Eurovisions of grandeur

What do you get when you cross Eurovision rehearsals and some awesome Segway moves? This post. That’s what.

May 24, 2009

Bran-ded data

Cereal and computers don’t mix. Trust me. I’m speaking from experience when it comes to mixing milk and circuitry. This guy has found a way to turn this all into a winning formula…

May 24, 2009

A bunch of links – May 24, 2009

May 24, 2009

Guerrilla Evangelism

I’ve been toying with the idea of how Christians can use emerging technologies and the public sphere to conduct “guerrilla evangelism” (not to be confused with gorilla evangelism).

I know gospel proclamation occurs best in the context of an actual person to person relationship – but that doesn’t discount the idea of keeping Christianity in the public eye.

Here are five ideas I think are perhaps worth considering if you’ve got some time on your hands:

  1. Calling talkback radio – there are myriad talkback topics that lend themselves to Christian content – if I had a job that allowed me to call radio stations during the day, I would. 
  2. Writing letters to the editor – but not the angry “religious right” type, or the terrible capitalising on current events type – more the classy Christian commentary where appropriate… this already happens to a degree in Sydney – but not enough elsewhere. Those are the low hanging fruit though… here are some evangelism 2.0 ideas…
  3. Find contentious Wikipedia entries and edit them as often as possible to present orthodox evangelical views on particular hotbed issues – or even the basics. Given that Wikipedia is both the primary source of information for most people and user generated it lends itself to this sort of concerted effort… 
  4. Comment on popular blogs – and major media outlets – but again, not in the “flame an atheist” or condemn people to hell kind of way that has been made popular by theological ingrates.
  5. Share/bookmark/vote for good Christian articles – this one’s for the technologically literate – Digg, Reddit, Delicious, and Google Reader shared items are all popular sources of information for people – they tend to have a thoroughly atheist bent. Particularly Digg. I’ve seen one Driscoll article make it into the “What’s hot on Google Reader” feed – and not many turning up on the main page for Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon – or any of the other services that are out there. 
  6. Putting evangelistic comments in your status on Twitter and Facebook is a bit cliched – but at least in some cases it satisfies the relational criteria of evangelism. 

Any other ideas?

May 24, 2009

Sign Language: Under New Management

“Under new management” signs make a pretty clear statement of discontinuity with the past. I suggest that the more prominent the sign, or the longer it’s shown – the greater the intended discontinuity.

One of the Pizza Hut restaurants in Townsville (one of the few remaining dine-in Pizza Huts in Queensland) has had a large “Under New Management” sign on its roof for a couple of months now.

May 24, 2009

A bunch of links – May 23, 2009

May 23, 2009

Peripheral vision

Turns out when it comes to Transformers peripherals there’s more than initially meets the eye. Not only can you get the awesome transformers thumb drive I put up the other day – you can get a matching USB hub – or a mouse… from here.

The Hub goes from this:

… to this

Then there are two mice to choose from:

This one…

And this one:

May 23, 2009

Calendar with stigmata attached

It’s 2009 AD – that’s Anno Domini – the year of our Lord. You probably know this, others may need constant reminding – which is why you should install this calendar in your office cubicle. It’ll no doubt be a great tool for office evangelism – or for ruling right angles/architectural drawings.

May 23, 2009

Sticky marketing

Human Rights activists spend far too much time sitting in cages in public spaces and doing things that are too easy to ignore. Largely because they’re so obnoxiously offensive that we immediately shield ourselves from the horrors they describe. Their campaigns aren’t generally “sticky” for this reason.

Stickiness is an important part of any marketing campaign – finding a message that is memorable is vital if your product isn’t something that involves an immediate and spontaneous purchasing decision (like a bottle of Coke). 

Stickiness was particularly important to this UNICEF anti-landmine campaign, in a more literal sense.

Adhesive stickers with bottom side simulating a detonator for explosive were placed on the pavements in Zurich. When the passers by checked their shoes, they saw the message from Unicef: In many other countries you would now be mutilated! Help the victims of landmines!

May 23, 2009

Unclutter your cutter

Lif e is full of redundancies – nowhere moreso than the humble cutlery drawer. I grew up with splayds (and other cutlery too) – and regret not receiving any as wedding presents. 

For those not familiar with splayds or the myriad other food consuming implements I present this Venn Diagram…

From here.

May 23, 2009

Flautless performance

Welcome to an all new high in cultural sophistication – a beat boxing flautist…

Super Mario Bros Theme

Sesame Street Theme

Inspector Gadget Theme (with Axel F thrown in for good measure)

Found here.

May 22, 2009

A bunch of links – May 22, 2009

May 22, 2009

Creatures of the swamp

My employer has committed to raising funds to save an iconic North Queensland wetland. Until recently I thought wetland meant swamp. I was apparently mistaken.

I went there yesterday with some film crews. And took some photos. Check them out here… or if you’re too lazy, here are some highlights…

May 22, 2009

Operator… Get me Sweden

That’s the name of a Darren Hanlon song – and after a bit of news today I feel like picking up the phone and saying just that.

I like Sweden. And I like the Swedish. But this is ridiculous…

“Swedish women will be permitted to abort their children based on the sex of the fetus, according to a ruling by Sweden’s National Board of Health and Welfare.”

According to this article.

Nasty.

May 22, 2009

I’ve run out of atheism headings

It seems to me that any time Christians (or theists) are critical of the nasty side of atheism we get shouted down as hypocrites. How can we pick on Dawkins, for how can we caricature them all on account of his vitriol when we had George W Bush as the public face of Christianity justifying unpopular wars with terribly out of context Bible passages? Or indeed or the televangelists et al who are a public bastardisation of the Christian message.

Is this a log v speck issue? Should we be trying to clear up the Christian brand (ie what the public think Christianity is) before we go charging at the bastion of angry atheism – namely Richard Dawkins and co.

Probably. Those loony fringes of Christianity are much better at garnering publicity than the mainstream evangelical orthodoxy. Like the woman in the US who kidnapped her kid because he has cancer and the State wanted to force him to undergo life saving medical treatment.

So long as that’s the public understanding of “Christianity” pushed by the media we’re going to have troubles criticising atheism because the public understanding of atheism is angry intellectual criticism of religious belief.

I actually started writing this post because there’s been a pretty angry response to that article in the LA Times the other day – and I wanted to talk about how angry atheists are, and how Dawkins seems to epitomise atheism, rather than being at its fringe.

That is all. For now.

May 22, 2009