Month: March 2009

Jensenisms

While I’m holding out against the young evangelical male norm and not signing up as a Driscoll fanboy – I’m unabashedly a fan of Phillip Jensen. His well balanced article on the abortion debate got a run on the SMH website today (thanks to Findo for pointing it out) – and I assume in the printed version. It’s nice to have a fairly moderate Christian voice in the debate.

I linked to this when he put it up on his site a couple of weeks ago – but if you didn’t read it then, read it now.

Here are three paragraphs to whet your appetite…

“Arguments that it is a woman’s right to control her body do not deal, adequately, with the differences between the mother and the foetus. There are two lives for whom the mother is responsible. The question is whether her responsibility for the life of the foetus extends to making the decision of life and death, or whether her self-interest undermines the legitimacy of this decision. Should the state have some say in protecting this life from her?

There is little purpose in demonising those who oppose abortion by claiming they are imposing their morality on others, for the entire legal system is an imposition of morality on others. Rather than an anarchic jungle of society without law, our society imposes a moral system on individuals.

Our society uses a combination of Christian heritage, rational discussion, political democracy and judicial wisdom to guide its choices. On a range of issues, it has chosen to limit individual freedoms. On others, it has allowed the citizens to make their own choices. It is not unreasonable to make life and death issues involving a defenceless victim a matter of moral discussion, political decision and judicial wisdom.”

