text:
Keeping Calm in the Age of Nuclear Weapons

I attended a small Baptist college in Minnesota.  Every weekday, Monday through Friday, the campus came to a standstill in the middle of the morning.  Classes ended.  The coffee shop closed.  The post office shut its doors.  The administrative offices locked up.  Everyone was encouraged to go to the field house for our daily chapel service.

It was not required, but I always found it beneficial, so I went every day.  I can remember very few of the messages I heard over those four years.  Even though we were supported by the Baptist General Conference and most of the speakers came from that tradition, still pastors of other evangelical churches were invited to speak as well.

One of the few United Methodist preachers who spoke regularly was Dr. C. Philip Hinerman, pastor of Park Avenue United Methodist Church in Minneapolis.  I remember vividly one particular January morning when Dr. Hinerman spoke at a chapel service.  In the depth of Minnesota winter, when most of us were as pale as ghosts, Dr. Hinerman stood before us with a deep bronze tan.  He went on to explain that he had just returned from a vacation in Miami. (That was impressive, that Methodist preachers could take mid-winter vacations in Florida.)  He went on to talk about how unnerving it was in the late 1960s, to be on the beach while aware that there were nuclear missiles pointed our direction from ninety miles away in Cuba.

I originally was going to write something entirely different, but recent reports from North Korea brought his sermon back to mind.  We live in a dangerous world.  Whether it is danger from Cuba or North Korea, al qaeda or ISIS, we do not know what lies in our future.

In his very brief sermon, Dr. Hinerman spoke about it this way.  We can either live our lives in fear or trust our lives to God.  I could shake in fear as I lay on the beach or I could put my life in God’s hands.  I chose to trust God.   I encourage you to do the same.

When he was done, many of my friends were not even sure what he had said.  But it struck me profoundly.  So profoundly that almost 50 years later, I still recall it.  Life offers us many choices, some mundane and some life changing.  But every day, we are faced with a simple choice:  do we live in fear or do we live in faith?  Do we trust God to take care of us or do we trust ourselves and our human leaders?

The psalmist put it this way:  “Some trust in chariots and some in horses (the ICBMs of their day), but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.” (Psalm 20:7)

Later in book of Psalms there is a line that one of my college friends (Dave Shupe) used to sing:  “My times are in thy hand.  O Lord, I wish them there.” (from Psalm 31:15)

Ultimately, that is our only safety.

Posted in Fear | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Which Way are You Facing?

Several weeks ago, I wrote a brief summary of what happened to me one morning on my daily walk.  I want to revisit that event a little more in-depth.

As many of you know, my dog Churchill and I walk every morning for 3-5 miles.  Each day we take different routes, but on Monday, Wednesday and Friday we usually take a route that includes the golf course closest to our home.  We live in a community that is built around one of the Robert Trent Jones Golf Courses.  Three courses are built around the same club and the Highlands course winds through the neighborhoods of Hampton Cove.

I have said that we live on a fishing lake and I don’t fish and in a golfing community and I don’t play golf.  But I enjoy both.  I enjoy the lakes without dropping a line and I enjoy the golf course without ever teeing off.  By going before 7 a.m., we can wander through the holes on foot without disturbing any duffers.  It is a beautiful time to walk the gently rolling terrain, and in the summer it is the most comfortable time of the day to be out there as well.

Other walkers, joggers and dog walkers also take the same opportunity.  Sometimes we see the same people regularly.  One of those was a man walking his dog, Savannah.  I know the dog’s name, but not the man’s.  So for several days we had crossed paths in a similar place near the 14th fairway.

One morning, after several days of rain, I was heading toward the sunrise and noticing the sun breaking through the clouds.  I was thinking how delightful it would be to have a sunny morning again.  I was feeling uplifted and joyful as I walked the cart path.

Soon, I met up with Savannah and her owner coming toward me from the opposite direction.  As we got within conversational distance we greeted each other.  One of the first things out of his mouth was surprising to me.  “Looks like it’s going to storm,” he said, pointing over my shoulder.

I was shocked as I turned and saw the angry clouds gathering behind me.  I was watching the sunrise and feeling uplifted.  He was looking at the clouds and feeling threatened.  As it turned out, the storm did not materialize, but neither did the sunny morning.

As I thought about this experience, I realized how philosophical it was.  Depending your focus, your mood could differ radically.  Walking toward the sun was uplifting.  Walking toward the clouds was threatening.

This applies to life in a larger sense, as well.  What we focus our lives on, what goal we strive for, determines how our lives develop.  If we focus on the positive, our lives can be positive.  If we focus on the negative, our lives can be negative.  Sometimes life is not as simple.  Sometimes it is shades of grey.  Sometimes we have to look hard into a negative situation to find something positive.  Sometimes even the most positive situation has its negatives.

But our general attitude does not need to controlled by the negative.

When I shared the original idea on Facebook, someone left the comment, “It’s not where you start, but where you are going that is important.”  That is so true.

And from a religious point of view, we are to focus our lives on Christ and his mission.  We focus on God’s plan, not the obstacles along the way.  As Paul says in the epistle to the Philippians, “But one thing I do:  Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (3:13-14)

Posted in Direction in life | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Goose, Goose, Duck

As preschoolers, many of us played a similar game.  If you grew up in most of the country, it was known as “Duck, Duck, Goose”.  If you grew up in Minnesota, it was known as “Duck, Duck, Grey Duck”.  Same game, just a different name.  According to Wikipedia, the “grey duck” version is closer to the Scandinavian origins, so you Minnesotans can feel superior.

Nowhere is the game called “Goose, Goose, Duck”.  Except for a small pond where my dog, Churchill, and I walk once or twice a week.  There, a good-sized (25-30) flock of Canada geese makes its home.  And there in the midst of the flock of geese is one odd-looking member.  It is a duck that is mostly black, with some white splotches and red around the eyes.  It is kind of odd-looking and it may have an injured foot because it seems to wobble when it walks.

But this duck is part of the flock.  He may stand out in stark contrast to the rest, but he has been part of the flock for several years.  Each year new goslings are born and grow up to adults.  They all know this “ugly duckling” as part of their family.  I don’t know whether the goose part of the flock changes from year to year.  I don’t know if some fly off to new ponds and streams (who can tell them apart?).  But the black duck remains, year after year.

I don’t know where he came from or even if he is a “he”.  I don’t know how he came to adopt this flock as his family. All I know is, he is as much a part of the flock as goslings that are born into it.  This pond is home and this group of geese is the flock.  Even the odd one.

Sometimes our families have their “odd ducks”.  Sometimes our churches have their “ugly ducklings”.  Sometimes our friends or work associates include people who are “just different”.  And many times these people are made to feel less human or less accepted.  They are only reluctantly included in plans.

My hope is that there is some place where these “different” people are not only accepted, but valued.  That we can see them as special, important, children of God.  And I hope that one of those places is the church or other place of worship.

Several years ago, I was the principal of a small alternative school for students who needed a place to fit in.  One of the students that year was a young man with Asperger syndrome.  At the time, I had never heard of it or known anyone who had it.  This young man was very bright, but socially awkward.  Toward the end of the second quarter, he was doing so well, he was poised to make the honor roll.

Just before the Christmas break, we had a party for the kids.  There were only about 10 students, so it was not difficult to include everyone.  After lunch several of us began to play “Uno” and this young man was invited to play. We were all playing together and laughing and kidding each other when his mother came to pick him up.  I will never forget the look on her face as she watched him play.  She was almost in tears because, I think for the first time, she saw her son with a group of kids who accepted him and he was interacting with them and he was “normal”.

When we returned to school after the new year, he was not there.  After he had been gone for several days, I went to his home to see what happened.  I don’t know what caused it, but he decided he did not want to return to school.  He was over 16 and there was nothing his mother could do to make him go.  He never gave me a good answer as to why he did not want to return.  He would have graduated that spring.

Even though I felt like we had failed him, his mother said before I left that I had given her the best Christmas gift she had ever gotten.  She saw her son just being a normal kid, surrounded by people who accepted and liked him.

Sometimes we never realize how important acceptance is.  Jesus included the rich and the poor, the socially acceptable and the social outcasts.  He set the example for us.  Rather than a bar called “Cheers”, the place where everyone knows your name and accepts you should be among the children of God.  I hope your fellowship includes a few “odd ducks”.  They make life a lot more interesting.

Posted in Acceptance | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

What Were You Doing During the “Summer of Love”?

What were you doing fifty years ago?  If you are younger than 55, you either were not alive or have no real memories of the time.  But a significant number of my readers were alive and remember that summer.  As the media later dubbed it, it became known as the “summer of love.”  But I also watched some programs that noted that in some cities it was a summer of violence and riots.

Most of us who remember those days did not know that it was the “summer of love” and only came to know it as such much later.  A preacher friend of mine wrote in Facebook that he started the summer learning how to kill people as a new recruit in the military.  However an experience with God changed that for him and he returned home feeling that he was called to save people as a minister rather than to kill people as a soldier.  (If you want to read the story, look up Jerry F. Reeder’s Facebook page.)

I had a decidedly less spiritual summer in 1967.  I was the head life guard at a Christian camp just north of Minneapolis.  There were regular spiritual experiences and Bible studies, but I was not deeply moved by them. Instead, my experience was much more hedonistic.  There is something about being a life guard that is attractive to the opposite sex (even though the movie Baywatch bombed).  For the first time in my life, I was cool.  I was able to have my pick of the girls and made the most of that opportunity (although it remained G-rated).  Even natural disasters, like a nearby tornado, became an opportunity to hug a bunch of scared girls.  It was definitely a summer of love for me.

But it had nothing to do with real love.  It was much more about physical relationships than self-giving love.  In Greek, it would have been different words:  eros not agape. The erotic love is not necessarily negative.  It was the normal word for love between husbands and wives.  But the word Jesus uses in the New Testament is the less common word “agape“, or self-giving, self-sacrificing love.  It is the kind of love demonstrated by Christ as he voluntarily gave up his life for us.  It is the kind of love that the early church demonstrated as they shared their resources with those in need.  It is the kind of love that inspires us to choose against self-interest when it may be better for our neighbors.  It is the kind of love Jerry Reeder chose.

