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.

Nanny state

I hate stupid legal proceedings. And this one takes the cake. The court in the UK should be absolutely ashamed of this.

Here’s the summary of the story:

The couple’s nightmare started in October 2003 when Mrs Webster took their second son to hospital with a swollen leg.

He was found to have a number of small fractures which doctors said could be caused only by physical abuse.

The following year they were permanently removed and put up for adoption after a one-day court hearing.

Medical experts later concluded that the injuries were not caused by violent twisting and shaking, but were symptoms of rare case of scurvy.

Mr Webster, 35, and his 27-year-old wife fled to Ireland in 2006 to stop their fourth child, Brandon,  being taken into care at birth.

The Appeal Court ruled on Wednesday that even though the Websters ‘may well’ have been victims of a miscarriage of justice the adoption order on their eldest three children could not be revoked because the youngsters are now settled with their adoptive parents.

Apparently the principle of “innocent until proven guilty” and a parent’s fundamental right to raise their children are both things of the past in the UK.

Bank error

A Swedish woman had a nice surprise when checking her bank balance yesterday – she found an extra billion dollars thanks to a “bank error in her favour”… unfortunately it doesn’t seem like she gets even $200. It seems Monopoly is not like real life after all.

There’s a PR lesson here though. For some reason the general public expect big corporations to pay up when they make mistakes like this. It’s like the Townsville couple who thought they’d won big at the Casino due to a Pokie malfunction. It’s as though the “customer service” obligation we enjoy at supermarkets when things are priced or processed wrongly has become our normal expectation.

The bank should – if they want some free positive international coverage from the event – give the woman a nice little bonus. She’s be an ambassador for life then – all the TV and radio interviews she’s no doubt doing around the world right now would be much different if the bank had given her even$1000.

Unfortunately if you want to comment on this post you’ll have to avoid using the word bank. Because I’ve had 90 spam messages containing “bank” in the last two days it’s currently on the blacklist.

A duck walks into a bar

At my biggest little sister’s high school graduation – or maybe it was my middle little sister’s (they’re all a blur to me) – the school principal made a rather vacuous speech featuring a joke about a duck. A duck that walked into a bar looking for bread. I won’t retell it here. But his take on it was that the duck was persistent and would ultimately get what it wanted. It was a bad speech.

Jokes about bars are as old as bars. Probably. There are a whole lot of bar jokes in the comments of this blog here. Which also retells the duck joke. And explores the history of bar jokes. A bit. It’s actually an interesting blog. I just added it to my burgeoning list of google reader subscriptions.

Bimonthly

I had to describe a function that happens every two months on our website today. Naturally I said it was a “bimonthly” event. And then I wondered if that describes an event that happens twice a month.

The Oxford Dictionary says its both.

A bunch of links – February 25, 2009

  • How To Play Your Games In ‘Real’ 3D (Windows)
  • How to play games in 3D… with the old Red/Blue glasses. Pretty cool.

  • #496. Crafting the Perfect Christian Dating Profile
  • More “Stuff Christians Like” – you single Christians out there take note – build a better Christian dating resume.

  • The making of The Godfather
  • #122 Moleskine Notebooks
  • Stuff White People Like – everywhere I turn I’m reading about how essential a “moleskin” is – from Lifehacker to Mark Driscoll, they’re just a more expensive version of a notepad. With a leather cover. What’s with that? Here’s my favourite quote:br”Much like virtually everything else that white people like, these notebooks are considerably more expensive yet provide no additional functionality over regular notebooks that cost a dollar. ”

  • Grinder Cleaning and Espresso: Essential for Excellent Extractions
  • Safari 4 Beta Adds Cover Flow, Runs “3x Faster” than Firefox [Downloads]
  • The Browser Wars heat up – I use Firefox 3.1 at work, and Chrome at home – so I’m not going to change for the marginally faster Safari 4 – but if you’re using Firefox 3.0 I would suggest you get a hold of the 3.1 beta. It’s better.

  • Swapaskill – Swap Skills & Trade Favours With Other Online Users
  • This is something I’ve often thought would be a useful Facebook application – a skills bartering system. Or something like it. Where you earn points for doing favours for people – it’s not exactly the same idea, but it’s close.

