Oh, poo bubbles

No, that’s not some bizarre new inoffensive curse… or at least that’s not my intention. Check this out…

Mr. Goltstein, 43 years old, had moved his wife and their three children from the Netherlands to Winchester, population 4,600, about 90 miles east of Indianapolis. They planned to build a dairy farm with 1,650 cows on 180 acres.

He had installed a black plastic liner to keep the manure from seeping into the ground during the flush days of the dairy business, when prices and demand were growing.

The plastic liner has since detached from the floor of the stinky, open-air pool, and Mr. Goltstein says he can’t afford to repair the liner properly. But he says he’s game to pop the bubbles before the manure pool overflows and causes an even bigger stink.

His neighbors aren’t happy with the plan.

“If that thing back there blows, God help us all for miles,” said Allen Hutchison, whose corn and soybean farm is next door. He and other neighbors worry that puncturing the bubbles could cause an explosion of manure and toxic gases.

Hilarious.

March 29, 2010

How to slice a banana without removing the skin

This is cool. I’m not sure if it’s really one of the world’s 100 best pranks – but it’s very clever…

March 29, 2010

How to take pictures in space… for cheap


This photo cost less than $1,000. But how? You ask. Rockets cost heaps more than that…
“Space enthusiast Robert Harrison managed to send his home-made contraption 22 miles – or 116,160 feet – above the earth’s surface from his back garden.”
Here’s the rig, in infographic style:

March 29, 2010

An ode to @

The @ symbol is so hot right now – almost as hot as block letters filled with a scribble effect. It’s so in that the New York Museum of Modern Art has added it to the Architecture and Design collection. Go @.

Here are some @ facts:

Let’s start by looking at the @. No one knows for sure when it first appeared. One suggestion is that it dates to the sixth or seventh century when it was adopted as an abbreviation of “ad,” the Latin word for “at” or “toward.” (The scribes of the day are said to have saved time by merging two letters and curling the stroke of the “d” around the “a.”) Another theory is that it was introduced in 16th-century Venice as shorthand for the “amphora,” a measuring device used by local tradesmen.

Whatever its origins, the @ appeared on the keyboard of the first typewriter, the American Underwood, in 1885 and was used, mostly in accounting documents, as shorthand for “at the rate of.” It remained an obscure keyboard character until 1971 when an American programmer, Raymond Tomlinson, added it to the address of the first e-mail message to be sent from one computer to another.

March 29, 2010

Supersizing the Last Supper

You know that famous painting – the one the Da Vinci code is all about… well, there have actually been a bunch of “last supper” paintings over the years – and it seems Jesus and the 12 (or 11 depending on what time of the evening the painting captures) are eating a little bit more each time.


That’s the subject of a new study of 52 of the paintings, conducted by a pair of American brothers.

Using computer-aided design technology, the pair scanned the main dish, bread and plates and calculated the size of portion relative to the size of the average head in the painting.

Over a thousand years, the size of the main dish progressively grew by 69.2%, plate size by 65.6%and bread size by 23.1%, they found.

The study, published in Britain’s International Journal of Obesity, is co-authored by Mr. Wansink’s brother, Craig, a professor of religious studies at Virginia Wesleyan College in Norfolk, Virginia, and an ordained Presbyterian minister.

March 28, 2010

Some words to remove from your vocabulary

I haven’t updated my blacklist for a long time. But that’s ok. Because the head of one of America’s ailing media conglomerates has spent his time (that probably should have been used bailing out the company) writing a list of 119 words his employees are no longer allowed to use.

Here are some of them (and here are the rest).

  • “Flee” meaning “run away”
  • “Good” or “bad” news
  • “Laud” meaning “praise”
  • “Seek” meaning “look for”
  • “Some” meaning “about”
  • “Two to one margin” . . . “Two to one” is a ratio, not a margin. A margin is measured in points. It’s not a ratio.
  • “Yesterday” in a lead sentence
  • “Youth” meaning “child”
  • 5 a.m. in the morning
  • After the break
  • After these commercial messages
  • Bare naked
  • Behind bars
  • Behind closed doors
  • Behind the podium (you mean lecturn) [sic]
  • Best kept secret
  • Campaign trail
  • Clash with police
  • Close proximity
  • Complete surprise
  • Completely destroyed, completely abolished, completely finished or any other completely redundant use
  • Death toll
  • Definitely possible
  • Going forward
  • Gunman, especially lone gunman
  • In a surprise move
  • In harm’s way
  • In other news
  • In the wake of (unless it’s a boating story)
  • Incarcerated
  • Informed sources say . . .

So in summary, avoid redundancy and cliche. But what about you – what words do you think should be taken out the back and shot? I’d say anybody over the age of 35 saying “funky” – I do not think that word means what they think it means…

March 28, 2010

Paper Mario Bros

This Mario is made entirely out of paper. Which is pretty awesome. And if you want to make your own (but who would? Seriously?) then you can get the template file here.

