I confess, I enjoy some R Rated movies. As a mafia junkie how can I not? But how does one share such poignant stories with one’s children? Perhaps Golden Book style with Movies R Fun.
Author: Nathan Campbell
Nathan runs St Eutychus. He loves Jesus. His wife. His daughter. His son. His other daughter. His dog. Coffee. And the Internet. He is the pastor of City South Presbyterian Church, a church in Brisbane, a graduate of Queensland Theological College (M. Div) and the Queensland University of Technology (B. Journ). He spent a significant portion of his pre-ministry-as-a-full-time-job life working in Public Relations, and now loves promoting Jesus in Brisbane and online. He can't believe how great it is that people pay him to talk and think about Jesus. If you'd like to support his writing financially you can do that by giving to his church.
Say “I love you” with Tetris
To me, this Tetris love letter is a little bit unclear.
It could be interpreted as: “Your love is like a row of blocks that I am going to clear” or “I am going to claim you and remove any traces of your former identity.”
But I like the sentiment.
From FailBlog.
How not to disprove evolution
There is a certain strand of Christianity, particularly in America, who think the solution to the “science v religion” debate is to write letters to the editor trying to engage with the science they are questioning.
Please, brethren, if that is you, at least try to get the science right. We Christians get angry at the way atheists caricaturise Christianity and misunderstand religion. We’d like them to try to understand that we can believe the Bible is the inspired word of God and not see a need to throw rocks at homosexuals or disobedient children. Please extend those in the scientific community the same courtesy – and don’t write letters like this:
Via Geekologie.
How to make playing the trombone cool
Just add flames.
Here it is in video glory. But I haven’t watched it yet so apologies if there is swearing or you can actually still hear the trombone.
Via Geekologie.
Comic Book Philosophy
Robyn and I have been working our way through Spooks, known in the UK as MI-5, a television series that takes you inside Section D of the British Intelligence Service. It’s a utilitarian political handbook – all decisions are made on the basis of the “greater good” many decisions are bad actions taken for good outcomes. Some of them make my stomach churn a little. While I’m all for utilitarian frameworks I think I’d redefine my view as achieving the best outcomes with whatever means possible (rather than necessary). And I’d rule out a bunch of actions as “impossible” based on my theology. Anyway. Long intro. Check Spooks out. But that’s not the point.
Philosophy and ethics classes in the US are increasingly turning to comic book characters to frame ethical debates. And I reckon that’s pretty awesome. There are even books being published with titles like “Batman and Philosophy” and “X-Men and Philosophy.”
Christopher Bartel, an assistant professor of philosophy at Appalachian State University, asks students to read the graphic novel Watchmen in order to explore questions about metaphysics and epistemology.
In one class, he uses the character of Dr Manhattan, who claims that everything – including people’s psychology – is predetermined through all the causal laws of physics.
Mr Bartel uses this to teach theories of determinism and free will, and the moral responsibilities entailed in those world views.
Mr Bartel says his course – Philosophy, Literature, Film and Comics – is a “fantastic recruiting tool”, and that more of its students go on to specialise in philosophy than students in any of his other courses.
“I usually have students read Plato, Aristotle and Hume in introduction to philosophy courses. They often find it interesting, but get scared away by just how hard it is to read the stuff,” Mr Bartel told the BBC.
“Comic books can provide really good illustrations of these philosophical ideas without scaring them off.”
Here’s a sample question:
“Imagine for example, that you are Peter Parker (aka Spider-Man) and you have just discovered that you have superpowers. Do you have a moral obligation to use your new-found powers to help others?”
And another awesome quote:
“Shaun Treat, who teaches at the University of North Texas, is not bothered by “highbrow” critics either. For him, the proof is in the pudding: the students lap it up.
After years of teaching traditional debates like Hobbes versus Locke, he says, “it’s amazing how much more the students are interested and engaged when you them put in cape and tights and have them slug it out”.”
KFC: Making dreams come true with 11 herbs and spices
Introducing the Skinwich. Apparently being tested in KFCs throughout America. It’s every chicken lover’s dream. Because everybody knows the skin is the best bit of the chicken.
It’s a beautiful case of turning byproducts into products. All those people wanting their “skinless chicken fillets” for “health reasons”…
Via Brain Residue (who gave it a thumbs down)
Kanye: The Saviour of Twitter
I confess, yesterday, while sitting in Greek and waiting to hear which way the independents would swing (in favour of democracy or broadband flavoured pork) I was relying on Twitter. Mainstream media is great for fact checking and objectivity – Twitter carries the can for immediacy (you don’t have to have your stuff approved by an editor). Because most of Australia was glued to live coverage anyway the pressure for news sites to post the info first was pretty low. So 1 point for Twitter.