I attended a funeral this past week for someone I met 32 years ago.  At her service there was a lot of scripture read (by her grandchildren).  But the one that stood out most to me was from 1 Corinthians 13.  This beautiful poem of love is read often during weddings.  It is much less common in funerals.  But it was most fitting for Mary Lou West Walker.  She personified that kind of love to all who knew her.

What a legacy to leave!  During the 60’s, a new chorus was popular among young Christians and it is still heard from time to time in churches:  “They’ll Know we are Christians by our Love.”  When we come to the end of our lives, what kind of love will most represent us?  Will our friends, neighbors and family say the most memorable thing about us was our love?

That is my prayer for you and me.

Posted in love | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Anyone Know Where I Can Get a Weekend Weather Person?

Many years ago, I was a full-time radio person in a local Christian station.  The salary was barely enough to pay the bills and I was looking for a way to make a few extra dollars.  I went to one of the local television stations and filled out an application.  I was hoping to do some “voice over” work on commercials.  As I was finishing the paperwork, someone burst into the room where several of us were sitting and said, “Anyone know where I can get a weekend weather person?”

The thought of doing actual on-air work where people could see me scared me to death at that moment.  So I kept quiet and shook my head.  Since then, I have wondered what would have happened if I had taken the chance and stood up and said, “Right here!”

Of course, there is no guarantee that I would have gotten the job, but my failure to respond guaranteed that I did not get the job.  Shortly after that, I began the process of returning to the ministry and that led to almost 30 years of pastoral service. I doubt that I would have responded to the ministerial call, had I begun a career on television.

Since that day, I have had many more opportunities to make choices, as we all do.  We wonder about “the road not taken” and realize that it has made all the difference.  When I was on leave from the ministry, finishing up my doctor of ministry degree, I turned down two offers to take full-time jobs in radio again.

I have come to believe two things to be true.  First, we never accomplish anything by dwelling in the past.  It is a wonderful place to visit, but we cannot stay there.  No matter what our choices at the time, if we made them for good reason, we must trust that we made the right choice and that we went where God was leading us.  I believe I did more positive things for the world by following the lead of the Holy Spirit back into the ministry.  I may not have had the worldly success I might have had, but in the end, that is unimportant.

The second is that even when we may have made a mistake and chosen the wrong alternative, God can still redeem that choice and make the best of it.  Every choice closes the door to some options, but also opens the door to other possibilities.  I have worked with inmates in prison who know they made some bad choices.  But many of them learn that, through chapel programs and other channels, their lives can still have meaning and purpose.  Even a “lifer” can “bloom where they are planted”.

I met a 94-year-old woman in a nursing home many years ago.  She had the most positive attitude.  So many of the people there were down and depressed.  But she took it upon herself to be a cheerful presence in their lives.  She was very hard of hearing and could barely see, but she could wheel her chair down the halls and talk to her neighbors and staff.  She was a ray of light in a dark and dismal place.

So what is important is not what choices, good or bad, we made in the past.  What is important is what we are going to do today and tomorrow.  As long as we have breath, there is something we can do.  Maybe we can’t do what we used to be able to do, but we can still do something.  There is a beautiful song on the Eagles’ “Long Road out of Eden” album called “Do Something.”

Do something
It’s too easy not to care
You’re not ready for the rockin’ chair
Get up and do something
Do something
Don’t wait too long
Even if it’s wrong
You’ve got to do something
Do something
It’s not over
No, it’s never too late.

Posted in choices | Leave a comment

Widening the Driveway, 2017

I like yard work in general, but there is one job I try to put off as much as possible.  Recently, the time came to do it again.   I refer to it as “widening the driveway”.  But I don’t do it with added concrete or asphalt.  Instead, I use an edger.  Edging the lawn is not my favorite task, so I put it off as long as I can.

After months of neglect, there was a lot of work to be done.  Interestingly, as I began to trim back the grass from the edges of the driveway and sidewalk, I found that they were wider than they appeared.  I remember a phrase I learned in high school science (either chemistry or physics), “Nature abhors a vacuum.”  And nature had seen the driveway and sidewalks as a vacuum and moved to fill that vacuum.  In trimming the edges, I added a couple inches to each side of the driveway and an inch to each side of the sidewalk.  Hence the term “widening the driveway.”

By doing nothing to control the takeover, the lawn sought to control its own boundaries.  Left unchecked for years, I imagine the sidewalks and driveway might eventually disappear from view altogether.

To me, this is a metaphor for life.  Our lives are like that driveway.  There are things in life that, like the grass or weeds, are seeking to take over.  If left unchecked, they slowly creep, inch by inch, into our lives.  And all of a sudden, we discover we have unwanted things in our lives that have made themselves at home.

In theological terms, we might call those things sins.  In psychological terms, we might call them unhealthy practices or habits.  It really does not matter what terms we are most comfortable with.  The problem is that we have become too comfortable with these things that are taking control of our lives.  We have given up control to something else.  And it order to regain control, sometimes we have to take the edger and cut them back.

Complicating that is time.  The longer we have neglected these areas of our lives, the more firmly rooted these sins/habits have become.  It becomes more and more difficult to get rid of them.  But in order to regain our lives and reestablish our boundaries, we sometimes have to do radical surgery.  It may be unpleasant (as edging is–lots of dust and dirt), but the results are worthwhile.

Then, if we continue to maintain the edges, it is much easier to remain in control.  The grass stays put and the driveway/sidewalk retains its desired contours.

As a Christian, I see the Holy Spirit as the edger.  We don’t have to do all the dirty work ourselves.  We just have to allow the edger to do its task.   We allow God to take control and go along for the ride.

There is an anonymous rhyme, sometimes attributed to the author Charles Reade:

We sow a thought and reap an act;
We sow an act and reap a habit;
We sow a habit and reap a character;
We sow a character and reap a destiny.

It is really a commentary on Proverbs 23:7  “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he” (KJV).

Posted in Living Life Well | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Shots Fired

“Shots fired.”  Two words paralyzed a city this week.  While shots are fired almost on a daily basis in the Huntsville area, the location of this threat was different.  The 911 call came from Redstone Arsenal, the sprawling government reservation that includes the Marshall Space Flight Center, an army post, and a host of defense contractors.  40,000 people work daily on the Arsenal.  And almost everyone in the Huntsville area who does not work there has friends or relatives that do.

The lockdown affected everyone there, but the rest of the metro area held their collective breaths as we awaited word about what was going on.  The television reporters set up outside the closed gates and the usual fare of programming was suspended for about three hours until the “all clear” was sounded.

It turned out to be a false alarm and no shots were ever verified.  Weapons were never found on anyone whose job was not providing security to the facility.  But with all the terrorism in the world these days, there were many nervous people in north Alabama.  All of a sudden it was no longer “those folks over there”, it was “us here”.  It became real in a hurry.

And it brings up the question of what makes us safe these days.  In the past we relied on police or the fact that we lived in places far from population centers.  But that does not protect us any more.  There was an arrest recently in Huntsville of a person who was collaborating with Isis (allegedly).  Big city, small town, urban, rural, it does not matter any more.

So where do we go for safety?  There were many this week who posted they were praying for people on the Arsenal. Does that do any good?  I believe it does.  I believe that prayer is not the last resort but the first line of defense.  There is a verse that comes to mind, Psalm 20:7  “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.”

We live in a metropolitan area that is known for its weapon development.  But the biggest and best firepower cannot ultimately protect us from all danger.  Our house has an alarm system that we arm every night, but that cannot protect us from all danger.  We live in a relatively safe neighborhood and have neighborhood watch programs, but that is not a complete guarantee of safety.

Ultimately, there is no way we can avoid all danger and trouble.  We are susceptible to all kinds of attacks.  So how can we live and enjoy our lives in such a world?

The answer is God.  We place our lives in God’s hands.  Another verse from the book of Psalms (31:15) says, “My times are in your hands deliver me from the hands of my enemies, from those who pursue me.”

That does not mean that evil will not attack us.  That does not mean that we will be exempt from depression or sickness or economic downturns.  That means that even though we may have to face “shots fired” situations, we can trust in God.  We place our lives and our families in God’s hands and know that, even if the worst happens, God will enable us to overcome and not be defeated.  It is not a magic talisman that causes bullets to bounce off us.  It is source of calm in the midst of the storm.  “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31b)

I can live with that.  Can you?

Posted in danger | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

It’s a Different World Now

I was going to a Christian college when I got the question.  A friend who was doing a project was talking to me while I played music on the campus radio station.  She asked, “Why didn’t you try drugs when you were in high school?”

I answered truthfully, “Because I lived in a small town and I had no idea where to get them.”

She said, “That’s the wrong answer.  You are supposed to say, ‘Because I am a Christian and I have Jesus in my heart and I don’t need drugs.'”

I said, “That is true, but my first answer was also true.”

I don’t think she used my response in the project she was doing.

But the truth is, in the mid-1960’s, in small town Minnesota, I knew no one who was using drugs.  We had a couple of heavy drinkers in my class, and everyone knew who they were.  But marijuana?  No way.  Anything stronger?  Are you kidding?

It’s a different world now.  Even in the smallest town, even in the most remote corner of the country, no matter where you live, there are opportunities to get into more trouble than most adults are aware of.

Next week, my wife, Deborah, is going to be involved in a program with the FBI on the dangers of opioids.  Who ever heard of opioids fifty years ago?  But the movie “Chasing the Dragon” shows how dangerous and prevalent this problem is.  Our kids and grandkids have to deal with things that are much more serious than most of us ever had to deal with.

One of the answers, as my college friend said, is to have a strong spiritual foundation.  If we have a close relationship with the Creator of the Universe, we will be less likely to need to experiment with mind and mood altering substances.  If we can communicate with our families about our anxieties, we will be less likely to need to drown our despair with numbing chemicals.  Having a support system of Christian friends from a church or youth group means you will be less likely fall into a pit of despair.

But that is only one part of the defense.  Another is to be educated, to know what the dangers are.  Parents and others need to know the danger signs.  Friends need to be aware of changes in attitude or behavior.  We all need to be each other’s support system.

That is why programs like these are important.  It is important to be forewarned and forearmed.  We need to take responsibility for our friends and family.

