Australians are generous people, and we’re always prepared to give from our own pockets to others, even if the others are multimillionaire actors in costume as a homeless person. This is what happened to Lord of the Rings (amongst other things) star Sir Ian McKellen, while sitting in Sydney a few weeks ago:
Via The Oatmeal… where else. But what he’s missing is what the stuff before the @ says about you. Which is probably more telling. If you thought sk8erboi45 was cool (like the 44 people before you), or anything similarly asinine, then you were wrong. If I were the type of person who hired people I’d look no further than the email address on most resumes before dismissing 85% of the candidates.
I know what keeps my customers satisfied. Poo jokes. Have you heard of the Bristol Stool Scale? This is a public health announcement – but I don’t want you sharing in the comments. Here’s a nicely rendered chart for your bathroom wall – it’s better than the wikipedia image.
From the never more aptly named “Flowing Data.”
Ahh. Sport. Home to such brilliant examples of myopic legalism…
Did you hear the one about the guy who pitched a perfect game on Wednesday (US time) – except that an umpire missed a pretty obvious out on his final play, calling the batter safe and crushing the dreams of the young pitcher? No. Well, the Major League Baseball administrators had to consider whether or not to overturn the decision giving this kid an achievement as rare as hen’s teeth (there have been 21 in history – but three in the last month), and they decided not to. Check out the story.
But better than that… The World Cup comes around once every four years. It’s the biggest event in sport (despite what the Olympic PR machine might say). North Korea (who probably should have known better), decided that the arbitrary three goalkeepers in a squad of twenty-three was excessive. So they named two, and picked a young striker to double as a goalkeeper, in the unlikely event that his presence between the sticks was required.
The catch is, that this player must play in goals. I didn’t know that was a rule. I thought goalkeepers could swap upon notifying the referee… but a 27 year old from a nation that isn’t a guaranteed qualifier for any future World Cup, ever, has had his dreams have been crushed by sporting administrators applying the letter, not the spirit, of the law. Brilliant. Here’s hoping the other two keepers get injured forcing him to make a stirring, Hollywood style debut between the sticks, only to win the World Cup for Korea. Then, in the celebrations, Kim Jong Il will adopt him as his heir. It could happen…
How does one appropriately remember Gary Coleman, the start of Diff’rent Strokes… one gets a live Christian prayer TV show to read its theme. Reminiscent of similar efforts with the Fresh Prince of Bel Air (that I’ve posted somewhere before).
I am never, I guarantee it, never, going to preach like this guy (though I think he actually might have Tourettes)…
Why on earth is this on YouTube?
“You can’t stick your finger in a live power point and not have something happen.”
Muse are consummate performers, so forcing them to lipsynch on national television isn’t a great move. An Italian television network made that demand, so the trio switched instruments, roles and places.
This wasn’t the first time they’d made fun of lip synching demands…
I’m hoping to get tickets to their Brisbane show when they go on sale on Monday.
So I take a couple of days off blogging to write essays and XKCD produce strips on two of my favourite topics from yesteryear – disaster reporting, and the Nerd V Geek debate (as a Venn Diagram).
Unlike Ben, I’m sticking with MasterChef through thick and thin. Yes, the plate dropping incident was shark jumpingly contrived. Yes, George reminds me of the type of sports fan who throws “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie” in to any pause in conversation, and yes, the product placement can be a little over the top, and yes, the contestants are all prima donnas who spout mangled sporting cliches about how this experience is life changing and elimination is but a small hurdle on the path to dream fulfillment… but it’s about food. So it’s compelling viewing.
Have you got a signature dish? What is it?
I like cooking curries. Some people have told me they like my Butter Chicken recipe, my wife has told me that the Beef Massaman I made this week is “my best curry ever”… so here’s my attempt to recreate the recipe for posterity’s sake… it’s designed to have leftovers – because curry is always better two days later.
Ingredients
Steps
I’ll try following these steps again in a week or so to make sure I haven’t missed a step. But I think it’s all there. Tomato soup is a terrific base for cooking. I also use it in my Butter Chicken and Spaghetti Bolognese.
Technically I should be writing this mammoth essay – but my friend Mika sent me this – and I can’t resist a rant.
