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What a disappointing round of Premier League fixtures overnight.
Read this post – free
Mozilla – the development company that brought you such products as Firefox 1, 2 and 3 – has performed an interesting test on content writing for websites . The general rule is that a link should essentially ask to be clicked. Your link should be compelling and descriptive. Basically you shouldn’t ask people to “click here” for more information. Anyway, Mozilla ran a test where their Firefox 3 page would present alternate options in the download button text – “Download now – free” and “Try Firefox 3” and the first option was “significantly” more popular (well a 10.07% conversion rate as opposed to 9.73%). So there you go. Boring reading – but I hope the title was compelling enough to bring you here… and that’s what counts.
Give way to buses
This is the stupidest law in Queensland. I understand that in less civilised countries it’s basically the biggest thing on the road has right of way. But I was driving home tonight and this bus just pulled out of me. I started placidly raising my fist and questioning the ability of the bus driver when my wife gently informed me that you have to give way to buses. Hands up who knew that? It’s a stupid law. Here it is from the Queensland Transport laws of giving way page :
When should I give way to buses?
In built up areas where the speed limit is 70km/h or below you must give way to buses when:
- buses are entering or about to enter traffic
- buses are pulling out from a bus stop, shoulder of the road, or far left side of the road
- the bus displays a GIVE WAY TO BUSES sign and the right direction indicator is operating.
When a bus complies with all the above criteria, then vehicles approaching from behind must give way. It is important to remember that all vehicles, including buses, must indicate for five seconds before moving off.
It’s a dumb law. And there’s no way buses ever indicated for five seconds before moving off – but how can you prove that in the event of an accident? Does anyone time it? Is it registered in the bus’s black box so that in the case of an emergency it can be recovered to tell all… If buses are a protected species there should be something to ensure they don’t take advantage of the system.
balcony panorama
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Robyn's phone has a cool panorama feature. Here's us watching the thunderstorm in Townsville tonight.
He’s not the Messiah, according to the "religious right"
I promise not to dwell on the US election for much longer. I keep finding new and interesting (to me) material as the pundits continue to dissect the results. There's a serious paucity of real political news to report now that the election is done and dusted. We've got two months left of George W Bush – but diplomatic gaff stories (and associated snubbings of antipodan PMs) will only entertain for so long. There is the ongoing selection of Obama's cabinet to occupy interested observers. But when all is said and done, the most interesting thing for political commentators to do is pull apart the reason for Obama's crushing victory – and in some cases the reasons certain areas bucked the trend.
This particular finding may shock you. Evangelical Christians didn't take a shine to Obama . Funnily enough – where the evangelical population was most concentrated was where McCain did best. Who'd have thunk it? These are the voters who were the core of support for George W Bush. Who'd have thought arch conservatives wouldn't like Obama. I find it odd that I liked him so much given my own typical social conservatism. And evangelical beliefs. But then, I'm not an American and Americans (particularly the Christians) have this odd view that puts America at the heart of God's kingdom – and the President as a pseudo pope – their representative of God's kingdom. I don't understand a system of democracy where an individual's faith comes ahead of their ability to govern when they're leading a secular organisation (ie the government). By all means, appoint church leaders on the basis of their doctrine and teaching – as is biblical – but officials should be elected on merit.
Turkey dies slow death in front of cameras
And birds prepared for Thanksgiving at the same time.
My favourite parts:
“Certainly, I’ll probably invite criticism for doing this too. But at least this was fun.”
“I’ll be in charge of the turkey… I’m always in charge of the turkeys.”
Yes, the turkeys in the background are getting it in the neck, literally, as she speaks. It certainly did invite criticism – the interview was conducted after the Governor pardoned a turkey ahead of the Thanksgiving cull. The criticism largely came from the left – who it has to be said are the least likely Palin constituency. But still a PR lesson can be learned here – if you want a positive story for doing something nice to animals don’t do the doorstop interview in front of a slaughterhouse. Your message will be lost in the ensuing controversy.
Phoning it in
I admire the resolve of sub editors around the world not to make racially charged puns on the dilemma surrounding Barack Obama and his blackberry. This is a serious issue people. Due to security concerns – and laws surrounding the status of presidential correspondence – the President of the United States does not have an email address. Lucky the Republicans didn’t get in – Sarah Palin’s passwords are really easy to crack.
Obama’s Blackberry was a constant companion during the campaign. And now he has to give it up – his tech savvy approach to grassroots campaigning was arguably the factor that won him the presidency – it certainly won him the primaries.
Why can the White House not afford to pay the best security people in the business to ensure their Commander in Chief can have access to technology? Surely the US Army doesn’t have its officers receiving correspondence by carrier pigeon?
Slate provides some interesting background on the drama – and in the process makes the argument for the President to have email access and the ability to hold on to his preferred communications device.