Ultimately, we cannot prevent anyone else from making a bad decision.  But the more we can offer positive options, the better.  Even kids who grow up in loving, supportive homes with spiritual foundations can make wrong choices. And even kids who grow up with no positive support can avoid danger.  But the chances of kids growing up healthy and happy and free from problems are greater when they have loving and supportive families and friends.

It’s a different world now, and it is getting more and more dangerous and scary.  It doesn’t matter where you live or what material blessings you enjoy.  What makes a bigger difference is that we love and pray and support our kids and grandkids and others in our lives.

I think part of the answer to my friend’s question was also that my parents prayed for me daily.  And when you can’t do anything else, you can still pray.  It might just be the key that unlocks a well-balanced and mature adult.

Posted in sin | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

The Death of a Child

I have officiated at countless funerals over the years.  None is easy, but some are more difficult than others.  One of the most difficult situations involves children or young adults.  While we can adjust more easily to the death of a person who has completed a fairly full life, it is much more difficult to deal with the death of someone who has just begun life and had so much more life ahead.

News reports every day contain stories of tragic deaths.  One that has consumed many in the Huntsville, Alabama, area, may not have made the news in other areas of the country.  It was the death of a young woman who was part of a youth mission trip heading to the African nation of Botswana.  The bus carrying several team members was involved in a traffic accident a few miles from the Atlanta airport.

Some people involved in the accident walked away with only bumps and bruises. Others were hospitalized, but are expected to survive.  One 17-year-old girl, Sarah Harmening, died in the crash.   And it was just announced that the bus driver will be charged with homicide in the death.

But that still does not answer the question many may be asking.  “Where was God in all this?”  “Why did God allow a beautiful young woman on her way to share the gospel with people in Africa to die so prematurely?”

That is one of those questions for which no good answer exists.  Any flippant answer risks trivializing the tragedy of the situation.

It reminds me of one of my favorite stories on the subject.  Theologically, I am practically on the extreme opposite end of the spectrum from the Rev. William Sloane Coffin, the former chaplain of Yale University and pastor of Riverside Church in New York City but in this I agree with him. While Coffin was the pastor at Riverside Church, his son died in a traffic accident.

This caused his father deep grief.  One of his parishioners, in an attempt to comfort the grieving pastor, made the comment to the effect that the death was just “God’s will”.

Coffin rejected this assertion vehemently.  He explained later in words I can only approximate from memory.

“No it was NOT God’s will.  It was not God’s will that my son drink too much and get behind the wheel of an automobile.  It was not God’s will that he speed down the Henry Hudson Parkway.  And it was not God’s will that his car should leave the highway and plunge into the Hudson River.

“But I know one thing for certain.  When my son breathed his last breath on earth God was there.  And when he died, God was the first to grieve.  For God understands what it means to lose a son.”

I quote that from memory of reading it a long time ago and may have mangled it somewhat.  But I trust that I maintained the essence of the story.

So the death of Sarah Harmening was NOT God’s will.  God did not cause the crash that took her life.  The laws of science keep the world under control, and when an accident happens, the results are somewhat dictated by those laws.

What we can be sure of, and what I know beyond a shadow of a doubt, is that this death caused God to grieve like a divine parent.  What I know is that God wrapped Sarah in a blanket of love and that she is not suffering.  Her family and friends and community are suffering.  Yet God is here.  God was there at the scene of the accident.  And God’s love will enable all of us to go on.

That does not bring her back.  That does not make the situation any less tragic.  But that does give us comfort and strength to continue on in the face of tragic situations.  And that may be the only answer that suffices.

Posted in Accidents | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

In Memorium

Earlier this week the North Alabama Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church met here in Huntsville.  I attended every year from 1983 to 2011, the year I retired.  Since then, I have only sporadically attended and only for a brief time.  One meeting I try not to miss is the Memorial Service, where the pastors and spouses who have died in the past year are honored.  In the early days, most of the names meant nothing to me.  They were only names on paper.  They were not real persons to me.

But over the years, the names became more and more familiar.  These were people I had known and worked with and prayed with.  These were people I had sat around tables with and eaten and laughed and sometimes cried with.  The service became more meaningful to me.  I watched sadly as many of the conference attendees used the time to get a head start in the lunch line.

Recent changes have made the service more meaningful and the attendance has improved.  This is good.  Here are people who have given their lives in service to Christ and the church.  As the Rev. Sherry Harris, this year’s preacher, noted, they sometimes sacrificed family time, or vacation time, or personal time to meet the needs of their flock. They willingly upheld the responsibility they had undertaken.  For their sacrifice, is it too much to ask us to take an hour to remember them?

I hope not.  I hope that services that honor pastors and pastoral families who have served the Lord in relative obscurity become important to us.  Political and business leaders have overflow crowds in their honor.  But should not the person who gives years of dedicated service to small or medium-sized congregations be equally remembered?

Over the years of my ministry, I have officiated at more funerals than I can remember.  What I do remember is that when a young person dies, great crowds attend.  It is so unusual.  When a middle age person dies, it is also rather well attended.  But when an older person passes, it is sometimes hard to find people who are not relatives in the service.

From time to time, there is a wonderful exception to this rule.  I remember one in which a 90+-year-old man was being remembered and the church could not hold the crowd.  They were not his contemporaries, as few of them were still alive.  They were friends he had made over the years from the community and younger people he had worked with in other situations.  It was a sad, but yet joyous event.

Heroes are not always recognized in their lifetime.  Sometimes they are recognized by the number of people whose lives they have touched.  Sometimes the significance of a pastor’s ministry is not measured by their salary or their numbers of congregants, or the prestige of their church.  Sometimes the significance of a pastor lies in the people whose lives were touched by their ministry.

I still treasure the words of a ninth grader as I left a church after being its youth pastor for a year.  “If you had not come here when you did, I don’t think I would still be part of this church.”  I think that is what Jesus meant when he said, “Whatever you have done to the least of these, you have done unto me.”

Posted in death | Tagged , , | Leave a comment


Content-Type: application/http; msgtype=response

WARC-Identified-Payload-Type: text/html

WARC-Type: response

text:
Choc Quib Town's third album Oro

Choc Quib Town reinvent Colombian folklore before taking a trip across Europe

By | 01 April, 2010

On 3 May 2010 Choc Quib Town released their first international release Oro, a collection of two albums previously issued in Colombia. It seems word has got out about their modern take on Afro-Colombian music. They have already received a Grammy nomination, played at South by Southwest (Austin, Texas) and in India and Europe, but now they plan to take over the European festival circuit with a number of performances this summer.

Choc Quib Town – the core of which comprises MCs Goyo, Tostao and Slow – were founded in 2000 in Chocó, a province in northwestern Colombia, on the Pacific coast next to Panama. They all lived in the capital Quibdó at the time. ‘That’s where the name of the band comes from,’ says front woman Goyo. ‘We wanted to honour our region and use both the English and Spanish languages.’  In the sweltering rain-forested region, more than 80% of the population is African by origin. Moreover, the region’s relative isolation means that their African music has been well preserved. It is these Afro-Colombian rhythms that Choc Quib Town mixes organically with hip-hop, funk, dance hall, electronics and Caribbean flavours to create their own unique urban style.

Tostao: ‘The youth are no longer interested in folklore. They listen to it, but treat it as ‘grandma’s music’. To the youth, it’s all about reggaeton. But we want to honour that folklore by redefining it. Our work is an ode to the music of the Pacific coast, from seen from our perspective, our frame of reference. And that is hip-hop.’  Their big hit ‘De Donde Vengo Yo’ is, for example, an irresistible mixture of the bambazú rhythm and Jamaican dancehall. ‘Oro’, a song in which slavery plays a central role, is clearly a currulao, with its slow, sensual rhythm and accompanied by African marimbas (wooden xylophones).

Their hit and first single of the European album ‘El Bombo’, with its infectious refrain, combines currulao, chirimía and ragga.  Spreading those ‘black’ rhythms beyond the borders of their region is an important mission for the band. Goyo: ‘Many people didn’t know the music of the Pacific coast. There is such a wealth of rhythms and they blend perfectly with other styles.’ Tostao adds: ‘Even outside Colombia, the music is often lost among the things people tend to associate our country: cocaine, coffee, salsa, cumbia. People don’t know much about this “Africa within Colombia”. We rap about a Colombia that you don’t see on TV.’

In their own country, these local heroes of Choc Quib Town – who have since relocated to Bogotá – have a huge following. They have collaborated with groups such as Aterciopelados, Sidestepper, Banda La Republica, salsaband La 33 and French hip-hop maestro Oxmo Puccino. They also shared the stage with Orishas, Segent Garcia en Sean Paul. In 2008, the  group was nominated for a number of Premios Shock – Columbia’s national music awards – and a couple years later they were nominated as the best newcomers at the Latin Grammies.

Choc Quib Town's third album OroWorld Connection released Oro on 3 May in the UK. The band will now be showcasing the album at festivals in Europe this spring and summer. In an energetic, vigorous live set with a lot of room for improvisation, the three MCs are joined by drummer Andrés Zea, bassist Alex Sánchez, guitarist Juan González and Larry Viveros on traditional
Afro-Colombian percussion instruments like the tambora (bastrom), congas, djembé and marimba.

World Connection Records website
Choc Quib Town page at World Connection
Link to buy Choc Quib Town’s Oro at Amazon

Follow Sounds and Colours: Twitter / Facebook / Google Plus / Mixcloud / Soundcloud / Bandcamp

Subscribe to the Sounds and Colours Newsletter for regular updates, news and competitions bringing the best of Latin American culture direct to your Inbox.

Leave a comment:

warcinfo:
robots: classic
hostname: ip-10-164-221-253.ec2.internal
software: Nutch 1.6 (CC)
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2017-43
operator: Common Crawl Admin
description: Wide crawl of the web for October 2017
publisher: Common Crawl
format: WARC File Format 1.0
conformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf


WARC-Truncated: length

text:
home decor

Home decorating is one of my favorite things to do. It’s so exciting to buy odds and ends to add to a kitchen, bedroom, or bathroom. I am so looking forward to having my own home with my future husband, but for now I am enjoying decorating his tiny (but sweet) apartment.