Once upon a time I preached a sermon on Jesus sending the disciples out in pairs after his “harvest is plentiful, workers are few” sermon. He basically gave them authority to cast out demons and heal the sick in his name. I said that the instruction to evangelise was normative for Christians but that this gifting was specific to the apostles.
A dear sister from the congregation came up afterwards to correct me. On the basis of a bit of the Bible that pretty clearly is dubious. Mark 16:9ff. It’s a bit that comes with a note – in every version – that the earliest manuscripts don’t contain it, which should ring alarm bells. I’m ok with these passages being there – what I’m not ok with is people using them to create a point of difference with all other churches. Seriously, if you hold a minority position, at some point you’ve got to ask questions about the basis of that distinction. This well meaning lady pointed out that right there, in Mark 16:17, there’s what appears to be a promise that all who believe will have the ability to drive out demons, and in verse 18b there’s a promise that we’ll be able to heal the sick:
“17 And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues;”
What she didn’t mention, and what I was incredibly tempted to point out, was that in between driving out demons and healing people there’s the idea that we should also be playing with snakes and drinking poison:
“18 they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.”
If these verses are authentic then it’s much more likely they describe Paul at the end of Acts (he gets bitten by a snake, and he heals people). They’re not the sort of verses I’d be turning into theme verses for my life. There are actually snake handling churches out there (mostly, I think, in the US). The way I’d want to use them, if I was inclined, would be to argue with the anti-alcohol lobby that this is in fact an exhortation to drink poison, and that such drinking is a sign of faith…
Here’s a video (that I haven’t watched)…
Which, tangentially, very tangentially, leads to my actual point about this jewelery service “Bling for Jesus“…
Bling for Jesus have taken Deuteronomy 6:5-6 and 6:8 and turned them into some sort of business model.
“Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with
all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts…
Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads”
This clearly means turn bible verses into bracelets and tiaras. Right? Leaving the theological problems aside, these things are just ugly:
The essay I’m working on currently requires the use of “primary sources” from Rome. This means reading a bunch of inscriptions which were either sycophantic pandering to the emperor or imperial bragging.
But this is cool. Next time somebody you’re talking to about what possible explanation there might be for Jesus body not being in the tomb on Easter Sunday here’s a piece of relevant Roman legislation.
Imperial edict – Date disputed (either Augustus, Tiberius or Claudius)
White marble stele – possibly form Nazareth
Edict of Caesar. It pleases me, in regard to graves and tombs, whoever has made them for the cult of ancestors, or children, or kinsmen, that these things remain undisturbed forever; and if someone reports that anyone has either destroyed or in any other way removed the buried dead or has moved them to other locations with evil intentions to the injustice of the buried dead or if the tombstones or stones have been moved, against a person of this sort I order that a trial be started, just as in the case of gods, just so for the cults of mortals. There will be much greater need to honour the buried dead. In general, nobody will have permission to move them; otherwise such a person will be liable to capital punishment on a charge of violation of sepulchre. This is my wish.
I will no doubt be caught up in moments of procrastination in the next two days… but it’s study week, and before I study for my exams I need to finish an essay.
I am intending to include the words milieu, and hegemony, in every essay I write this year. From this point on. Just because I like them.
Got any more words to throw into the pile?
Yet another study has come out linking coffee consumption with a life both healthy and wise…
Regular consumption of caffeine over the long-term has been linked to lower incidences of Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease in humans and lesser memory dysfunction and neurodegeration in animals, write neuroscientists Alexandre de Mendonça of the University of Lisbon and Rodrigo A. Cunha of the University of Coimbra, both in Portugal, in this month’s issue of the Journal of Alzheimer’s Research.
The beneficial effects only appeared when caffeine was consumed in moderate amounts (the equivalent of up to 4 cups of coffee a day for humans) regularly over a long period of time, Cunha told Livescience.
Rather than improve memory, “caffeine prevents any deterioration of memory caused by insults you might be prone to,” Cunha said.
It’s not talking about things someone may have said about your mum there – but rather things that effect your brain.
Read about it here, or order some coffee from the St. Eutychus Roastery here.
Ouch. Complete with super slow mo replays, and biomechanical analysis. Apparently “no pain, no brain” is a factual reality.
At the very least, it is possibly the most convoluted chase scene ever… It’s like the director found this list of possible elements for movie chase scenes and hit select all.
The best bit is that the guy doesn’t look at the explosions (which don’t come until right at the end). He’s so cool.