The pinnacle of Rube Goldberg machine technology is the breakfast machine. That’s what we’re all aiming for. Here’s one that delivers a complete breakfast – courtesy of a Gizmodo feature…
And here’s a video of the thing in action.
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.
Aliens on holidays
What would happen if aliens took over all our picture perfect holiday destinations?
Something like this. Franco Brambilla took a series of postcards of popular spots and inserted aliens.
Lose lose
What’s worth more – the aliens you slaughter in computer games or the files on your computer?
I guess you can find out if you want. By playing this game. That deletes a random file on your computer for every alien you kill.
“Lose/Lose is a video-game with real life consequences. Each alien in the game is created based on a random file on the players computer. If the player kills the alien, the file it is based on is deleted. If the players ship is destroyed, the application itself is deleted. Although touching aliens will cause the player to lose the game, and killing aliens awards points, the aliens will never actually fire at the player. This calls into question the player’s mission, which is never explicitly stated, only hinted at through classic game mechanics. Is the player supposed to be an aggressor? Or merely an observer, traversing through a dangerous land? Why do we assume that because we are given a weapon an awarded for using it, that doing so is right?”
You can, if you’re game, try it here… if I wanted to wipe a hard drive this would be pretty fun…
I don’t recommend it. Watch it in action below.
Should we forget the forgetful?
Another day, another thought provoking iMonk post.
I don’t know if I mentioned this at the time… but during our Westminster Confession/doctrine classes at church a while back (so long ago I don’t remember the exact chapter we were discussing) I asked a question about whether non-Christian Alzheimer’s patients can be evangelised.
There’s a whole theology of disability that’s a little bit anemic. The post I’m referring to by iMonk is a question about how the Baptist Church handles the baptism of people with mental disabilities. It’s profound. Read it.
Then tell me what your thoughts are on the issue…
Also, if you’re an atheist and you want to hijack this post for your own snide purposes – I’m going to delete the comments. Feel free to comment constructively, but we’re working on the assumption that evangelism is a good thing and not a form of brainwashing or abuse.
One take wonders
One take videos are impressive. This one has the best elements of one take direction and “flashmob” audience participation.
It’s not quite Forrest Gump in one minute. But it’s impressive.
While my uke gently weeps
So, I’m sitting at home, watching Spicks and Specks, writing our work Annual Report… and this awesome ukulele player named Jake Shimabukuro did a segment. I looked him up on YouTube. Here he is in a duet with Tommy Emmanuel. It’s times like this I wished I kept at the ukulele lessons… and only times like this…
PS – I did, briefly, learn the ukulele as a child. Our church didn’t have tambourines, we had a ukulele group…
Alpha bet ends
The Guardian’s atheist journalist who attended Alpha has finished. His experience makes for fascinating reading. It’s honest. Critical. And engaging.
He ends up deciding that atheists are far better off hanging out with Christians than yelling at them. Which is refreshing. And has some great insights into the good, the bad, and the ugly of evangelism.
Check it out.
He’s also got an insightful interview with the head of the Alpha movement, Nicky Gumbel, about all sorts of things to do with the course. It’s worth a read.
One of the criticisms I’ve heard of Alpha (I haven’t done it) is its focus on tongues – here’s what Gumbel says…
“Yes, I think it’s one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. It’s not the only gift and it’s not right at the heart of the New Testament, but it is there, and I think we don’t give it much more emphasis than the New Testament gives it, which is not very much. If you came to our weekend and heard it I don’t think you would feel this is something that is weird.”
Interesting. He has a longer treatise on tongues that is also pretty on the money. I won’t reproduce it all here.
My favourite quote in the whole Alpha Male series was this one – describing the low point of the experience for journalist, Adam Rutherford:
“The low point followed, when Barbara, with whom I had had fun, explained that following my sturdy but polite defence of science and attack on healing (the most galling session), she became convinced that with regards to the supernatural, there was “something rather than nothing”. I had managed to reinforce her latent suspicion of science towards a more faithful position. Christ alive, how disappointing is that? She is thoughtful and intelligent. She listened and argued with me, and chose an emotional and visceral position instead. As I do this for a living, I will certainly modify my rhetoric as a result.”
Yeah. Cop that atheists who think being smug is the way to change minds.
How to rob a bank – Swedish style
Bank robbers are a misunderstood breed. They’re nothing like the bogans in Two Hands… Hollywood was closer in the movie “How to Rob a Bank…” that I reviewed a while back.