While I love scouring TJ Maxx for home decor and New Orleans local boutiques like (Little Miss Muffin and Orient Expressed), I do find awesome things online too…etsy, anyone?

Some wonderful home decor sites or stores to check out include:

pottery barn

williams- sonoma

design within reach

shabby chic

southern living

dwellings and decor

century finds

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out / Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out / Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out / Change )

Google+ photo

You are commenting using your Google+ account. Log Out / Change )

Connecting to %s


text:
About 82 Church St

80-82 Church Street is an office building in the heart of downtown Toronto, ideal for an owner, investor or developer. The property consists of two, four-storey buildings that total approximately 18,947 SF. There are many local amenities close to the properties and it is adjacent to a courtyard city park. The immediate area has great access to the Toronto subway system, Toronto rail station, Greyhound bus lines, under and above ground parking and highway commuter routes.
  • Highway access
  • Property Type Office
  • Status Existing
  • Sale Price Undisclosed
  • Total Available Space 18,947 SF
  • Direct Available Space 0 SF
  • Sublet Available Space 0 SF
  • Min Divisible 0 SF
  • Max Contiguous 0 SF
  • Building Size 18,947 SF
  • Number Of Floors 3

Be the first to know

Receive emails from properties you follow when new suites are added to them.

Organize your favourite listings

Sign up to keep track of your favourite spaces and revisit them later.

Manage your inquiries

Resend Confirmation

Create my account


WARC-Identified-Payload-Type: application/xhtml+xml

text:
Day 31 – Making do in the moment

Today I walked into the living room to take a walk on the treadmill, and (Poof!) the light died.  Time to go light bulb shopping.

Great. Now what?!

Well, sometimes you just have to suck it up and make do. I turned on my phone so I could see, found the treadmill and turned it on. It was weird walking in the dark this morning, but it got the job done.

Making do seems to be a theme around here, but that’s ok. It’s better to make do, than to just lay down and take it when life throws you a curve ball.

As I sit here writing the sun is starting to rise, and it’s only 7:10am. It’s rising earlier and earlier this days, and it makes me so excited for Summer. I don’t thrive much in the dark. Sometimes I need the dark just to help get the day off of me if it’s been busy and harried. I need the light more, though. These long months of Winter make me feel like a cave dweller, and in the Spring when the light comes back it’s the best thing.

Soon it will be time to cleanup  the yard and get it ready for whatever plans I’ve decided on for planting this year. I have a whole bunch, but can’t do them all. I guess I just need to pick a couple and go with it. Oh, the indecision!

Here’s hoping you have all the light you need, and have a way to make do in the moment if it goes out. Blessings all!

About Sparrow
I am a 47 years young and the mother of two amazing young men, who've grown up and left me mostly an Empty-Nester. I write about what's going on in my little corner of the High Plains, or what happens to be crawling across my brain on a given day. Thank you so much for stopping by. Make yourself at home...through the magic of the internet, the coffee's always free and the doughnuts are fresh!

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: Logo

You are commenting using your account. Log Out / Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out / Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out / Change )

Google+ photo

You are commenting using your Google+ account. Log Out / Change )

Connecting to %s

%d bloggers like this:


text:
Speaker Deck

Data Sync for Apps: With offline support but without cloud

by Christian Liebel

Published April 27, 2016 in Programming

Data is the fuel for any business application on the market. In the year 2016 we're accessing company-internal data not only from our workplace anymore. While in a car, train, hotel—nowadays we want to use other devices like smartphones or tablets instead of that single notebook we had ten years ago.

Your data is your business. And also in terms of informational privacy, your data is deserving protection. Storing sensible data in a public cloud is sometimes out of the question.

Christian Liebel and Marco Frodl of Thinktecture will show you how to implement an offline-aware data store including synchronization to locally stored corporate data with the help of PouchDB and Thinktecture RelayServer. This doesn't only work in a browser, but on a whole bunch of both mobile and desktop platforms.


text:
Take a Walk on the Fairways…

Archive for February, 2008

World Golf Destinations of Grandeure

Yup, that's me, Speedcat Hollydale. I play with passion, and most of all a true love for the game of golf. The best day in the world is one spent on the course. When you think of the greatest places to play, Pebble Beach, Augusta, St. Andrews and the like often come to mind. Here is a different (and unusual) listing of great places to play. I have only been to one of these destinations.

The Bridges San FransiscoThe Bridges San Fransisco Playing to nearly 7,000 yards from the tips, the Bridges Golf Club reflects a stimulating design precept that distance is one element, and risk / reward ball flight options make this course interesting to play, and a beauty to behold. Many carries over natural canyons allow for strategic course management. Do not play here if you are afraid of heights! More information: Bridges Golf Course

Eagle Trace is the scariest course I know Eagle Trace is the scariest course I know . . Eagle Trace is the scariest course I know Eagle Trace is the scariest course I know
Eagle Trace Golf Club Minnesota When it comes to dangerous golf, Eagle Trace is the scariest course I know. If you are not hitting the ball on target, you will find disaster is only one errant shot away. I have never played this course without a high score on one or two holes. Unlike any other course I play, the design is full of tight, water laden, tree lined holes with island greens and multi – level fairways. I get a knot in my gut just thinking about it. Think you are playing well? Play this course from the back tees. The last picture is me, playing my second shot to the elevated island green on #11. Hit the green or else. There is also an aerial shot of this hole above.For more information: Eagle Trace
 Mission Hills Golf Club China Mission Hills Golf Club China The world’s largest golf course destination is at Mission Hills Golf Club. 216 holes stretch across thousands of acres. With 12 resort and championship courses – designed by the likes of Nick Faldo, Greg Norman and David Duval, Mission Hills is serious sensory overload for golf fanatics. If you can’t find enough golf here, you have a serious problem. For more information: Mission Hills Golf Club
 Coober Pedy Club Australia Coober Pedy Club Australia Make your way to the small mining town of Coober Pedy in South Australia, where there’s not a blade of grass or a stitch of greenery in sight at the Coober Pedy Opal Fields Golf Club. Opal mining is the chief business here, and most residents live in a subterranean world of tunnels and caves to escape the Outback’s searing temperatures. The golf course itself is basically one enormous sand trap that must be oiled with grease lest it blow away in the dry desert winds, and golfers tote swatches of faux grass from hole to hole to ease teeing off. For more information: Coober Pedy Golf
 World Ice Golf Championship Greenland World Ice Golf Championship Greenland Each spring on a tiny island in Northern Greenland, the World Ice Golf Championship lures hardy fanatics for a chance to tee off atop moving ice floes in the High Arctic tundra. The annual event takes place in Santa Claus territory—370 miles north of the Arctic Circle, near the town of Uummannaq, where glaciers groan and icebergs bob around a nine-hole course cut from the snow and ice just before play commences. Since the greens are white, the balls are painted red. For more information: World Ice Golf Championship
 Lajitas - The Ultimate Hideout ... this is a 25,000-acre resort isolated in western Texas, some 300 miles from El Paso along the banks of the Rio Grande Lajitas, The Ultimate Hideout Texas Indulge your cowboy golf fantasies at the deservedly named “Lajitas”. The Ultimate Hideout … this is a 25,000-acre resort isolated in western Texas, some 300 miles from El Paso along the banks of the Rio Grande. The 19-hole course dubbed “the Ambush” features four holes set on an island in the Rio Grande and a bonus hole that involves a shot across the mighty river into Mexico—making Lajitas the world’s only trans-national golf course. Cool! For more information: Lajitas
 Rotorua Golf Club New Zealand Rotorua Golf Club New Zealand The antithesis of Australia’s arid environment awaits across the Tasman Sea in New Zealand, where you can slice the Southern Hemisphere skies in the thermal hot spot of Rotorua. The Rotorua Golf Club features an 18 hole, links style, par 69 course, as well as a nine hole course where bubbling mud pools, steam vents, steaming creeks and rushing geysers make for otherworldly obstacles. For more information: Rotorua Golf Club

More great golf blogs (random click one!) Brandon Tucker Dot Wong Golf for Beginners – Blog and Podcast Golf Gear News – Blog and Podcast Heather McMichael’s Blogger Leaderboard PGA Punter: Anthony Urquhart’s guide to betting on the PGA Tour Spencer Hux The Wisdom of Solomon: PGA Instructor Marc Solomon William K. Wolfrum Armchair Golf Blog Balls Out Blog – with Mark Nessmith Better Golf With Fitness Bogey Lounge Budget Golf by the Cheap Bastard Chris Baldwin Chuck Evans golf instruction Doug Carey EagleParBirdie GeoffShackelford.com Golf Babes Golf Blogger – Everything Golf Golf Chick Golf for Beginners Golf Gear News Golf Now blog Golf Tips and News Golf With Shanks Grouchy Golf Blog Hooked on Golf Blog Ian Andrew’s Caddy Shack In Golf We Trust blog Jennifer Mario Kiel Christianson Luke Swilor’s Road to the TourMetropolitan Golf Links, Pro’s Blog Mostly Harmless Myrtle Beach Golf Insider New 2 Golf Nidhi’s Blog On Golf Architecture PGA Punter Phantom Golfer Robert Thompson’s Going For The Green Ron Mon Speedcat Hollydale Page SportsByBrooks The Reluctant Jam-Boy Tim McDonald Travelling Golfer Unplayable Lies 19th Hole Comedy Click for other popular golf blogs

Ace in Florida by Legally Blind Man

Legally blind golfer makes a hole in one : adapted from Times Staff Writer RODNEY PAGE’s story

This is Leo E. Fiyalko. He is speaking to the members at Cove Cay Country Club . Fiyalko is 92 and legally blind! This story really touched my heart, and reminded me of my own hole in one experience when I was 13 years old. I thought I had hit a bad shot that went off the back of the green. After looking for the ball, I decided to check the hole … and there it was.
Leo said, “All I was interested in was getting on the green.”
I guess just as I, the surprise was a bit more than just a good day, it was one that was a highlight of my life on the golf course.

The big event happened on the 110-yard, par-3 fifth hole at Cove Cay Country Club in Clearwater Florida. After 60 years of playing golf, the rarest of shots finally occured. “It was my first hole in one, and I never saw it” said Fiyalko

The feat came on Jan. 10 when Fiyalko and his group teed it up for their weekly nine-hole best-ball outing. The group of 20 to 40 golfers, who range in age from 70 to 90-plus, have gathered every Thursday afternoon during the winter for at least 20 years.