March 23, 2009

Posts you might have missed

Too many posts to handle? Here’s a quick list of the posts you might have missed this week:
  • A bunch of links – March 17, 2009
    Posted on Tuesday, March 17th, 2009 in Oddities
    Wedding cake made from 80 Pac-Man cupcakesSelf Destructing Pixel Coffee Table100 matches, carved out of a solid block of woodWaveforms as braceletsI would have blogged this yesterday – but my host was down so you’ll see it today (unless you’re seeing it in Google Reader now).
  • Ahh… It’s a trap
    Posted on Sunday, March 22nd, 2009 in Oddities
    No it’s not. It’s a cheese knife and cutting board set. Shame it’s not actually for sale. I’d totally buy one. They’re available here. I’d love to buy one. And then my wife would totally make me give it to someone as a present.Found here.The guy behind the product design has some other cool ideas.Like this.And this.Update – it turns out a lot of the really cool ideas I’ve linked to before were designed by this guy and the company he works for – worldwidefred.
  • Atheist Hunting
    Posted on Monday, March 16th, 2009 in Church
    Occasionally nasty parody site Landover Baptist has a great list of tips for how to spot them atheists that needs some converting (sic)…Here’s a summary of their five tips so that you can dob your local atheist in to police: Five Tips on How to Spot an Atheist1. Usually Atheists are pale of skin.They spend a lot of times indoors, because they are afraid to come outside. They believe the preposterous lie that Christians are trying to kill them, when in fact, all that we really want to do is force a quick conversion or to kindly place them in a maximum security prison for their own protection from devout Christians who may try to kill them.
  • Be my friend
    Posted on Wednesday, March 18th, 2009 in Life
    You can now be my “friend” here via Friend connect (unless you’re a subscriber then you’ll have to actually physically visit my blog) or see if this link works.I only really added this friend connect thing to see if it made a difference when valuing my blog. Largely because Chris’ blog is worth over $5 million and mine’s only worth $500 and I want to figure out what made the difference. Also, it’s made by Google – so it must be good right?
  • Clean feed ship listing due to leaks
    Posted on Friday, March 20th, 2009 in Politics
    There’s a lot of debate still raging about the proposed clean feed. We all thought it was dead when Nick Xenophon decided he didn’t like it. But no. It’s alive and kicking. And costing money for anyone who dares link to the leaked blacklist.Obviously there’s a fair bit of support from the Christian side of the fence for anything limiting people’s access to pornography – particularly child exploitation material. But these objections are, in my opinion, misguided.
  • Election day
    Posted on Saturday, March 21st, 2009 in Church
    The countdown is over. We voted this morning. Robyn told me afterwards that she’d voted for Family First. It was a funny joke. We laughed. Here’s why I don’t vote for Family First… While I appreciate that Family First put the family first and often that means supporting things that are good for Christians and Christianity – I think their very presence dilutes the conservative vote and is counterproductive for Christians looking to vote on their issues.
  • Ethical dilemma
    Posted on Wednesday, March 18th, 2009 in Culture
    Little sister number two asks:How much money are you ok with keeping if you find it on the ground?Discuss.
  • Fruity protest
    Posted on Monday, March 16th, 2009 in Church
    Here’s a novel protest against perennial protesters Westboro Baptist (the hateful “God Hates Fags” mob). It’s pretty Biblically sound – but the Bible has a fair bit to say about homosexuality and sin.
  • Geek checklist
    Posted on Sunday, March 22nd, 2009 in Life
    Continuing the vein of discussion about whether I’m a geek or a nerd (and in fact whether the distinction is necessary) – here’s a list of ten habits of a geek spouse from Wired. And here’s how I fare…1. Punning.Guilty as charged. Really, really guilty. I had no idea that this was a geek thing. 1 point.2. Swearing in Klingon.Nope. Not interested. Not really interested in sci-fi – but that doesn’t stop me wearing my Star Wars inspired “Milk I am your Father” shirt.
  • Good water use
    Posted on Wednesday, March 18th, 2009 in Coffee
    Last time I posted something pointing out how awesomely unsustainable the use of water in production of coffee is people jumped up and down screaming and we ended up talking about the plight of battery hens.Here’s another picture from Good (click it for full size) highlighting how coffee is not the worst of the bunch, and suggesting giving up steak as well. Greens arguing for not eating meat… that’s original.
  • Gruen man
    Posted on Wednesday, March 18th, 2009 in Life
    The Gruen Transfer returned to TV tonight. It’s a brilliant show. Tonight’s topic – tourism advertising. A subject close to my heart. Made some interesting observations about how tourism marketing works and the basic formula. A couple of years ago at a marketing workshop with Virgin Blue marketing guru Sean Cummins (from Cummins and Partners) showed two tourism advertisements from different states with the soundtracks switched – and it was almost impossible to tell the difference.
  • Knowledge of all font
    Posted on Monday, March 16th, 2009 in Life
    Here’s a list of the 100 best fonts of all time – written in German – Helvetica takes out top spot. UPDATE: Here’s an English version of the 100 best fonts with a bit more info on how the list was compiled. If lists aren’t your thing and you’re more a periodic table type here’s a periodic table of fontness (click it for the full sized version).
  • Pictures and words
    Posted on Tuesday, March 17th, 2009 in Church
    Gordo has issued the challenge to demonstrate how a picture can paint 1000 words. There’s my entry.
  • Plant rant
    Posted on Tuesday, March 17th, 2009 in Church
    There’s a lot of chatter around the Australian evangelical blogosphere (that’s a pretty narrow field really) about a future church planting movement in Australia. Some people are over in the US with Mark Driscoll and other renowned church planters right now. And they’re blogging up a storm. Most of the posts are buzzing with fanboyism. They’re chock full of quotable quotes, photo ops, video interviews and summaries from talks given at conferences. It’s no doubt very exciting for those caught up in the movement.
  • Shirt of the Day: Pacman redux
    Posted on Friday, March 20th, 2009 in Oddities
    I posted a Pacman shirt from Glennz.com last week. This one is funnier. And it’s from BustedTeesRunners up in the almost shirt of the day category (which is generally weekly and completely arbitrary)… from the same site include the following.

    This one poses the important questions

    And this one is too rude for me to display – even though I think my mum would approve. And my wife would relate.
  • Stimulus rains on cats and dogs
    Posted on Wednesday, March 18th, 2009 in Politics
    Apparently “literally hundreds” of cats and dogs will be receiving stimulus money inherited from pensioners who’ve died since filing their last returns. If these pensioners bequeathed their estates to their feline or canine companions and a tax return was filed the animals get the one off payment.Joe Hockey is jumping up and down crying fowl (because chickens don’t often get these sorts of rights)… he thinks it’s a waste of money.But really, the stimulus is only effective if the recipients spend the money.
  • The Costa Coffee
    Posted on Tuesday, March 17th, 2009 in Coffee
    A British coffee taster has insured his prime asset for $14 million. His tongue. So he’ll no doubt be steering clear of overly hot coffees from now on. From the ABC.”Gennaro Pelliccia is the chief taster for Costa Coffee and tastes every batch of raw coffee beans the company uses.He says his 18 years of experience in the industry has made his tongue a valuable asset.
  • What’s black, white and read all over
    Posted on Monday, March 16th, 2009 in Media
    Yes, the humble newspaper. Thanks Peter Combe. If you want to track down the leading daily (or in fact any other dailies) from the 400 biggest cities in the world – here’s a nice aggregator.
Why not subscribe to the RSS feed so that you don’t miss a beat. Or a post