March 27, 2010

Try this Sudoloo

That’s not the worse pun I could have made here… but keep this as a spare in your reading basket to solve a puzzling predicament… what are you to do when you use the last square of toilet paper in the house? Never find yourself in that dilemma again. Buy this now…

March 26, 2010

2m40 – a bridge not even WD40 can help with

This is possibly the funniest “name and shame” blog in the world. An overpass in France has an advertised clearance of two metres and forty centimetres. And you know what. The sign means it. Only truck drivers either can’t read or don’t pay any attention. So 2m40 takes photos when they stuff up – and posts them to the web…


March 26, 2010

Some useful Greek and Hebrew resources for first year students

If you’re at QTC (or elsewhere and using David Alan Black’s Introduction to New Testament Greek) and looking for something as good as Animated Hebrew for Greek – then here is a solution. CrossWire Bible Society’s flash cards. You’ll need java. If ProVoc had a database for Black’s vocab it would also be pretty good (if you’re a Mac user). If you’re not a fan of Animated Hebrew and want to try an alternative Moore College use the same text book and there are MTC Hebrew Vocab Files (with memory hooks (apparently the ruder the memory hook is the more memorable it is).

If you don’t care about learning Biblical languages then just look over to the right hand side of the page (or click through you lazy feed reader) and check out whatever happens to be in the Curiosities column at the moment.

March 26, 2010

Eutychus and the second storey window

Grant me, if you will, this moment of complete self indulgence. This post is purely here for the purpose of citation in the essay I am handing in tomorrow.

The story of Eutychus (Acts 20) demonstrates that Pauline churches met not only in the courtyards of tradtional flat pack Roman homes – but in any available and appropriate domestic space.

This is really a cheap way to get my principal visiting my blog – though I’m not sure how wise this course of action is.

March 25, 2010

Disciplines of a godly theological student

The title of this post is a play on the title of a popular book – not a comment on my own character. The more weeks of college I attend the more I realise that training for ministry is a multistrand process… theological education includes elements of the following (that I can think of):

  • Ancient History (Understanding the culture and context of the Old and New Testaments)
  • Modern History (Church history, understanding the context of different commentators etc)
  • Philosophy (Understanding how different ideas interact)
  • Linguistics (Greek and Hebrew)
  • Literary criticism (understanding genre, intended audience, etc)
  • Counselling (pastoral stuff – though this seems to come mostly from “on the job” training)
  • Communication (preaching, essay writing, etc)
  • Theology (studying God via doctrine and the Bible)
  • Mysticism (studying other religions from history)
  • Sociology (understanding the nature of human relationships throughout time)

Have I missed any? No wonder our principal doesn’t want us pretending to be studying business and mareketing principles. We’ve just got no time. And no wonder my head hurts.

March 24, 2010

The awesome unawesomeness of Paul

Paul really was awesome. I’m writing an essay about the early church which is turning into an essay on the church in Corinth. Which has brought me to the point where I am arguing that Paul borrowed from some structures that existed in the first century in order to not be too much of a Christian weirdo – but that he was very keen not to borrow the easiest structures – the one where he’d be some big noting keynote speaker who crowds would flock to see. That seems to be the desire of the Corinthian church for Paul. And he’s at his most vitriolic when he’s correcting that expectation. This is from 2 Corinthians 11 and 12. I love the bit in parenthesis in verse 23…

5But I do not think I am in the least inferior to those “super-apostles.” 6I may not be a trained speaker, but I do have knowledge. We have made this perfectly clear to you in every way.  7Was it a sin for me to lower myself in order to elevate you by preaching the gospel of God to you free of charge?

…

12And I will keep on doing what I am doing in order to cut the ground from under those who want an opportunity to be considered equal with us in the things they boast about. 13For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ. 14And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. 15It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.

16I repeat: Let no one take me for a fool. But if you do, then receive me just as you would a fool, so that I may do a little boasting. 17In this self-confident boasting I am not talking as the Lord would, but as a fool. 18Since many are boasting in the way the world does, I too will boast. 19You gladly put up with fools since you are so wise! 20In fact, you even put up with anyone who enslaves you or exploits you or takes advantage of you or pushes himself forward or slaps you in the face. 21To my shame I admit that we were too weak for that!

What anyone else dares to boast about—I am speaking as a fool—I also dare to boast about. 22Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they Abraham’s descendants? So am I. 23Are they servants of Christ? (I am out of my mind to talk like this.) I am more. I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. 24Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. 25Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, 26I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers. 27I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. 28Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. 29Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn?

30If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. 31The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is to be praised forever, knows that I am not lying.

Refreshing and inspiring at the same time. This is why Paul makes the grade in my ten Bible stories for boys… though he probably wouldn’t want to…

March 23, 2010

Nothing says “I’m sorry” like ctrl + z

March 23, 2010

Mr Burns in real life

I don’t know that I could work for this guy (or the cartoon version for that matter)… but I do like untoonings.

March 23, 2010