In his prime, Fiyalko played to a seven handicap, but now he needs help lining up his shots and finding his golf balls. A seven handicap? Not to bad! I have struggled for years to have a single digit handicap. I plan on playing golf for a long time to come. That is what is so great about golf in my opinion. You can continue to enjoy the sport for such a long time.
Congratulations Leo, I salute you from the frozen tundras of Minnesota. I wish you well, and also wish I could just get “one” round in soon.


text:
Skip to content

Recipe: Honey Oat Crackers

24 January 2014

crackersCrackers are a toddler staple, right? Right.

But I’m still being that mom who scowls at ingredient lists on grocery store boxes, so I got on Pinterest to get some help making crackers that aren’t loaded with hydrogenated things and lots of sugar and food dyes and “natural” flavors. With a couple tweaks on one recipe I found, we ended up with these really yummy honey oat crackers.

  • 1/2 C rolled oats
  • 3/4 C whole wheat flour
  • 2 Tbsp dried honey*
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon, or to taste**
  • 4 Tbsp butter, cold
  • 3 Tbsp honey
  • 1/4 tsp vanilla
  • 2 Tbsp water

  1. Combine dry ingredients in a bowl. Cut in butter.
  2. In a small bowl, mix honey, vanilla and water.
  3. Whisk dry goods constantly, while drizzling in the wet mixture until the dough is evenly moist.
  4. Wrap in a wet tea towel (or kitchen towel) and place in the fridge for at least an hour. ***
  5. Roll out very thin on parchment paper, cut and bake until the edges start to turn golden brown, about 13 minutes. ****
  6. Cool on a wire rack and enjoy!

* The original recipe called for sugar, but I’ve been substituting dried honey granules for sugar in baking stuffs. I get it from the honey vendor at our local farmer’s market, and I recently saw it in one of our local grocery stores. It’s out there. It’s worth the hunt, but if you don’t have it – or you don’t care – this can be sugar. (Or whatever you substitute for sugar.)

** The original called for a “pinch,” but I think I dropped at least a 1/4 teaspoon. Cinnamon is yummy. Mine definitely have a slight cinnamon flavor, and I’m not sure if you’d taste it at all with any less.

*** Like most pastry instructions, this calls for wrapping in plastic and refrigerating. But we know that plastic leeches endocrine disrupters into food, so we try not to use it. I did some research to see if I really needed to refrigerate the dough in the first place, and was convinced Yes. But I also found a bunch of testimonies from other bakers who wrap their dough in a wet tea towel to put in the fridge. The plastic keeps the dough from drying out while the chill does it’s magic, so wetting the towel makes it heavier and tighter against your dough and helps it maintain moisture. Worked like a charm.

**** If you don’t have parchment paper, you can try rolling it out on a floured surface too. I tried that first, but this stuff is really sticky and no amount of flour would help me peel my crackers up neatly. Also, they will not be crisp in the oven. The original said to wait until they were firm, but I burnt the first batch doing that. The next two I pulled out just as the edges started to get dark, with the middles still a little soft. They hardened up on the cooling rack and they’re perfect.

Husband likes them. Meatball likes them. I feel good about what’s in them. All these crackers do is win.

5 Comments leave one →
  1. 25 January 2014 4:10 AM

    I’m gushing over this! Great bakes you have there! =)

  2. 29 January 2014 7:53 PM

    These look awesome – I’m definitely going to give them a try. They give Tyson crackers at daycare that I’m sure aren’t all that pure, so he is always asking for them at home. This is a cracker I can live with! And of course, I love the star shape 🙂

    • Lex permalink*
      4 February 2014 6:14 PM

      Meatball can’t get enough of ’em. Hopefully your little guy loves them too. 😉

  3. 29 May 2014 7:37 AM

    Lex – me again! I’m finally getting a chance to try making these tonight. I was just looking at the recipe – what do you mean when you say “cut in butter”? How will it mix if it’s cold? Help!

    • Lex permalink*
      31 May 2014 12:12 AM

      Oh the joys of pastry crusts! Cut your cold butter into slices, drop them in your dry mixture, and slice up the butter in the dry stuff. They make fancy “pastry cutters” for this now (Google it, you’ll get lots of images and buying options). It’s called “cutting in,” because back in the good ol’ days, you took two knives, crossed them (sharp edges in) and sliced until your butter is in pea-sized chunks. (That’s still how I do it.)

      That’s hard to explain. There’s a good short video here:

      Keeping the butter cold is what gives a pastry crust that light, crispy texture. The dough will be VERY dry. Even after you whisk in the wet mixture, it should just barely hold together. That’s how you know you’re about to have a great pastry – or in this case, cracker. 🙂

Well?! Don't just SIT there! SAY something!

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: Logo

You are commenting using your account. Log Out / Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out / Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out / Change )

Google+ photo

You are commenting using your Google+ account. Log Out / Change )

Connecting to %s

%d bloggers like this:


text:
View Site

Liberty University

Do you work here?
Sponsor Summary
Liberty University is a private, Christian university located in Lynchburg, Virginia, United States. Liberty's annual enrollment includes 12,600 residential students and over 90,000 online students as of May 2013.[4][5][6] When including the number of people taking its online courses, LU is the largest Evangelical Christian university in the world, the nation's largest private nonprofit university and 7th largest four-year university, and the largest university in Virginia.[7][8][9]

See more updates for Liberty University

Join SponsorPitch
If you currently work at this organization, click the “Do you work here?” button to request editing privileges.
This SponsorPitch page is about Liberty University and contains information about this organization's sponsorship activity, sponsorship decision makers and sponsorship preferences. This page is not endorsed by or affiliated with Liberty University, though it may be actively managed and updated by company representatives. If you currently work at this organization, click the Manage Sponsor button to request management privileges. . All trademarks, service marks and copyrights are property of their respective owners.


text:
Are you scared of whole pineapples? Do you avoid their dangerously spiky exterior and opt instead for the simpler (and undeniably pricier) pre-sliced variety?

Dude, me too.

But today we face our fears. Ready, go.

Step 1: Gather one sharp knife, one whole pineapple, one cutting board and a bowl.

Step 2: Chop off both the prickly top situation and the bottom layer. But cut far enough up on the bottom that you clear center rind piece.

Step 3: Working from top to bottom, slice off the skin in vertical strips.

Step 4: Slice as you please! I tipped the thing on its side and worked from left to right, slicing straight through into rounds and then again into wedges.


text:
Jerry Jones: Dallas Cowboys coach Jason Garrett will return in 2014

IRVING - Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said Thursday that Jason Garrett isn't coaching for his job this season and will be back in 2014 no matter how the team finishes in its last six games.

The Cowboys are 5-5 and one-half game behind the Philadelphia Eagles for first place in the NFC East. Garrett is 26-24 as the Cowboys head coach since taking over midway through the 2010 season.

Jones, addressing media members near the Cowboys' practice field Thursday morning at Valley Ranch, said he's disappointed in the Cowboys' record this season but is still supportive of Garrett.

Garrett signed a four-year contract with the Cowboys in 2011 and would be entering the last year of that deal in 2014.

The Cowboys have finished 8-8 in back-to-back seasons and haven't made the playoffs since 2009. Many believed that if Garrett didn't get the Cowboys in the playoffs this season he wouldn't return as head coach.

More later …

Follow Brandon George on Twitter at @DMN_George.

This Topic is Missing Your Voice.

Story DNA


text:
News: Tackling Cybersecurity: White Hats, Black Hats, and Grey Matter

White hats, Blacks hats, grey matter thumbnail

Posted September 25, 2017

Connected technology has opened the door for criminals and foreign governments to launch cyberattacks with increasing scale and impact.

Yet, secure internet and its applications are now essential to almost every aspect of our daily lives.

Today, America’s national defense, economic prosperity, and individual freedoms depend upon cybersecurity.

As the storm of demand for cybersecurity solutions and talent grows, Georgia Institute of Technology researchers, faculty members, and students are tackling cybersecurity from multiple angles.

Read the Full Story:

White Hats, Black Hats, Grey Matter: Tackling Cybersecurity

Additional Image

Cybersecurity feature graphic

Contact For More Information

By Gordana Goudie, Tara La Bouff, Jacqueline Nemeth, and Mike Terrazas

Tara La Bouff

Marketing Communications Manager
Institute for Information Security & Privacy
Georgia Institute of Technology
Email Tara


text:
Archive for July, 2010

Coalition policy EPIC FAIL

July 30, 2010 2 comments

As the media is completely fascinated by rumour and hearsay and not in any great rush to report on actual facts, you may have heard this policy announcement slip by.

Basically, if elected Abbott will can the NBN project and pin all his hopes on a combination of wireless and a privately built structure to be determined later.

This should be of great interest to anyone who owns a computer.  Apart from highlighting once again their total economic illiteracy and their delusion that infrastructure is an expense and not an asset, he wants to condemn us to be a technological backwater for the immediate future while the rest of the world passes us by.

As an IT professional and computer nerd, I see this as a complete disaster for our nation.  Apart from his complete technological stupidity there are a bunch of reasons why FTTP (fibres to the premises) craps all over his wireless solution.

  1. Wireless does not scale…the more people using it from one node the slower it gets.
  2. Wireless is prone to interference and disruption…things like atmospheric conditions will affect it.
  3. Fibre scales…you don’t get speed drops the further away from an exchange you live, like our current ADSL service.
  4. Fibre is effectively future proof…speed of light transmission means the infrastructure doesn’t need to be upgraded.  As technology improves you can replace the transmission/reception equipment at either end without having to touch the cables.  To use a plumbing analogy, you can simply upgrade your taps without needing to change the pipes.

I’ve heard a lot of whingeing that “we don’t need to browse the internet any faster…I’m happy with what I’ve got”, but this is the ultimate in small picture stuff.  The potential uses available for a truly high speed network are massive and can open a lot of doors to a lot of new industries…the sky’s the limit with this sort of infrastructure under our belt.

If anything makes up your mind about not voting for the Coalition, let it be this.