  • Cramberry Does Clean And Simple Online Flash Cards
  • That pesky question
  • Another thoughtful piece from Barney Zwartz – this time on the question of “who God really is” – and with particular reference to the idea that science and rationalism should be used to test God. brAn analogy – for Ben:

    “All the major religions regard God as supra-natural , and if such a being is not discernible by natural means, then obviously the empirical measurements (science) that have served us so well in the natural realm have no role to play. Science can measure and investigate only the natural realm.

    The demand that God, if such a being exists, reveal “himself” to scientific investigation is a category error. It’s like demanding a sculptor carve a statue from steam and, when he can’t, saying that his art doesn’t exist.

    There is no “evidence” for God in the sense that science can unequivocally endorse because no other explanation is possible. But “reason” doesn’t end with science: there are a multitude of reasons to believe in a God, a multitude of arguments, some of which go back millennia. ”

    And a summary of the argument:

    “My point is this: those who are determined to reject God will see him nowhere; those who are determined to find him will see him everywhere. Those who are genuinely open to either possibility can weigh up the arguments. To pretend that there are none, as do some of the militant atheists (a term used to distinguish them from the vast majority of non-militant atheists) is simply dishonest.”

  • Failing to understand the nature of an understanding God | theage.com.au
  • Great piece by The Age’s religion editor Barney Zwartz on Danny Nalliah – the best quote:

    “As a young Christian exploring the denominations, I met many Pentecostals who claimed to prophesy ( “Thus saith the Lord …”) and was struck by how unfailingly God’s word through them precisely mirrored their own obsessions.”

  • One Penny Post: A Virtual Postcard with a Real-Life Result
  • This is very, very cool. Upload a photo, a message, and pay $2.49 – and a postcard will be made and posted to people anywhere in the UK, US or Australia.

  • 12 Food Phrases Explained
  • Disunity is death in Opposition | smh.com.au
  • More on the slow and painful internal demise of the Liberal Party.

  • How to shoot down a helicopter with a handgun.
  • School Gate – Times Online – WBLG: Should children be taught the Bible throughout their education?
  • A cultural argument for teaching Bible stories in schools.

    “[Andrew]Motion, Professor of Creative Writing at Royal Holloway, University of London, is convinced that the imagery and grandeur of Biblical stories is vital for students of English literature. He says they have influenced story structures ever since they were first written down, and that great writers from Milton and John Donne to TS Eliot cannot be truly understand without biblical influences being taken into account.”

  • How To Save Your Wet Cell Phone!
  • Two weeks ago I threw somebody into a pool. Complete with mobile phone. This would have been handy then.

  • 10 things that irritate me about U2 | Thinking | Sydneyanglicans.net
  • I don’t like U2. I never have. They’re a poor man’s Radiohead and make music that your grandma would listen to.

    That’s my rant. Actually. I tell a lie. I did like them for a little while… But then I decided there was better, more interesting music out there to listen to.

Toy story

A while back I posted a link to a macabre series of toys. I just found the source of said toys and there are some beauties. I wish they were either for sale of came with knitting patterns – but for now enjoy.

YouTube Twosday: Timeless monologue

More Micallef – slight language warning – but this is a timeless monologue from 2001. 

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Coffee bar

A long time ago – in 2006 in fact – I contemplated making icecream reviews a regular feature on this blog. The idea never had legs. I never really found a worthy icecream contender. 

Turkish Delight Cadbury icecreams were good. They would have scored a mention had the feature continued. As would the Drumstick Sundae line. Other than that there aren’t any particularly regular icecreams featured on the Campbell itinerary. 

Until now. Weis Coffee Almond and Cream bars. Mmm. Fantastic. The. Best. Weis. Bar. Ever. And that’s a big call – the mango Weis bars are pretty spectacular. But these were great. Robyn gave them the thumbs up. They’re now on the menu. If you like coffee they should be on yours too. They’re no doubt as good as these things.

YouTube Tuesday: On the high horse

I was really struggling to find a video for my YouTube Tuesday post. Until I typed “Micallef” into the search box in a moment of inspiration.

