Listening to a segment on morning radio titled 'how do you deal with Mormons' driving to work today, I was reminded of a visit from the Mormons that I had over 5 years ago, at a previous residence. The results from the callers to the station ranged from suitably polite, through mildly impolite, to spectacularly bad-taste.
The Mormons that came to my door offered me a copy of their Book of Mormon, which I took. They did return a week or so later asking "Are you going to join us?"
"No fellas, I haven't read all of your book yet..." They seemed a little dismayed. Which I thought they'd have been used to after fifteen months of their mission. I wonder what their success rate is? Long story short, we moved a few weeks later and I never saw them again. I've still got their Book of Mormon, though. Still mostly unread.
The Mormons haven't come to the new place in 5 years, but the Seventh Day Adventists have been a couple of times. One pair landed on Easter Sunday, so I wished them a happy Easter, partly realising they don't necessarily partake of Easter as Catholics do. The other family called by a couple of times, until they were told Catholicism Lives Here, and will do so for a long time to come.
To an extent, its the Catholic Missionary taken to grass roots in a community with an already-established religious bent. Can Mormon missions be compared to Catholic missionaries of the 1800's, preaching and converting Africa, Amazonian tribes, etc?
Insert tagline here...
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Tuesday, December 07, 2010
Michael Corleone says "hello"....
When making a donkey's head for The Boy's nativity play at school, isn't it natural to be side-tracked into the Godfather? Though Khartoum was a little less comical in his effect.
Insert tagline here...
*Actual size = 70mm nose to ear
Insert tagline here...
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Let's Mess with Texas
I read this article on the Sydney Morning Herald website this morning, and had to marvel at what a system the US education board setups are. To learn a little more, read the Wiki articles on US Education, School Board and School District. In the District article, it notes that Texas has a unique setup. This is also noted here.
"Texas — Here, "Independent" denotes that the district is separate from any county- or municipal-level entity. All of the state's school districts, with only one exception (Stafford Municipal School District), are independent of any municipal or county control. Moreover, school district boundaries rarely coincide with municipal limits or county lines. Most districts use the term "Independent School District" in their name; in the few cases where the term "Common School District" is used the district is still an independent governmental entity."
Texan School Districts are actively independent, answering to none but themselves it appears. And the power they wield seems very strong, as the reference to textbooks and other states following suit would attest. As for the curriculum, one new board member refers to changes being made as 'corrections'.
"Those corrections prompted a blizzard of accusations of rewriting history and indoctrinating children by promoting right-wing views on religion, economics and guns while diminishing the science of evolution, the civil rights movement and the horrors of slavery."
It continues: "Several changes include sidelining Thomas Jefferson, who favoured separation of church and state, while introducing a new focus on the ''significant contributions'' of pro-slavery Confederate leaders during the civil war. Study of Sir Isaac Newton is dropped in favour of examining scientific advances through military technology.
The education board has dropped references to the slave trade in favour of calling it the ''Atlantic triangular trade'', and recasts the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as driven by Islamic fundamentalism."
They're very savage 'corrections'. Dilution and rewriting of history, selective quoting and paraphrasing of historical events, non-separation of church and state, and a belief in the US as the worlds moral flagship are all on the cards. There are glaringly obvious things there that are seemingly at odds with a christian viewpoint of morals and ethics, even as I have been taught and shown to understand them. Can someone explain how slavery was a positive act of history?
And of course, underlying all this is the Intelligent Design or Creationism argument that is ever so popular among the US christian movements. While many are happy to tout the line "teach ID and evolutionary science side by side", the reality seems to be "teach ID, mention evolution as an alternative...in that order".
I often wonder whether fundamentalists would get voted in if everyone was obliged to vote on matters such as this. It possibly reflects a lack of care, or more likely an over-zealousness on the part of the religious elements, that this is even happening in the first place.
Insert tagline here...