Leaks, leaks, leaks

July 28, 2010 5 comments

Last night/this morning we have had another earth-shattering “leak” from the Government that Julia Gillard apparently didn’t want the PPL scheme.

Is it just me or is the timing suspiciously convenient…the Government starts to push back on the LNP for their bullshit about cost of living, and suddenly a cost of living related (barely) gaffe by the PM comes out.

The media is obviously on the warpath and will do absolutely anything to sink the boot into Labor as much as possible this campaign.  I’m pissed off about this for a few reasons:

  1. Look at the beat-ups about the other “gaffes” that have happened recently:  Rudd not saying Gillard’s name (apparently), Rudd not going to the NSC meetings (which Howard did also), the size of Julia’s earlobes (FFS!!!!).  Whereas the Coalition speaking complete and utter bullshit about their policies gets a free pass.
  2. They are trying desperately to tie the Rudd axing to everything and hence sustain the controversy…Rudd not having “Labor” on his campaign posters, Rudd supposedly not referring to Julia by name,when by what footage I saw he refuse to discuss federal issues and only focus on his electorate.  Frankly, the media are looking a bit ridiculous on this one.
  3. Both Julia and Kevin have denied leaking the material…well Julia said Cabinet discussions are private and Kevin said he’s never leaked Cabinet discussions, yet some numbnuts on the news is trying to say it must be true because they never “explicitly denied it”.  How much more of a denial do they really need?  Completely pathetic.
  4. Who’s to say it actually came from an ALP source? I know Laurie Oakes says it came from Labor, but do we really trust any journo these days?  To me the timing is pretty suspicious…things have just started to die down after the NSC stuff didn’t get much traction so either a LNP staffer has leaked this to get the next non-troversy under way, or the MSM has decided that THEY are not getting the traction, so here’s the next big beat up for you.

Whichever way it goes, it once again shows that we are very poorly served by our media, who treat hearsay and bullshit as gospel (if it comes from the right source) and are so blatantly biased it’s scary.

If this level of partisan coverage continues I can see it having the desired effect on the relatively uninformed and paving the way for a return to the 1950’s…an LNP government.  Time to emigrate if that happens….

Here’s a link to Grog’s excellent coverage of the day’s campaigning:

Election 2010: Day 11

Media pushback

July 23, 2010 1 comment

This started as a thought bubble on GT, but I thought I’d do a full post on it.

Over the last couple of years, its not hard to see how feral our political “journalists” have become.  With their incessant need for gotcha questions and inanities masquerading as news, it comes across as them being desperately in need to prove their superiority over a politician by scoring points.

To this end I would dearly love to see a politician push back and treat them with the contempt they fully deserve.  I know it’s a pipe dream, but if it was done at the best moment, say a live situation with minimal chance of malicious editing, I reckon it would be a massive hit with the general public.

Here are my thoughts on some of the things that would be great to see.

To a stupid question:

  1. Fixed stare, followed with “Really?  THAT’S the question you’re going with?”
  2. Look back at the rest of the press and say “Anybody with a real question?”
  3. “Is this your first interview?  Are you on work experience?”

To a constant repetition of the same question to elicit a gotcha:

  1. “You should really see someone about your short-term memory problem.  I did answer that about 30 seconds ago.”
  2. “Do you really think the same question is going to produce a different answer?”

What other responses would you like to see?

Worst. Captain. Ever.

July 22, 2010 14 comments

In news that shocked absolutely no-one today, Ricky Ponting once again proved how poor his captaincy skills really are.

In conditions guaranteed to be a bowler’s paradise with plenty of moisture in the air to swing the ball, Ponting wins the toss and elects to BAT.  Imagine my surprise when the Aussies get rolled for 88.

Frankly his time has come as captain…personally I think it should have been up as soon as he made that decision to bowl spinners to improve his over rate instead of go for the win.

I know he’s had a tough act to follow after the likes of Border, Taylor and Waugh but he’s completely out of his depth and it’s only due to his personnel that he’s managed to win at all.  After all he has lost 2 series in England, in both situations throwing away at least one Test with really poor decisions.

I’d say pass the torch on, but the anointed successor is just as bad, if not worse.  To be perfectly honest, not many of the current top order deserve their place in the team…least of all the captains (full and vice).

I can’t see any long term solution to the captaincy in the current team roster, but then again the selection process is crap anyway.  Considering the bulk of the team comes from NSW, one of poorest performing states in the Shield comp over the past few years, it’s no wonder the leadership potential is low.

It’s well past time for Cricket Australia to start selecting on form as opposed to reputation, as well as with an eye to the future…by which I don’t mean pick the first NSW batsman to score over 1000 runs ignoring the other Shield player who put in year after year, or pick the first leg spinner who can turn a  ball a bit (coincidentally also from NSW), or pick some guy who can’t make it into a first class team and drop him into the national T20 squad just because he can slog a ball.

I can’t see it happening though, after all you know what they say…the sky blue NSW caps are made to be reversible…baggy green on the inside.

Election 2010 and the media – or how to be relevant

July 21, 2010 4 comments

With the election campaign well and truly under way the media are in “journalistic” heaven…their talking heads and pontificators can finally feel like people want to hear what they have to say.  In the meantime journalistic integrity takes a deeper nose dive.

I was walking past the telly this morning where one morning show was promising to “cut through the spin” in the campaign and give us the straight facts.  OK it would be nice to get facts for a change, but let’s see how they were going to do this.

One.  Whenever a politician is being interview they are not to be allowed to be negative about their opponents…only positive about what they are going to be doing.  It’s an interesting perspective and on the surface sounds good, but it relies on the interviewer doing their job and calling the pollies on their bullshit.  We know how well that happens don’t we.

Two.  They get some advertising gurus on to dissect the campaign material and break it down.

This where they lost me.  Of course they started discussing the speeches and catch-phrases used…in particular “moving forward”.  This came in for a bit of stick for the number of repetitions by the PM (oddly enough, they didn’t give it to Abbott for the amount of bullshit he spoke) and one of the talking heads came up with the point that the election is all about using safe phrases that can’t be taken out of context and used inappropriately instead of sentences that actually mean something.

Well after I cleaned all the crap that was sprayed onto the screen, I had to sit down.  So great is the cognitive dissonance in the media that they can serve up this line without even acknowledging that they are the reason this happens.  That their penchant for “gotcha” interviews means no politician can speak freely without being clubbed over the head with it later.

And on the ads, how good was the Abbott Family ad?

Contrast that with the Liberal morphing heads ad…which appears to be completely full of lies.  Maybe the advertising standards boards should be brought into it…or at least a counter ad with excerpts from the BER review report.

Mind you, I think that anyone who has had any association with a school that got a new building will recognise this for the bullshit it really is.

Link dump – back from holidays edition

I’ve been on holidays the past week or so and living in a news/blog vacuum…by choice.

So it’ll take me a little while to get back on top of everything again.

In the meantime here’s some of Grog’s excellent Election 2010 daily recaps.

Election 2010:  Beware the early word

Election 2010: Day 1

Election 2010: Day 2

Election 2010: Day 2 – late

Election 2010: Day 3

State of Origin 3 – smell of victory

July 8, 2010 8 comments

Ah…I love the smell of white-wash in the morning!

It was a ripper of a game last night, with NSW finally making a contest of it but the Maroons coming out on top as the deserved to.

Unfortunately the game was let down by an increase in the grubby tactics of the Blues.  I guess knowing that an overt fight wouldn’t unsettle the Marrons at all they stepped up the niggle and grubby stuff.

As an example, I can only think of a few occasions where a Qlder was tackled and DIDN”T have someone holding on to his head while he was on the ground.  I’m all for aggressive defence but attacking the head should be totally stamped out.

Add to that another hair pulling incident by Girl Gidley and that disgusting hit on Slater by Scott and it would be fair to say that their aim was to bash Qld off their game once again.

On another note, I had regained a modicum of respect for them up until last night’s game, thinking they had regained a sense of balance but once again the NSWRL Channel 9 commentary team’s disgustingly one-sided commentary made me yearn for the days of Roy and HG.  Every time NSW did something remotely positive they would gibber on about it for ages, ignoring the next 3 tackles.  And don’t get me started on their worship of Hayne…he makes two runs and a partial break and suddenly he’s “superstar Jarryd Hayne”.  Give me a break…the guy’s second string and not even a serious contender for the Oz fullback spot.  This is probably the best he’s played all season and even then he only did it for about 30 minutes…Slater does it week in week out for 80 minutes.

Finally the Australian Test team…this should be interesting.  By rights there should only be 2 NSW players in the whole team…and that’s being generous.

Hayne as a direct swap for Folau…not that he’s the next best winger, but that the ARL board has a hard on for him…and none of the NSW wingers were any good at all.

And Learoyd-Lahrs on the bench…he’s played pretty well for them the past couple of games and deserves his shot.

Apart from that I don’t see how they can justify not picking every other Qlder…there wasn’t a poor player in the lot and they all thoroughly deserve it.

Back in the real world it’ll be totally different.  The selectors will have been given a directive to make the squad evenly representative of both sides, so players who don’t deserve to be there will get another run.

If any more than 4 NSW players get picked you know this is the case.

Categories: Rugby League Tags:
%d bloggers like this:


text:
Posts Tagged ‘NBN’

Worst. Opposition. Ever

October 14, 2011 19 comments

Opposition.  By itself the definition of the word is pretty straight forward.  But apply it to politics and capitalise it and it has a whole other meaning.

To mind, the Opposition has a vital role in the process of Government by highlighting policies that do not benefit the nation and working to amend or defeat those policies.  They also have a duty to the populace to be seen as a credible alternative Government…this doesn’t happen by flicking a switch when the election is won, it happens by showing that they have credible alternatives to Government policy.  Now all of this should be an absolute breeze in a minority government…with several unaffiliated Independents to work with it should be a doddle to convince some of them to support your alternatives…particularly if they are of a conservative bent themselves.

Which brings us to the current Coalition opposition.

To date they have not been able to stop a single piece of legislation going through the parliament of this supposedly “do nothing” government.

