Nathan Campbell – Page 255

The best bunch of Links since the Zelda games

So. There hasn’t been a link post around here for a little while. Lets fix that shall we…

Simone stirred the hornets nest by pondering the impact the increasing prevalence of same sex relationships will have on the perception of close friendships amongst Christians.

Izaac posted about iChurch. He’s also posted a series reviewing the church plant he was part of… it’s not quite finished, but when it is it’ll be worth another link. Izaac, and his wife Sarah, will be spending next week with us in Townsville. This is very exciting.

Sarah blogs more than Izaac and today she wrote about moving house, and moving church – two of the most stressful things a person can do…

Amy likes good TV shows and believes good stuff… or at least stuff I mostly agree with.

Jeff posts good links.

Dave Miers shows why customer service is important – and why coffee cup holders in cars are a necessity.

Ben posted a crepe recipe. We bought a crepe pan. The two may have been linked.

Mikey encouraged people to think more broadly than their local congregation when it comes to ministry. He also posted a link to this article/lecture (PDF) from Michael Jensen on the CASE website on apologetics that I’ll post more on eventually. Michael Jensen is the Australian Christian blogosphere’s everywhere man. Seriously. How many sites does he contribute to?

Ben was away for a week – but he’s back. And we’re all happy. He kicked things off on Monday with a new leaner looking quiz…

Andrew Katay writes good stuff and he’s looking for student ministers next year… if he ministers like he writes that would be a worthwhile opportunity.

Andrew Finden is in Germany being an almost world famous opera singer… well, one day… he shared his thoughts on church tourism. And a string quartet tribute to Nirvana. String quartet tributes are one of my favourite sub-genres. You really should check out Muse or Radiohead in all their string quartetly goodness.

Leah wrote five tips for surviving the Internet. Pretty sound advice and worth reminding yourself of… I’d add a couple – don’t forward stupid emails without going to snopes, and don’t believe anything without checking with google first.

November 18, 2009

Armed and dangerous

When you’re young you’re taught many lessons that you ignore. Like don’t eat watermelon seeds. Don’t pull faces when the wind is going to change. Don’t wear old undies when you go out in case you’re in a car accident. And don’t carry everything with just one hand.

This is so you don’t end up like this guy. Who at least is able to compete in world arm wrestling championships.

November 17, 2009

Keep your friends close, and your bobble heads closer

If you’re looking for motivation to do your work properly – or to treat people right – then this Vito Corleone Bobble Head is the perfect desktop companion.

November 17, 2009

I made a shirt…

I just designed a shirt. The idea came from a tangent on my last post.

It’s called “Future of Evolution”…

Here it is – you’ll be able to vote for it to be produced on Threadless any day now…

If they reject it you’ll be able to order copies from wherever I can get it printed…

November 17, 2009

Fine tuning

I’ve been thinking a little bit about why I am convinced of the truth of Christianity a little since Mark Driscoll’s Jesus based apologetic made me question the way I approach “theism”, and Dave’s thoughful series on atheism concluded with Jesus as a foundational reason for rejecting atheism and adopting Christianity (not theism). I tried my hand at defending Christian belief on the basis of the historicity of Jesus and the veracity of claims made about him in the Bible here.

I’ve been thinking that while my adherence to Christianity as an accurate representation of a monotheistic God hinge on Jesus and his claims – there are other reasonable reasons to believe in a God who creates and sustains the universe.

The Fine Tuned Universe argument, the idea that conditions in the universe are extraordinarily balanced and complex, has its detractors. It has its scientific explanations – like the anthropic principle (that things could only be this way for life to exist – ie that life couldn’t possibly have happened in any other way). And it has its Christian proponents – like William Lane Craig.

I find it pretty compelling. Atheists using a frame work of naturalism find it mind blowing but explainable. And once they have an explanation they don’t need a cause. Because to add a creator to the mix would create something else that needs a creator. I think it’s an odd paradox that none of their equations of chance – including the whole multiverse concept – ever factor in a universe with an omnipotent God. Surely if multiple universes exist then each one has a probability of developing a God powerful enough to destroy all the other universes? Monotheism is the natural outcome of this school of thought.