I really want to get the DVDs from this Channel 9 series (I have the DVDs from his ABC and Full Frontal stuff if anyone wants to borrow them)… I remember this joke he did with the Dandy Warhols that would totally lose something being retold here – so I won’t. Instead, I give you, Micallef on his high horse…

No bones about it

This Brooklyn Cemetery has a lot of rules. And for every rule, there’s a sign. I can’t for the life of me figure out who goes to the cemetery to wash their car…

More included here.

Good books?

The Times Online has just produced a list of “books for the religious” – I assume they’re a round up of newly released books rather than a catch all list of spiritual recommendations. Predictably they don’t include anything from an orthodox Christian standpoint.

Instead they recommend the following:

1. In Circles of Thorns: Hieronymous Bosch and Being Human, Justin Lewis-Anthony – a vaguely Christian book about the classic painting pictured above, with the summary from the Times saying: “that Jesus Christ is the calm centre in a circling, threatening world. It is that sense of peace that pulses through the book”

2. Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Israel Shahak

3. The Atheist’s Bible: an illustrious collection of irreverent thoughts, edited by Joan Konner

4. Making War in the Name of God , Christopher Catherwood

5. The Healing Word, Bishop Basil of Amphipolis

6. Creating a Future Islamic Civilization, Rashid Shaz

I’m pretty sure none of these would make my list. Although “Making War in the Name of God” sounds vaguely interesting.

I’m notoriously bad at collecting non-fiction books and then never reading them. I have a bookshelf full of half-read, or less, tomes of spiritual significance. Which ones should I read? What are your religious recommendations for others?

Obviously the seminal texts for each major religion are important to consider – and I think probably outside the scope of this Times article.

Atlantisn’t

There’s been oohing and ahhing over the weekend as some Google Earth watchers thought they might have found Atlantis. The blogosphere went crazy over the idea. Chris just posted a link to the googleblog today. Sunken mythical cities don’t really excite me. But this idea from the googleblog does. And google would be one company with the resources to make it happen.

“But we could map the whole ocean using ships. A published U.S. Navy study found that it would take about 200 ship-years, meaning we’d need one ship for 200 years, or 10 ships for 20 years, or 100 ships for two years. It costs about $25,000 per day to operate a ship with the right mapping capability, so 200 ship-years would cost nearly two billion dollars. That may seem like a lot of money, but it’s not that far off from the price tag of, say, a new sports stadium.”

That would be cool. And cheaper than building a real life, working, death star or Enterprise – or whatever was in those links I posted for calculating the cost of unrealistic science fiction technology a few weeks ago.

Wordle 2.0

The previously mentioned Wordle has got some great new functionality. Like adding an RSS feed for immediate analysis. Saves copying and pasting every post of your blog like I did last time. Although my feed is limited to just the last ten posts or something.

Here it is:
Wordle: Nathan's Blog - February
This story here about speeches from Springboard and Blight are an interesting example of the tag cloud as an assessment of being “on message”.

Speaking of which – here’s a wordle of my sermon from Sunday. Which did, as Simone and dad both pointed out, go for a bit too long. 30 minutes. I cut a bit out though. That’s the longest I’ve ever preached and I’m sorry for boring people and going past the 22 minute attention span of the average television watcher.

sermon-wordle

And here’s the passage itself.
passage-wordle

The Strip

It seems I was right. Apparently The Wire, Underbelly and The Sopranos – and any other media “text” that demonise Strip Clubs are on the money.

The Courier Mail reports that Queensland’s adult entertainment businesses are regular law breakers and dens of iniquity.

Treasurer Andrew Fraser made a comment that I’m sure the Courier Mail story delighted in presenting in an almost out of context fashion…

“Treasurer Andrew Fraser yesterday defended his department’s enforcement, saying many “cowboy outfits” had been removed in recent years.”

I believe he was talking about businesses not complying with legislation – rather than a Western theme.

I promise this will be the last time I write about strip clubs. But it’s interesting to note that they aren’t particularly nice places after all. Remember that Mr Prime Minister.

A bunch of links – February 24, 2009