of ink, the printer uses a special dust which is built up layer by layer. An adhesive glues these layers together to form an accurate cast of the unborn baby. This mould is then used to make the bronze.

Hopefully, a widespread demand and sufficient and predictable copycatting will drive the prices down. Seems safe enough, at the outset anyway.

-R

The Coming Bailout For Newspapers

Seriously. I want this whole notion to become as simply laughable as it is. But it looks like what may happen in Connecticut may not stay in Connecticut:

Connecticut lawmaker Frank Nicastro sees saving the local newspaper as his duty. But others think he and his colleagues are setting a worrisome precedent for government involvement in the U.S. press.Nicastro represents Connecticut's 79th assembly district, which includes Bristol, a city of about 61,000 people outside Hartford, the state capital. Its paper, The Bristol Press, may fold within days, along with The Herald in nearby New Britain.

That is because publisher Journal Register, in danger of being crushed under hundreds of millions of dollars of debt, says it cannot afford to keep them open anymore.

If you click on the link in my first sentence, you will be treated to the following headline: "Government aid could save U.S. newspapers, spark debate."

Spark debate? Debate? Debate? Debate on what? On having the the very thing that the press was supposed to help keep in check become its primary underwriter? You'd thing a Congressman--you know, someone who has actually . . . oh I don't know READ the constitution once or twice would know this. But in a tumultuous time where jobs are evaporating as quickly as our nation's proclivity for self-defence, it's not surprising:

Nicastro and fellow legislators want the papers to survive, and petitioned the state government to do something about it. "The media is a vitally important part of America," he said, particularly local papers that cover news ignored by big papers and television and radio stations.

To some experts, that sounds like a bailout, a word that resurfaced this year after the U.S. government agreed to give hundreds of billions of dollars to the automobile and financial sectors.

Relying on government help raises ethical questions for the press, whose traditional role has been to operate free from government influence as it tries to hold politicians accountable to the people who elected them. Even some publishers desperate for help are wary of this route.

Remember, we must rely on "some experts" to arrive at the conclusion that this is a bailout. And AP writer Marc MacMillan's contention that violating the very breath of an independent media's existence struggles in a tepid arena of "ethical questions" is simply ludicrous.

This, all on the heels of recent reports that the economic downturn has shoved the New York Times closer to the precipice of actually doing the world a favor and imploding on itself. How in the world any lawmaker, who's spent the last seven years watching the Old Gray Lady turn over our national defence strategies to the Jihadists can keep a straight face while these erstwhile counterculture unibombers start clamoring for their jobs in a country they've sought to marginalize and render naked before its enemies . . . well I just don't know. I for one, believe that newspapers that can't "evolve" should just go ahead and die.

-R