On a side note – I want to ask Dawkins or any evolutionary biologist a question. Given infinite time will humans eventually evolve into shapeshifting aliens? That would seem, based on Transformers, to be the evolutionary pinnacle.

I’m happy to accept much of the science of evolution. But I wonder what happens when you do that and remove God from the picture. What does the end point look like? How long before we can fly?

The quote below is the reason for this post. And it seems particularly dumb. To me the idea that there are a lot of things in the universe that can kill us, and want to, is a case for an intervening creator, not a case against…

I want to do a fast tirade on stupid design. Look at all the things that just want to kill us…
Most places in the universe will kill life instantly – instantly! People say that the forces of nature are just right for life. Excuse me? Look at the volume of the universe where you can’t live. You will die instantly. That’s not what I call the garden of Eden.
…
This is all stupid design. If you look for what it intelligent, yeah you can find things that are really beautiful and clever – like the ball socket of the shoulder – there are a lot of things you can point to. But then you stop looking at all the things that confound that revelation. So if I came across a frozen waterfall and it just struck me for all its beauty, I would then turn over the rock and try to find a millipede or some kind of deadly newt, put that in context, and realize of course that the universe is not here for us – for any singular purpose.

So now nature is not right for life which makes life less probable, not more, and the atheists embrace it. I would have thought the greater the improbability of life the greater the case for God. Am I missing something? The fact that bad stuff happens naturally – and that there are things out there that can kill us fits with Christian doctrine rather than contradicting it…

I love the part of the quote that equates the concept of Eden – a safe haven – with the whole universe. It’s just dumb.

These arguments come from this video – and I found them here. Be warned – this video contains a frame depicting abnormal and aborted fetuses.

Even without the specifics of Jesus I find the argument for a creator much more compelling than a naturalistic understanding of things.

November 17, 2009

The art of wasting people’s time

David Thorne strikes again. With moderate success.

I like that he’s a bit of a Robin Hood. Fighting for the everyman. Taking on the corruption inherent in the system.

This time he had some overdue DVDs from Blockbuster.

Read the whole lot here…

He poses a question you’ve no doubt wondered about for years – why are late fees so high…

I have checked pricing at the DVD Warehouse and the cost of replacing your lost movies with new ones is as follows:

Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay $7.95
Waterworld $4.95
Journey to the Centre of the Earth $9.95
Logan’s Run $12.95

This totals $35.80 so I would rather pay that than the $82 late fee. I have no idea why Logan’s Run is the most expensive of the four movies as it was definitely the worst. Have you seen it? I wouldn’t pay $12.95 for that. I would use the money to buy a good movie instead. Probably something with Steven Seagal in it. The entire premise comprised of living a utopian and carefree lifestyle with only three drawbacks – wearing seventies jumpsuits, living in what looks like a giant shopping centre and not being allowed to live past thirty. This would seem logical though as I would not want a bunch of old people hanging around complaining about their arthritis while I am trying to relax at the shopping centre in my jumpsuit trying not to think about the computer crashing.

November 17, 2009

The stupidity of infinity

Mathematicians like to ponder infinity. I think this is particularly stupid when it comes to fractions.

I heard some maths person on the ABC talking about how there’s an infinite number of numbers between two integers. That was a bit dumb.

The reason I’m talking about maths at all is because I just read my second favourite maths joke of all time, from Bill Bailey, via Wikipedia…

“An infinite number of mathematicians walk into a bar. The first goes up to the bartender and says, “I’ll have a pint of lager, please.” The next one says, “and I’ll have half of what he’s having.” The bartender says, “You’re all idiots,” and pulls two pints.”

And this my friends, is a mathematical limerick.

The solution –

A dozen, a gross, and a score
Plus three times the square root of four
Divided by seven
Plus five times eleven
Is nine squared and not a bit more.

For the record, this is my favourite mathematical joke in condensed format…

An insane mathematician gets on a bus and starts threatening everybody: “I’ll integrate you! I’ll differentiate you!!!” Everybody gets scared and runs away. Only one lady stays. The guy comes up to her and says: “Aren’t you scared, I’ll integrate you, I’ll differentiate you!!!” The lady calmly answers: “No, I am not scared, I am e^x.”