By my count twitter is up 2 points currently – because they boast another scoop on mainstream media – the stream of consciousness rants and thoughts of one K-West. They’re needlessly and pointlessly interesting. In the last couple of days he posted a stream of stream of consciousness (a river of consciousness perhaps) thoughts that cobbled together (let Gizmodo do it for you) amount to a lengthy apology to Taylor Swift for last year’s Grammy interruption, and an apology to his fans who had to leap to his defence as a result.
An excerpt:
“The media has successfully diminished the “receptive” audience of KANYE WEST. Taking a 15 second blip, the media have successfully painted the image of the ANGRY BLACK MAN, The King Kong theory. I’m the guy who at one point could perform the Justin Timberlake on stage and everyone would be sooo happy that I was there.
People tweeted that they wish I was dead… No listen. They wanted me to die, people. I carry that. I smile and take pictures through that. I wear my scars. It’s almost like I have to where a suit to juxtapose my image and I won’t lie: IT WORKS!
I wrote a song for Taylor Swift that’s so beautiful, and I want her to have it. If she won’t take it then I’ll perform it for her. She had nothing to do with my issues with award shows. She had no idea what hit her. She’s just a li’l girl with dreams like the rest of us. She deserves the apology more than anyone.”
Aww. Shucks.
You might remember Tea Party Jesus, words from members of the new “conservative force” in American politics in speech bubbles on pictures of Jesus. Well, Jesus Needs New PR has gone one better. Kanye West Jesus.
Further proof, if required, that Kanye is not the messiah, just a very naughty boy with a palpable messianic complex.
Evolution of Batman
The technological sophistication of Batman’s suit is an interesting measure of the technological sophistication each moment in the last 70 years (Batman first hit our screens in 1943).
From here.
New Dimensions
The BBC has launched a cool web service called How Big Is It Really that lets you put the area of significant events, places and objects from throughout history on the map. Literally. Wherever you want. It will entertain you for at least five minutes.
The last of the Mexicans
That would be a Daniel Day Lewis movie I’d watch… However, if you have a picture of our non-Mexican Mexican friend to submit for the “Make Him A Mexican” challenge – today is the day. Last chance to win a fabulous Mexican prize. I promise you will be disappointed by whatever it is I choose to send your way should you win.
Entries have dried up somewhat, but a couple of people have suggested they’d be entering, and haven’t yet. So get cracking. Here’s a late submission from my wife, Robyn, who is working up some mad photoshopping skillz.
Free Kick Physics
Roberto Carlos, a Brazillian defender famous for belting free kicks with incredible control (as opposed to Beckham who tended to go for placement over power), hit a pretty memorable free kick against France in the 1998 World Cup. The video is below.
The kick seems to defy the laws of physics. So some scientists have built an equation to explain it. Their work has just been published.
“We discuss the trajectory of a fast revolving solid ball moving in a fluid of comparable density. As the ball slows down owing to drag, its trajectory follows an exponential spiral as long as the rotation speed remains constant: at the characteristic distance where the ball speed is significantly affected by the drag, the bending of the trajectory increases, surprisingly. Later, the rotation speed decreases, which makes the ball follow a second kind of spiral, also described in the paper. Finally, the use of these highly curved trajectories is shown to be relevant to sports.”
Image Credit: Wired Magazine’s story on the study.
Viking Flashmob
A horde of vikings, led by a Hollywood prop builder, are running around LA invading restaurants and pillaging as they see fit.
The best bit of this story is about the mob’s visit to IKEA. The homeland.
“We got a group of nine vikings to go there for the Swedish meatballs,” he said. “At one point, the security guards came up and asked, ‘What are you doing here?’ We said, ‘We’re from the home office in Sweden.’ They didn’t know how to react.”
Stupid is as stupid does
I think a case could be made for judging somebody’s intelligence based on how vacant their eyes are. Possibly it’s a question of how vacant their eyes are in a headshot after they’ve done something incredibly stupid.
Exhibit A is suing his school after he was dared (possibly by his teacher as well as his friends) to clip cables to his nipples and zap himself.
“Dubois [the student] and his parents claim teacher Thomas Kelley did not tell him and other students of the dangers of the demonstration power cords in their electrical trades class.”
The normally reliable Daily Mail got at least one element of the story wrong though… they call the incident an electrocution and the man is, thankfully, still alive.
Exhibit B was a young man who caught fire while trying to steal fuel from a van in a church car park.
“Evansville police report King was burned as he was using a cordless drill to drill into the gas tank of a 2001 Chevrolet van on the lot of Abundant Faith Church, 1228 Lodge Ave. Something sparked, according to the police report, catching the van on fire and burning King.”
Perhaps people are actually as dumb as they look, and on a completely unrelated note, perhaps it’s time for me to buy a pair of spectacles.
Portable portals
The creators of Gumby, and later Jasper Fforde, had it right. Books are the closest we’re going to get to a portal in a long time I reckon. So these bookends seem fitting.