"Texas — Here, "Independent" denotes that the district is separate from any county- or municipal-level entity. All of the state's school districts, with only one exception (Stafford Municipal School District), are independent of any municipal or county control. Moreover, school district boundaries rarely coincide with municipal limits or county lines. Most districts use the term "Independent School District" in their name; in the few cases where the term "Common School District" is used the district is still an independent governmental entity."
Texan School Districts are actively independent, answering to none but themselves it appears. And the power they wield seems very strong, as the reference to textbooks and other states following suit would attest. As for the curriculum, one new board member refers to changes being made as 'corrections'.
"Those corrections prompted a blizzard of accusations of rewriting history and indoctrinating children by promoting right-wing views on religion, economics and guns while diminishing the science of evolution, the civil rights movement and the horrors of slavery."
It continues: "Several changes include sidelining Thomas Jefferson, who favoured separation of church and state, while introducing a new focus on the ''significant contributions'' of pro-slavery Confederate leaders during the civil war. Study of Sir Isaac Newton is dropped in favour of examining scientific advances through military technology.
The education board has dropped references to the slave trade in favour of calling it the ''Atlantic triangular trade'', and recasts the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as driven by Islamic fundamentalism."
They're very savage 'corrections'. Dilution and rewriting of history, selective quoting and paraphrasing of historical events, non-separation of church and state, and a belief in the US as the worlds moral flagship are all on the cards. There are glaringly obvious things there that are seemingly at odds with a christian viewpoint of morals and ethics, even as I have been taught and shown to understand them. Can someone explain how slavery was a positive act of history?
And of course, underlying all this is the Intelligent Design or Creationism argument that is ever so popular among the US christian movements. While many are happy to tout the line "teach ID and evolutionary science side by side", the reality seems to be "teach ID, mention evolution as an alternative...in that order".
I often wonder whether fundamentalists would get voted in if everyone was obliged to vote on matters such as this. It possibly reflects a lack of care, or more likely an over-zealousness on the part of the religious elements, that this is even happening in the first place.
Insert tagline here...
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Doctor Henry Marsh
Tuesday nights on SBS at the moment are medical night, starting with "Blood and Guts: A History of Surgery", a very informative show. But last night I caught the better part of a documentary called "The English Surgeon" which was screened later in the night.
The central subject is Dr. Henry Marsh, a British neurosurgeon who has been making trips, in his own spare time, to the Ukraine to assist an out-of-the-box doctor named Igor Kurilets. I use the term more for his treatment setup than his personality. He works in a country historically dogged by the Communist regime and its manifold ways and structures that have left it with a health system, among other systems, that many western nations would consider barely functioning.
Unfortunately I missed the beginning of the show, unaware that it was on. I was hooked once I stumbled across it, even though it was a quarter done. In one of the first scenes I caught it showed Dr. Marsh, annoyed at the bureaucratic tangle of the UK health system, leaving his computer and stalking off to cool down. He explains to the camera once at home that he is taking medical equipment to the Ukraine on his next trip, displaying drill bits that the UK system disposes of after one use. They have a plastic insert, so cant be re-sterilised, and at £80 for each one, he estimates that they use, in his hospital alone, 10 of them each week. And then they throw them out. £800 a week, £4000 a year, more or less. He and Igor open one up after he arrives in the Ukraine, remove the plastic insert, sterilise it, and it is soon put to good use with a Ryobi cordless drill to remove a brain tumour from a young man suffering epileptic fits.
Dr. Marsh himself proved to be fascinating man of some depth. Throughout the documentary, a young girl named Tanya is mentioned. His face and speech seem to change whenever she is discussed. Dr. Marsh had bought her to the UK a few years before the documentary was shown to remove a tumour that had paralysed the side of her face, after Moscow and Kiev surgeons said it was inoperable. He looked and sounded genuinely haunted by the fact that Tanya had suffered as a result of what he had done. Her quality of life suffered after two operations he performed on her, her death seemingly inevitable by Ukrainian standards, but possibly not by UK standards. He visits her mother at her home at the end of the documentary, wholly welcomed by the family.