On top of this they have not clearly articulated any credible alternative to government policy.  The “pay polluters not to pollute” policy has been widely discredited by anyone with any knowledge of the sector to be laughably inadequate and in the long run massively more expensive than the government policy.  Couple this with the Green Army and tree planting (which will require more arable land than we currently possess) and it’s easy to see that the Opposition’s environmental credentials are a joke.  On economic matters (traditionally the Coalition strongpoint) they haven’t exactly covered themselves in glory either.  They would have delayed the stimulus packages (if they had bothered to stay awake to vote for them…I’m looking at you TA), leading us to a worse situation than we currently have.  And despite economic gurus the world over lauding us for the state of our economy, the Opposition and their media enablers (or is it the media and their political puppets) persist in telling us that the sky is falling in and we’ve never had it so bad.  No wonder the rest of the world looks at us and shakes their heads in disbelief.  And finally let’s look at technology.  Not content with slagging off the NBN as a white elephant and stating that “no-one needs to download movies that quick” and “I’m happy with my current speed”, these Luddites try to insist that fibre to the node couple with wireless is a better solution.  Well despite the fact that wireless will never be better than fibre IN THIS PHYSICAL UNIVERSE, this is the epitome of short-sightedness and shows their complete disinterest in nation building.

In short, this Opposition has “apparently” thrived on mindless negativity, fear-mongering, empty slogans and poisonous rhetoric and in conjunction with a fawning media pack have convinced the public that the Government are useless.

But when you strip away all the spin and emotive language and focus on the facts, what have they actually achieved?  No Government ministers have been stood down, no politicians have been sacked, no legislation has been amended in their favour, no legislation has been blocked and most importantly no early election has been called.  For all Abbott’s bluster and vitriol he has yet to do anything at all in this Parliament.

What he has done is show how completely unsuited the Opposition would be to being in charge.  They have no credible policies of any note…anything they do have is simply recycled Howard era policies or total bullshit.  Abbott will promise the world to get into power but cannot afford to fund all of his policy brain farts, hence the $70 billion funding shortfall.  He has a front bench completely devoid of any talent at all…can you imagine Julie Bishop giving a speech at the UN, or Joe Hockey at the G20…my eyes bleed just thinking about it.

And now finally the Government has employed some political judo and turned Abbott’s propensity to say No to everything against him in a spectacular manner.  By dropping the Migration Act amendment legislation they have in one swoop legitimised onshore processing and given themselves a handy stick to beat Abbott around the head with i.e. “he wouldn’t agree to the legislation so that’s why all the boats are coming”.

Personally I think it’s disgusting that asylum seeker’s lives can be used as a political football and that they should embrace onshore processing wholeheartedly, but can understand why they’ve gone this route.  The hate media and Coalition racists like the despicable Morrison have whipped up the inherent racism and xenophobia of the public to such a degree that it would be suicide to go that route.  Instead this way they get to blame Tony for all the new boat arrivals to appease the rednecks, but at the same time get to backdoor in onshore processing to appease the compassionate…they could pick up the votes from both sides.

Of course, this is all dependant on the facts being aired and going by the current state of what is laughingly called journalism in this country, it’s a big ask.  After all, what was the front page lead the day after the momentous passing of the carbon tax?  The Gillard -Rudd congratulatory peck and even more speculation about leadership changes.  Even after a journalist has admitted there is no actual indication that this is a potential, they still keep peddling it out.  Their desire to inject controversy and drama into even the most mundane of things to try to generate hits/sales/ratings does the public a massive disservice.

I believe the best thing to be done is to sack every Canberra press gallery journalist (particularly those so-called doyens of the press) and get a bunch of journalism graduates on the job.  You know they’ll be hungry and out to prove themselves so who best to try to get some decent information instead of rampant speculation.  As long as you give them a thorough warning about not writing crap it could be a winner…after all it can’t be any worse than the shit we currently get.

So in summary, channeling the Comic Book Guy, the Coalition are the WORST. OPPOSITION. EVER…and hopefully doomed to stay there for a long, long time.  After all, they do need the practice.

UPDATE:  Excellent summary of Abbott’s “abilities” by Jessica Irvine

Conflation – the media’s new weapon of choice

July 29, 2011 11 comments

Since the News of the World hacking scandal broke the general public has increasingly aware of the depths the media will sink to in order to sell copies/get page hits/get ratings.

Now that they are becoming more aware of the usual tricks of the trade to incite sensationalism, the media appear to have fallen back onto an old standard with increasing frequence…conflation or false equivalence.

This is how it works:

  1. Find negative issue/event/angle on something.
  2. Tie it, no matter how tenuously, to the subject of your preferred narrative.
  3. Profit!

Nothing demonstrates this more clearly than the recent “NBN hacking” drama.

At first the headlines were all about how the NBN was “hacked” with the clear undertone that this new project was a joke and massively insecure.  What actually happened was that a hacker had gained access to a company’s systems and this company was going to be a provider for the NBN, and that provider did not even have any services running on the NBN.  So after delving a tiny little bit deeper we find that it has pretty much zero to do with the NBN at all.

Did the media let the facts get in the way or their barrow pushing…HELL NO!  Despite repeated confirmation from experts that it had absolutely nothing to do with NBN at all, every headline contained the words ‘NBN’ and ‘hacked’ in close conjunction.  Even the term ‘hacked’ is completely inaccurate in this situation as the NBN is the infrastructure that the services run on…you can’t “hack” a piece of fibre optic you can only hack the data running on it.  It’s like saying you are going to carjack the Pacific Motorway.

I truly despair for journalism in this country when something a basic as that is ignored in the cause of sensationalism.

But of course it’s only the beginning. For the next two years we can look forward to the ultimate conflation…Carbon Tax = everything bad ever.  All you have to do is look at the reports of David Jones whingeing that the Carbon Tax is causing decreased sales.  Despite the Chinese scientists proving that time travel is impossible, the CEO of David Jones has obviously blown that notion out of the water because A TAX THAT WON’T COME INTO EXISTENCE FOR 12 MONTHS has affected his bottom line.  When does he get his Nobel Prize?

Malcom Turnbull pwns himself

February 24, 2011 Leave a comment

In yet another feeble attempt to damage the brand of the NBN, Malcolm Turnbull has let loose with another article aneuryism inspired fiction waste of bandwidth where he’s beating the drum that fibre = bad, wireless = good, NBN = bad yada yada yada…you get the drill.

Of course he is being royally savaged by the commenters who are pointing out his massive stupidity/hypocrisy/complete lack of a clue.

Not to be out-done, one of the loyal trolls pipes up with this pearl of wisdom:

“Want to improve your current download speed? Upgrade the processor and load a bit more memory into your computer. I did and two examples of response times using Bigpond cable. The computer which hosts my domain name is in the USA; it collects all my mail and redirects it to me at Bigpond. I sent myself a message and it went to the US and was back on my screen in 13 seconds! I also have an email account at a US site. An email to myself initiated here in Sydney went to the US email site, then to my domain host, then to Bigpond and came up on my screen in 15 seconds! Can’t figure out why the Government isn’t telling us to upgrade our home computers. Oh silly me! It would damage the case for the NBN more than a little wouldn’t it?”

I never knew it was that easy!!!  I reckon to squeeze just a little bit extra out on top of that you should paint your computer and modem red…everyone knows red stuff goes faster right?

NBN critics – final straw clutched

February 18, 2011 3 comments

I was watching Sunrise this morning (yes…I know) and was interested when I heard them touting an upcoming story regarding the NBN making us vulnerable to cyber attack, complete with dramatic music.

So with all the lead up my interest was piqued and I listened intently…what a waste of my time.

They had a cybersecurity expert on and the first question was “will the NBN make us more vulnerable”.  He tried desperately to stick to the narrative, but the upshot was that faster internet = faster browsing = more sites visited = more chance of malware/viruses….THAT’S IT.

Now call me cynical, but that’s a massive bow to draw to tie to the NBN, and doubly feeble in its execution…I mean where was all the doomsaying and sky-is-falling-we’re-all-going-to-die?  Frankly I’ve come to expect a certain standard of quality from media beat-ups and this just doesn’t quite cut the mustard.

To sum up, this says it all really.

NBN business plans released – Opposition implodes

December 22, 2010 1 comment

Well we can dream can’t we?  Instead they continued on their trip through fantasy land, where facts are mutable, the laws of physics no longer apply and black is white, ably supported by their lackeys in the MSM.

There have been several good articles on the NBN business plan over the past few days…here are a few of the better ones:

Alan Kohler

The most salient points of the plan are as follows:

  1. Total cost $36 billion (down from 43 and also includes Telstra’s share)
  2. Conservative 7% rate of return
  3. Wholesale service rates include 12Mbps for $24, 50Mbps for $34, 100Mbps for $38, 1Gbps for $150

Now anyone with a smattering of technical knowledge (or even common sense in some parts) could determine that even though this is a wholesale rate, the fact that all providers will have to pay the same means that they are on a level playing field and there is likely to be stiff competition in the retail field, leading to some good deals for us.  Plus the rates will include line rental and telephony charges so unless you live in a city and are in an area fortunate enough to get Naked DSL, this is likely to be a much better deal.

Of course, this doesn’t prevent the Opposition trolls displaying their peculiar brand of logic (i.e. none) and immediately leaping into the fray fully armed with their best arguments.  From what I have seen so far this amounts to:

  1. 12Mbps?  They promised 100Mbps!!  (COMPREHENSION FAIL)
  2. I only pay $35 and I get 12Mbps and squillions of downloads…this will be too expensive for me (MASSIVE LIE or RAMPANT STUPIDITY)
  3. I don’t want to use the internet (ironically, posted in a blog article comment) and only want phone services.  My wireless is fine for me.  (see 2)
  4. I already get 20Mpbs and this will downgrade me for more cost.  (COMPLETE LIE…unless they live 5 metres from the exchange).
  5. I don’t want to pay $5000 to connect to it.  (POSSIBLY INBREEDING??)

So basically they have nothing…and yet they expect people to take them seriously.

So how does our fearless MSM (The Oz and ABC (Oz lite) in particular) treat the report?  By parroting Opposition talking points verbatim and ignoring the substance of the document THAT THEY HAD HANDED TO THEM.  Now if the details were difficult to locate they could be slightly forgiven as being lazy by going to an available source to get details, but to ignore the substance they have easily at hand to report innuendo and lies so they are blatantly biased and disgrace to their profession.