I, on the other hand, am not the President of the United States. And I want an iPhone. I am lobbying hard for iPhones to be the phone of choice in our office’s upgrade of our current mobiles.
iPhones don’t just look cool – they’re incredibly functional and extensible. They will not go out of date any time soon. Other tech companies (like Google) are struggling to release an iPhone killer – a device to dent the iPhone’s popularity. Here is my suggested iPhone killer:
A weighty cause
I have a deal with my lovely wife that if I lose 10kg I can have an Xbox 360. It's a long running deal. My progress has been pretty stagnant. But now, thanks to Peter Davey and Facebook, you can join the cause and track my progress via this group.
Feel free to drop by the group and give advice/encouragement/suggestions for games to purchase when I reach the goal.
Pick a card, any card
The ever so helpful folks over at the new humanist have issued a series of cards to make choosing your religious affiliation easy (there are more on the actual site)…
Coffee: the new black?
I spent much of last night redesigning my blog – it’s still not finished, but it’s servicable. It prominently features my coffee machine – and pays adequate homage to my coffee fixation. I really struggled to find an appropriate coffee colour for my background. Coffee has so many different colours. Roasted beans vary depending on how well they’ve been roasted. Green beans, as anyone who’s watched TV lately knows thanks to Nestle’s ridiculously stupid green bean blend (green beans taste like grass), are green. Brewed coffee has different colours depending on the method – plunger coffee is different to espresso – and espresso is different depending on the heat, grind and length of shot. Also – espresso has a layer of crema (coffee oils) that’s a reddy, browny, goldy colour. So I eyedropped a colour from these beans in photo shop (having come up with various shades of purple, red, and pink) that looked about right.
Obviously if you’re here reading my blog you know this already – it’s more for the benefit of subscribers and people who read this from my Facebook profile.
Ninjarific
I’m loving this new Gmail theme. I am Ninja! I especially love that the inbox stars are shurikens. Totally, awesomely ninja. It takes me back, somewhat nostalgically to the coolest ninja game ever – other than Shinobi – Ninja Mission on the Amiga.
Perish the thought
My grandfather, who we affectionately call "Fa fa", has written a book called "Preach or Perish". He's an old school church minister with a passion for clear communication – and so that's the subject matter the book tackles. I haven't received my *ahem* free copy yet (I'll send him a link to this post and hopefully get one in the mail). Dad has a chapter in it. So as you can see preaching is in my blood (incidentally I'll be preaching at one of the local Pressy churches this Sunday night).
I'm even included in the bio:
Donald Howard had a varied career before his passion for preaching took him to Moore Theological College. His first parish was St Peter's Burwood East from 1966. Foollowing the death of his first wife Diana, he worked in the Anglican Department of Evangelism. In 1981 he married Nan and they ministered at St Stephen's Lugarno until 1992. They retired to Camden where Donald pastored the congregation of St James' Menangle for eight years. He has four children, eleven grandchildren, and one great-grandchild from his first marriage and he and Nan have two adult daughters.
It turns out that a plague of plagiarism is running rife in the American church (and probably Australian ones too) – the dawn of podcasts and posting full text versions of sermons has created the shoddy practice of lifting texts from the net and delivering them verbatim, without disclaimer. The article linked there makes a somewhat unfair (in my opinion) comparison between plagiarising sermons and pornography…
"Clearly, the internet has contributed to the problem. Sermons in both written and audio form are quickly accessible, and the temptation to plagiarize is easier than ever before to indulge. In this regard the sin differs little from the epidemic of internet pornography. But accessibility alone cannot account for the problem. Just as many believe porn is an unhealthy way of coping with a lack of intimacy, there must be some underlying issue that drives pastors to plagiarize."
While I'm prepared to acknowledge plagiarising is probably an example of laziness – I would have assumed that those of us who subscribe to a belief in the Holy Spirit would see sermons as "open source" able to be shared, and used by others within the broader body of the church royalty free. I certainly don't buy in to this argument, at all. If you want to preach someone else's sermon I think that's fine – provided that in the spirit of the open source movement you give credit to the original author. One of the key strengths of the Open Source movement is that source code is provided and is malleable – you're free to make contextual and appropriate changes to suit you use – this too has applications to preaching.
Reinventing the wheel when someone else has a functional, well planned wheel already working seems somewhat silly. I always thought that's what commentaries and other Christian resources were for – that said, I'm not condoning the wholesale reproduction of other people's work – preachers need to connect with their audiences and no one is better placed to speak to a particular church than their own minister – or in fact the other issue raised by the linked article. That of ministers video-casting their sermons to multiple church campuses ala Mark Driscoll. Which is the subject of a separate article…
"Only a preacher with a golden tongue has authority to preach the gospel. It conveys the unspoken belief that no one in the satellite congregation has the authority to speak to their context because preaching requires unique talents that only a few actually possess. Like the wizard in The Wizard of Oz, only the larger-than-life giants, painted by pixelated light, and hovering above the congregation, possess these elusive talents.”