A very professional gang in Sweden did it this way (and got $150 million in the process):
- Dressed as ninjas
- Stole a helicopter
- Abseiled onto the roof of the building – which was essentially a money storage facility, the kind Scrooge McDuck used to bathe in.
- Smashed through the glass pyramid on top.
- Used explosives to access the money.
- Climbed back up the ropes.
- Escaped.
But that’s not the best bit. The best bit is that they delayed the pursuers by:
- Putting sharp stuff all over the road outside the depot.
- Putting a bag marked “Bomb” outside the police station’s helipad, which had to be investigated and the helicopter staff were evacuated.
Two men have since been “questioned” by police, it seems they’re not the actual robbers but may have been involved. The best quote in the story about the robbery is this one from a criminologist:
“They are definitely no amateurs.”
You think?
Why power dynamics are important
If you’re going to stage a protest against any organisation or individual it pays to remember who has the power. Otherwise you might end up like this guy. Who didn’t like that bulldozers were working on a project he opposed, and parked in front of them…
Lesson learned.
Status update
I’ve been sick all week with something a bit gastro like. I won’t overshare. This is more to explain the number of posts you’ll be getting today – there’s not much else to do when you’re sitting on the couch. I tried going back to work yesterday, lets just say lunch didn’t work out so well.
The turtles are copping a little bit of the blame because my symptoms look a bit like Salmonella, and turtles are known to carry that bacteria.
I’m thankful that it’s school holidays so Robyn is here to keep me company.
I feel pretty ok, except when:
a) I stand up.
b) I eat.
c) I haven’t taken any anti nausea medication.
That is all.
8-Bit Toast
Mmm, never eat raw toast again. Well, except for the bits you keep artistically bready in order to create this fantastically geeky breakfast art.
Instructions for building your own artistic toast makers can be found here at instructables.
Fandom Facts
I created the St Eutychus fan page on Facebook yesterday and became the number one fan. Literally. I was first. Now there are eight. That’s an 800% increase.
Three in eight fans share my surname.
One in eight fans is named Eutychus.
Currently 25% of my fans are named something piratey (one is named Roger, the other has the surname Davey)
It has useful benefits. If I get over 100 fans I can claim Facebook/st-eutychus. You can post links there for me to blog here, and if you do, you’ll win a nice, intangible prize…
True persecution
Atheists have a bit of a siege mentality going on when it comes to being a persecuted minority in the US. But they’re not the hardest done by… that’d be the Jedis…
“The founder of the Jedi religion inspired by the Star Wars films was thrown out of a Tesco supermarket for wearing his distinctive brown hood.”
Imagine if that was someone wearing a burka.
He got upset, and took them to court. Here’s the report.
Tesco’s response was priceless. A prime example of treating a fool according to their folly:
“But Tesco hit back in the spirit of the epic space saga and claimed that the three most well known Jedi Knights in the Star Wars movies – Yoda, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker – all appeared in public without their hoods.”
Five essential skills for being a better husband
This is perilous territory, but I’m running out of areas to hand out my wisdom… But two years in I know everything there could possibly be to know… except the parenting stuff… I am being sarcastic by the way…
- Learn to say sorry, and mean it.
- Figure out the subtle non-nonverbal communication – when your wife says something and means another, or doesn’t say something in an ominous way.
- Learn to cook dinner (and to clean up).
- Learn your wife’s “love language” it sounds dumb, but this was a pretty helpful book.
- Learn that when your wife comes to you with a problem she doesn’t want an immediate solution, but rather someone who’ll listen.
Five essential skills for the modern worker
I don’t really like giving advice where I’m not qualified. But I’m Gen Y. So I know everything about work. Here are my five essential ways to get ahead in the workplace…
- Communicate better. Learn to do public speaking – it’s invaluable in meetings and day to day interactions to be able to confidently put forward your views. Learn to write in plain language. Keep things simple. Don’t waste people’s time.
- Learn to say no to things you can’t do – outsource. Paying an expert is often the best decision you can make.
- Learn the 80/20 rule. Be prepared not to be perfect in order to do more stuff.
- Keep up to date with new developments in your field. Read the right blogs and magazines, keep in touch with technology, find new ways of doing things and suggest them to others.
- Learn a little bit about desktop publishing and graphic design. The basics are easy.