March 23, 2009

Pacman sited

Pacman has found a new home. In Russia.

He has been spotted wandering the streets of Russia in cohorts with a blue ghost. Thanks to these Russian bloggers.

The video is pretty long. But amusing.

March 22, 2009

Our daily Fred: On a knife’s edge

Fred and friends have produced some pretty amazingly cool products – I’ve featured a number of them before – and now, in a special series of posts I’ll be sharing my favourites from World Wide Fred…

The Evidence Knife…

March 22, 2009

A bunch of links – March 22, 2009

March 22, 2009

Geek checklist

Continuing the vein of discussion about whether I’m a geek or a nerd (and in fact whether the distinction is necessary) – here’s a list of ten habits of a geek spouse from Wired. And here’s how I fare…
1. Punning.
Guilty as charged. Really, really guilty. I had no idea that this was a geek thing. 1 point.
2. Swearing in Klingon.
Nope. Not interested. Not really interested in sci-fi – but that doesn’t stop me wearing my Star Wars inspired “Milk I am your Father” shirt. 0 points.
3. Weird or over the top ways of celebrating mainstream holidays.
Not that I can think of off the top of my head. I do however celebrate federal budget night with an annual beer and budget celebration featuring only myself (and my wife who is there in presence not spirit). I’ll give myself half a point.
4. Dissecting movies.
I’m not really a movie geek/film buff. In fact I like really stupid movies that would no doubt annoy those who are film geeks. I certainly don’t point out continuity errors or any time a movie breaks natural law. So no points.
5. Wearing obscure geeky t-shirts to “normal places”.
Well yes, I do that. Lots. It shows just how clever you are. If you understand them. It’s like an idiot filter. 1 point.

6. Requiring extra space in the house for geeky things.
Yes. I have a coffee machine that’s more than a metre wide. I have a breadmaker set up on the back patio for roasting coffee, and I have four archaic consoles sitting in our TV unit. 1 point.
7. Geeky toys/decorations can be hard to explain to kids.
Well I don’t have kids. But I can’t imagine explaining why I own a plastic Bob Hawke drink dispenser will be easy. 1 point.
8. Looking up information while a discussion/argument is still in progress.
In the internet age who doesn’t do this? Really? Maybe it is just me. Very, very guilty. Especially when I know I’m right and I’m just doing it to back up my argument. 1 point.
9. Needing to watch certain TV shows ASAP to avoid spoilers.
Well, I actively seek out spoilers at times – just to stay ahead of the curve. But there are times when I guess this could be true. 1/2 a point.
10. Geeky projects that take over the house and whole weekends.
I guess ripping apart a breadmaker to install a switch bypassing the circuit board is pretty geeky. I like little DIY challenges – like the restoration of my coffee machine. 1 point.

Things aren’t looking so good. Lets count up those points. Drum roll.

6 7 out of 10 by my count. I guess that makes me an annoying geek spouse.

March 22, 2009

Burger masterpiece

Not since Jason Statham in the Transporter 2 has grease been used so artistically.

This is quite phenomenal. It’s an advertisement for a pure and natural burger chain – Arbys.

Wow.

March 22, 2009

Ahh… It’s a trap

No it’s not. It’s a cheese knife and cutting board set. Shame it’s not actually for sale. I’d totally buy one. They’re available here. I’d love to buy one. And then my wife would totally make me give it to someone as a present.

Found here.

The guy behind the product design has some other cool ideas.

Like this.

And this.