He sits in Dr. Kurilets office meeting with patients, honestly and rapidly assessing their chances, realistic that the majority of cases are inoperable or too far developed to render enough assistance because of the systems in place. While a brain scan may only cost $50 to $100, many Ukrainians cannot spare that amount. And when they do manage to, or are forced to through physical problems caused by the tumours, they often result in a dire prognosis. We see a young girl who is already blind from her tumour growth. The grandmother who is told her young granddaughter is inoperable and left with a year or so to live. The 23 year old woman with the spreading tumour that no surgery anywhere could repair. And Marian, the young man with the epileptic seizures who is operated on with the home handyman tools available.
I hope I can see all of this in the future. If you get a chance to watch it, it's well worth seeing.
Handy Henry Marsh at the Times Online
Henry Marsh interview at NPR.org (transcript and download at US National Public Radio)
Insert tagline here...
The central subject is Dr. Henry Marsh, a British neurosurgeon who has been making trips, in his own spare time, to the Ukraine to assist an out-of-the-box doctor named Igor Kurilets. I use the term more for his treatment setup than his personality. He works in a country historically dogged by the Communist regime and its manifold ways and structures that have left it with a health system, among other systems, that many western nations would consider barely functioning.
Unfortunately I missed the beginning of the show, unaware that it was on. I was hooked once I stumbled across it, even though it was a quarter done. In one of the first scenes I caught it showed Dr. Marsh, annoyed at the bureaucratic tangle of the UK health system, leaving his computer and stalking off to cool down. He explains to the camera once at home that he is taking medical equipment to the Ukraine on his next trip, displaying drill bits that the UK system disposes of after one use. They have a plastic insert, so cant be re-sterilised, and at £80 for each one, he estimates that they use, in his hospital alone, 10 of them each week. And then they throw them out. £800 a week, £4000 a year, more or less. He and Igor open one up after he arrives in the Ukraine, remove the plastic insert, sterilise it, and it is soon put to good use with a Ryobi cordless drill to remove a brain tumour from a young man suffering epileptic fits.
Dr. Marsh himself proved to be fascinating man of some depth. Throughout the documentary, a young girl named Tanya is mentioned. His face and speech seem to change whenever she is discussed. Dr. Marsh had bought her to the UK a few years before the documentary was shown to remove a tumour that had paralysed the side of her face, after Moscow and Kiev surgeons said it was inoperable. He looked and sounded genuinely haunted by the fact that Tanya had suffered as a result of what he had done. Her quality of life suffered after two operations he performed on her, her death seemingly inevitable by Ukrainian standards, but possibly not by UK standards. He visits her mother at her home at the end of the documentary, wholly welcomed by the family.
He sits in Dr. Kurilets office meeting with patients, honestly and rapidly assessing their chances, realistic that the majority of cases are inoperable or too far developed to render enough assistance because of the systems in place. While a brain scan may only cost $50 to $100, many Ukrainians cannot spare that amount. And when they do manage to, or are forced to through physical problems caused by the tumours, they often result in a dire prognosis. We see a young girl who is already blind from her tumour growth. The grandmother who is told her young granddaughter is inoperable and left with a year or so to live. The 23 year old woman with the spreading tumour that no surgery anywhere could repair. And Marian, the young man with the epileptic seizures who is operated on with the home handyman tools available.
I hope I can see all of this in the future. If you get a chance to watch it, it's well worth seeing.
Handy Henry Marsh at the Times Online
Henry Marsh interview at NPR.org (transcript and download at US National Public Radio)
Insert tagline here...
Monday, April 19, 2010
A Sunday Ride
Seeing as not much and too much is happening at the same time, and I'm not getting anything written down at all, its time I did something. So I'll tell you about my Sunday ride.
Every Sunday (mostly) I meet up with three other guys and go for a ride. Sometimes nobody turns up, sometimes I don't, sometimes we get less than four. Actually, it's unusual we get four. It's not a testosterone-fuelled blitzfest, nor is it necessarily a sedate amble. Nothing dictates your speed, there's not a 'no drop' policy in force, and you're not obliged to keep up or slow down for anyone else. There's a turnaround point where we join up, chat for five or ten minutes, then ride back to the start point in much the same fashion.