That, and other mathematical jokes, can be found here…

November 17, 2009

YouTube Twosday: Bullet Time

The Matrix was, as far as I know, the movie that introduced bullet time to the world. I could look it up. But I’m pretty sure it’s true.

Here’s some super slow-mo bullet time. Super slow-mo is the coolest thing ever. I love it in sports coverage. I love it just as much when it’s videos of bullets smashing into things.

November 17, 2009

Don’t you just hate it when you need to sneeze but can’t

Having a sneeze stuck somewhere in your head has to be one of the worst feelings.

Me, I’m lucky. I can just look at the sun, or any bright light. And wallah – a sneeze appears. Like magic.

I am blessed with a condition shared by 18-35% of the population – photic sneeze reflex.

I told someone about this once and they didn’t believe me. But there’s a wikipedia article. So it must be true. Here are the facts ensconced in medical lingo to enhance credibility…

“Photic sneeze reflex is a genetic autosomal dominant, which causes sneezing (due to naso-ocular reflex) when exposed suddenly to bright light, possibly many times consecutively. It is also referred to as photic sneeze response, sun sneezing, photogenic sneezing, the photosternutatory reflex, being photo sensitive, allergic to the sun, ACHOO syndrome, and Achooism, named after the sound made when sneezing, along with its related backronym Autosomal dominant Compelling Helio-Ophthalmic Outburst syndrome.”

I also can’t burp. People struggle to believe that one too.

November 17, 2009

YouTube Tuesday: The Matrix as a Russian silent movie

That title pretty much speaks for itself I think…

Feel free to share your own YouTube finds in the comments.

November 17, 2009

Pirate Keyboard will leave you umming and rrring

This is a nice minimalist keyboard for pirates – from Flickr.

November 16, 2009

Typecasting type

I’m not a font purist. I stick with the basics. Helvetica will do me… I like the idea of straying from the pack – but I’m no fontrepreneur.

It seems treading the line on fonts is more perilous than I thought… font purists are out there. Watching. Waiting for a slip up. Especially when it comes to the use of fonts in movies and television programs.

Choosing an inappropriate typeface is one problem. Applying one inaccurately is another. Sadly for type nuts, movies often offend on both counts. Take “Titanic,” in which the numbers on the dials of the ship’s pressure gauges use Helvetica, a font designed in 1957, some 45 years after the real “Titanic” sank. Helvetica was also miscast in “Good Night and Good Luck,” which takes place in the early 1950s. “I still find it bizarre to see type or lettering that is wrong by years in a period movie in which the architecture, furniture and costumes are impeccable, and where somebody would have been fired if they were not,” said Matthew Carter, the typography designer based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

November 16, 2009

T-Shirt Appreciation Day: Shredder finally gets the turtle

Sometimes the bad guys should catch the goodies in cartoons. Especially when there’s a band of four goodies to go round…

This one’s just $10. It’s on special…

November 16, 2009

Top five rules for blogging: #5 comment elsewhere

Blog readers don’t just fall from the sky… well that’s only partly true. A lot of readers come via Google. And they may as well fall from the sky.

To significantly boost your traffic you can do one of two things – you can write google friendly copy, or you can try to steal other people’s readers by getting involved in their blog community.

I don’t know how many readers I’ve pilfered from Ben and Simone – but I’d suggest the link love I score from them was a significant factor in my moving to more than 500 unique readers a week.

500 readers a week isn’t a significant number. I’m certainly not about to quit my job and become a full time blogger. But I’m comfortable with that. I think if I wanted to increase that figure dramatically I’d take one strategy – I’d comment on popular blogs. Particularly popular blogs that cover similar topics to mine.

Readership is only part of the picture. Blogging regularly can be tough. I think that’s why so many blogs falter. One of the things that makes it easier is the support of people who leave encouraging comments, and post links to stuff they like that you’ve written. You don’t get this sort of support unless you know the person in real life and as such want to see their blog continue, or you comment and share the link love elsewhere.

That’s my theory anyway.

November 16, 2009

Choose your blog adventure

Speaking of Choose Your Own Adventure books – Simone and her son Joel have produced a Choose Your Own Adventure blog. Check it out.

You should also check out Joel’s poetry if you have a moment…

November 16, 2009