Update – it turns out a lot of the really cool ideas I’ve linked to before were designed by this guy and the company he works for – worldwidefred.com – you can buy their stuff from Amazon and a host of other novelty kitchen suppliers. Like here.

March 22, 2009

Alien v Predator

Finding a new angle to promote a movie franchise that has been around for a long time and received a big budget campaign to begin with must be tough. So kudos to the company behind these ads for upcoming screenings of Aliens v Predator on Sky TV in New Zealand.

March 22, 2009

Brew by you

What do you get if you merge a bike pump with a coffee machine? A handpresso.

This could be the world’s smallest espresso producing device – unless you’ve got a really small stovetop brewer. It’s very cool – and $99.

The downside – as far as I can see – is that the system uses pods. Which plenty of people are enthusiastic about. But nothing beats freshly ground, freshly roasted coffee. When there’s a basket system this could be a winner. You can buy it here.

March 22, 2009

A bunch of links – March 21, 2009

March 21, 2009

Unleavened bread

Have you ever thought about how many different types of “flatbread” there are? Bread varieties that are essentially the same thing just used different ways by different cultures? Profound hey. One man’s Yiros is another man’s burrito. Here’s the list from Wikipedia.

March 21, 2009

Election day

The countdown is over. We voted this morning. Robyn told me afterwards that she’d voted for Family First. It was a funny joke. We laughed. 

Here’s why I don’t vote for Family First…

  1. While I appreciate that Family First put the family first and often that means supporting things that are good for Christians and Christianity – I think their very presence dilutes the conservative vote and is counterproductive for Christians looking to vote on their issues. 
  2. I don’t like the idea of giving politicians a mandate to turn Australia into anything other than the democratic system we have now – theocracies are great provided you’re a believer. Which I am. But they don’t do a good job of protecting minorities or other interests. I’d rather a candidate sympathetic to all than a candidate only sympathetic to me. 
  3. It’s not the state’s job to convert people to Christianity – it’s ours. Separation of church and state is a protection for the church too…
  4. Better the devil you know – I know that the LNP and the ALP will act in a predictable manner based on their convictions. The same can not be said for Family First members. There have been too many loose cannon loonies running for the party for them to have much credibility as a united voice. The idea of a united Christian voice is nice in theory – but you only have to look at the Uniting Church to see it in practice. 
  5. It’s a wasted vote. Unless we’re voting for a Federal senate spot the party will never the numbers to get candidates into seats. What’s the point of voting for Family First when you can be voting against a party you disagree with and keeping them out of power.  

I have no numbers to back this up. But I’m sure I could find them. I know that some people who are single issue voters on abortion will get angry when I say this. But voting for family first when you’re a nominally conservative voter who doesn’t like abortion is pretty much a vote for Labor – who (despite their name being similar to the act of giving birth) are the most likely party to legalise abortion in Australian states.

Obviously the preference system allows you to make this statement while still essentially voting for the LNP – but a real statement would be made by the number of people not preferentially voting at all – and ousting a government without having to rely on preferences at all. 

It may be a principled move. It may make a statement.  But it’s a phyrric victory only. So I won’t be making that move any time soon. 

This is too late to change anyone’s mind anyway. But it’s my two cents worth.

Also, I think it’s slightly ironic that the Greens print out how to vote cards. They’re such a waste of paper. Perhaps we should change the legislation to allow each nominated candidate to place a “how to vote” card in the voting booth. That’s under 10 printouts per candidate per booth – rather than thousands.

March 21, 2009

Weekend roast

I picked up a new breadmaker today from Cash Converters – it solves all my roasting problems by spinning right from the start. I roasted my first batch. I’m very excited. No more stirring by hand or spending ages waiting for a spin cycle to kick into gear. 

I also used the new heat gun I picked up while garage sailing the other week.

I really only wrote this so that I could use that title. It would have been more appropriate had I written it tomorrow.

March 21, 2009

Make your next beer a blast

Why is it that I make one of the coolest posts I’ve made in days weeks months ever and the next day I spot something that would have been an absolutely perfect fit. I give you the beer blaster.

Actually, it’s probably good enough to warrant its own post. Here’s where you can get yours – and here it is in action.

March 20, 2009