There is no excuse for that abandonment of their profession and it shows them for the partisan hacks that they are…LNP public relations in another form.

Thankfully it appears that the  majority of the public and business is fully on board with the NBN so speed on the day that it is rolled out to my area…give me some of the fibre goodness.

The new Narrative (TM) – NBN bad

October 25, 2010 4 comments

The Opposition Oracle has recently left no doubt at it’s predominant narrative for the new Parliament.

Borrowing from their “successful” tactics in the war against the BER…you know, the one where they print the first negative shit that springs to their fevered little brains regardless or the facts or reality, they have now gone boots and all into the NBN.

For some bizarre reason they think they can use this as a club to beat the Government around the head with, and I think they have totally lost the plot.  The fact is that they would really struggle to find a large group of people who are satisfied with their broadband experience (if they can manage to get it at all), and as for those poor buggers in the rural areas, well it’s back to the 80s for them technology wise.

Apart from the traditional furphys about wireless being superior to fibre (apparently in defiance of the laws of physics and contrary to actual experience), we don’t need faster right now (because we were happy with the horse and carriage as well) and why waste money so people can download movies faster (that’s right because a 21st century telecommunications infrastruture IS ALL ABOUT DOWNLOADING MOVIES…arseclowns), here are some of the latest hits:

  1. $43 billion price tag. This one constantly shits me because it’s not even close to being accurate.  As soon as Telstra agreed to sign on the price immediately dropped down because NBNCo will now be able to use Telstra’s ducts instead of digging their own…an immense saving and completely obvious to everyone expect the OO, the barrackers (to borrow a phrase), and the Minister for Demolition himself.
  2. $4000 to connect. This is a good one.  What they “neglect” to mention is that this was the cost for one person to completely wire his house for data by installing cat6 cable that was capable of handling the signal.  The standard  connection for a single port looks to be $300, and from what I have read that’s only if you don’t sign up initially because it would be free then.
  3. Only 10% have signed up. By looking at the actual figures you would find that only 10% in the very first test site in Tasmania have signed up…in the mainland sites the take-up rate is something approaching 80-90%.  But then again expecting the OO to report all of the facts instead of the ones that boost The Narrative(TM) is a bit foolish.

To sum up, I think the OO and the Coalition are on a hiding to nothing on this one.  The overwhelming majority of Australians are tech-savvy enough to realise what they are missing out on and to realise that the NBN is an investment in our future.  It’s only the rusted-ons who can’t speak unless they get the Talking Points memo from Liberal HQ or the Luddites who can’t comprehend the opportunities this will provide that don’t get it at all.

As an indicator, anyone who says “why do we need faster internet, I’m happy with what I have now” or “why do we need faster internet for downloading movies” is patently stupid or a massive troll.

Ramping up the stupid

August 17, 2010 2 comments

While doing some reading on the broadband network and the overwhelming disgust anyone with any knowledge has for the Abbott plan, the “user” comments found have brought the stupid to a whole new level.

Here are some samples:

  1. “THIS PUTS THE NBN into perspective and highlights the OVERKILL and waste of money
    I was just copying 7.5 Gb from an internal hard drive to 2 other Hard drives, One is a HP personal media drive that has a special dock in the PC to plug in. The other is a 500 GB USB2.0 drive.
    In both instances I get between 9 and 12 MB /second transfer.
    ie the bottom speed of the cheaper coalitions broadband plan.
    SO WHY DO I NEED TO DOWNLOAD AT 1GB per second when i can only copy between hard drives at 9 to 11 MB per second.”
  2. “What nongs are the tech heads that want to spend aprx $2000 per person to supply the broadband, absolute craziness especially with Labor record of waste. Most people will not be using it because of the cost, what a wate of money. I can get faster internet now but am not going to update to a faster plan because of the cost.”
  3. “Fast broadband is a nice feature but I don’t need more than 6 Mbit ADSL1 gives me at the moment. This speed fulfils all my needs and would be enough for 90% so claimed benefits of the fibre network. The real problem of Internet here is slow servers and network latency when accessing overseas servers. NBN is just another commercial project so it should not be funded by government and taxpayers money. Why spend money on something that already works? Why not spend 43 billions on health system or public transport? NBN sucks.”
  4. “The only purpose super fast broadband serves is to enable users to more quickly download porn and pirated movies. No personal user needs broadband at 1gbps, except for businesses – and they are already serviced by the private networks. I skyped with my girlfriend overseas on a 512kbps connection. This is the biggest waste of money in the country’s history.”
  5. “NBN is selfish. It is for people who want faster internet, because they are selfish. 43 bn can be far better spent elsewhere.”
  6. “Let those people who need ultra fast broadband pay for it. Organisations are already doing that now. Newer, cheaper technologies will arrive soon enough. I’d bet 6 billion dollars on that. 10 years ago I was using 56k dial up. We laugh at that now. Will we be laughing at 43 billion dollars of fibre optic cable in 10 years time, or maybe crying at the huge waste of money.”

Words escape me.

The level of FAIL in these comments is just so high I don’t know how to respond, except by saying that people this STUPID should be asked to STEP AWAY FROM THE COMPUTERS…for the good of everyone.

Categories: Technology Tags: ,
%d bloggers like this:


text:
19 May 2014, 20:17

Russian rescuers evacuate 3,000 people in flood-hit Serbia

Russian rescuers evacuate 3,000 people in flood-hit Serbia

Russian rescuers have evacuated almost 3,000 people in Serbia, hit by the worst flooding for 120 years, Russia’s Deputy Emergencies Minister Vladimir Stepanov has said. Russian rescuers arrived in Serbia on May 16. "Two planes of the Emergency Situations Ministry carried humanitarian aid and delivered equipment and foodstuffs to settlements," he said on Monday.

Earlier in the day, Emergencies Minister Vladimir Puchkov said, "I ask to plan additional humanitarian aid. One more plane with food and medicines will be sent."

Two Ka-32 helicopters from Russia have arrived in Serbia for organizing deliveries of food products to remote residential sites, Stepanov said.

Russian rescuers will work in Serbia till the end of the week. Totally about 100 people work there, he said.

Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic, leading relief operations, urged all those unwilling to leave their homes "not to resist evacuation".

"Do not prompt us into using force to save your lives," Vucic said on the air at Serbia’s RTS broadcasting service. "Most important now is to save lives and then we should think about property."

Floods affect over 1 million in Balkans, destruction 'horrifying'

Bosnia said on Monday that more than a quarter of its four million people had been affected by the worst floods to hit the Balkans in living memory, comparing the "terrifying" destruction to that of the country's 1992-95 war. The extent of the devastation became apparent in Serbia too, as waters receded in some of the worst-hit areas to reveal homes toppled or submerged in mud, trees felled and villages strewn with the rotting corpses of livestock.

The regional death toll reached at least 39, after the heaviest rainfall since records began 120 years ago caused rivers to burst their banks and triggered hundreds of landslides.

"The consequences ... are terrifying," Bosnian Foreign Minister Zlatko Lagumdzija told a news conference. "The physical destruction is not less than the destruction caused by the war."

Lagumdzija said more than 100,000 houses and other buildings in Bosnia were no longer fit to use and that over a million people had been cut off from clean water supplies.

"During the war, many people lost everything," he said. "Today, again they have nothing."

His remarks threw into sharp relief the extent of the challenge now facing the cash-strapped governments of both Bosnia and Serbia.

Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said the cost in Serbia would run to hundreds of millions of euros, and that the death toll would certainly rise.

Balkans brace for more misery amid worst floods in over a century

The Balkans braced for swollen rivers to reach new peaks on Monday, piling up misery after the worst floods in a century killed 45 people and sent tens of thousands fleeing for their lives. Muddy waters from the Sava River have submerged houses, churches, mosques and roads in Bosnia and Serbia after record rainfall wreaked havoc across the central European region.

Some 50,000 people have been evacuated in Bosnia and Serbia, with an additional 15,000 in Croatia, AFP reports. With some towns completely cut off by the torrents, fear rose that the death toll could rise significantly once rescue teams were able to move in.

"What happened to us happens once in a thousand years," Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said on Sunday.

Rescuers told of wrenching scenes as they finally reached cut-off villages, with dozens of people huddling at the highest houses with no water or food.

Besides the flooding, the worst rainfall since records began in the late 19th century, also caused landslides that brought more destruction, prompted landmine warnings and closed numerous border crossings.

The dikes built by thousands of volunteers along the Sava River and around the Nikola Tesla power plant managed to hold overnight, Serbian state-run RTS television reported.

The plant, which produces some 50 percent of Serbian electricity, was surrounded by water.

Humanitarian aid, technical equipment and teams from Russia, the European Union, the United States and neighboring Montenegro and Macedonia were pouring in, authorities said.

Russia sends Ka-32 helicopters to help relief efforts in flood-hit Serbia

Two Russian Ka-32 multipurpose helicopters are to arrive in Serbia on Monday to assist in flood relief efforts, the RIA Novosti news agency reports, quoting a source in the Emergency Situations Ministry. The helicopters took off from Ramenskoye airfield near Moscow and after refueling in Brest headed for Bratislava. Their final destination is Nis, Serbia. The flight will total more than 2,300 km, the source said.

Upon arrival, the Ka-32 helicopters will be searching for and rescuing survivors in flood-stricken areas and delivering relief supplies to hard-to-access places.

Vast parts of Serbia were flooded last week after heavy rains caused rivers to swell. It has stopped raining by now, but the overflowing rivers still pose a danger. There is a high risk of landslides.

A state of emergency was declared in pats of neighboring Bosnia-Herzegovina. Doboi, Samac, Maglai, Bijeljina, Banja Luka and many other cities and towns are completely or partially inundated. Thousands of residents were evacuated to safer areas.

Serbia declared a national emergency. On Thursday, the Serb government requested humanitarian and technical aid from Russia and the European Commission.

On Friday, Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry sent humanitarian aid to Serbia. As many as 72 Russian rescuers of the Tsentrospas and Leader emergency units, ten floating crafts and other rescue equipment from Russia were deployed near the town of Obrenovac not far from Belgrade.

Read also:

Emir Kusturica provides his helicopters to evacuate Serbs from flood-hit areas

    and share via