Yesterday was myself and one other. I'll call him John, cause that's his name. John is a strong rider, and is generally stronger on the flat than I am. Up short hills he just powers on at the same rate while I drop back a gear or two and spin faster to try to keep up. He's also a better descender than me. He rides motorbikes for enjoyment, and is pretty seriously into it, so he has better skills than I do at speed. We swapped the front going out to the turn-around and had a light tailwind, which of course means headwind going back. This middling weather brings people out a lot, and there were a lot of riders out on the regular route we ride. In a few weeks it will get colder in the mornings and I reckon numbers will drop off. It'll get darker too, so the lights will make an appearance soon.
We also have a pair of Gary's to complete the four. To be honest, I don't know if they're Gary, Garry, Garey or otherwise, I've never asked. One is a strong flat rider, who usually tows us outbound at a fair pace. The other is happy to pull his 25km/h from start to end and meet up. It's a good bunch to be involved in.
There's the obligatory post-ride coffee, supplied by whoever reckons its their turn, combined with more talk regarding whatever. Motorsport, football, politics, etc. Typical stuff. Then we part ways till next weekend, or whenever someone thinks they'll be back.
I won't bore you with the in-depth stats, but 37km @ 29.7km/h is what we ended up with. Last sunday we ticked the 30km/h average box on the to-do list for the first time, probably thanks to a tow out and a good pickup for a little way coming back.
Insert tagline here...
Every Sunday (mostly) I meet up with three other guys and go for a ride. Sometimes nobody turns up, sometimes I don't, sometimes we get less than four. Actually, it's unusual we get four. It's not a testosterone-fuelled blitzfest, nor is it necessarily a sedate amble. Nothing dictates your speed, there's not a 'no drop' policy in force, and you're not obliged to keep up or slow down for anyone else. There's a turnaround point where we join up, chat for five or ten minutes, then ride back to the start point in much the same fashion.
Yesterday was myself and one other. I'll call him John, cause that's his name. John is a strong rider, and is generally stronger on the flat than I am. Up short hills he just powers on at the same rate while I drop back a gear or two and spin faster to try to keep up. He's also a better descender than me. He rides motorbikes for enjoyment, and is pretty seriously into it, so he has better skills than I do at speed. We swapped the front going out to the turn-around and had a light tailwind, which of course means headwind going back. This middling weather brings people out a lot, and there were a lot of riders out on the regular route we ride. In a few weeks it will get colder in the mornings and I reckon numbers will drop off. It'll get darker too, so the lights will make an appearance soon.
We also have a pair of Gary's to complete the four. To be honest, I don't know if they're Gary, Garry, Garey or otherwise, I've never asked. One is a strong flat rider, who usually tows us outbound at a fair pace. The other is happy to pull his 25km/h from start to end and meet up. It's a good bunch to be involved in.
There's the obligatory post-ride coffee, supplied by whoever reckons its their turn, combined with more talk regarding whatever. Motorsport, football, politics, etc. Typical stuff. Then we part ways till next weekend, or whenever someone thinks they'll be back.
I won't bore you with the in-depth stats, but 37km @ 29.7km/h is what we ended up with. Last sunday we ticked the 30km/h average box on the to-do list for the first time, probably thanks to a tow out and a good pickup for a little way coming back.
Insert tagline here...
Monday, March 22, 2010
STUFF! (that looks like other stuff*): Part 5
Why not recommence this with part 5 of...
STUFF!
(that looks like other stuff)*
A peek into the future, when Tasmania becomes a distant cousin of the mainland:
A collueague submitted image following a morning spent sanding weatherboard for repainting.
Insert tagline here...
* A shamelessly stolen idea, thanks Ben.
STUFF!
(that looks like other stuff)*
A peek into the future, when Tasmania becomes a distant cousin of the mainland:
A collueague submitted image following a morning spent sanding weatherboard for repainting.
Insert tagline here...
* A shamelessly stolen idea, thanks Ben.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
