EMF

In highschool I did an expirement on drosophila (fruit flies), placing some within a strong EMF, and some (the control group) in a normal environment. I was testing to see if anything odd would happen to the bugs subjected to magnetic fields. They died.
So did the flies that weren't subjected to mind numbing amounts of EMF's. So, the results were inconclusive. I think I still got a relatively good mark on that project, considering I killed all the test specimen's.
I was reminded of this today after being directed towards a website where you can buy a full line of clothing that protects you from unwanted and damaging EMF radiation.
Also, Wired.com ran an article today about tumors and cell phone use. Egads, it's true. If you use a cell phone for an hour a day you're at high risk. They recommend the hands free, earpiece method. Won't this just change where the tumor grows? So, I've got the phone clipped to my belt, withing close proximity to my luggage, while talking on a wired earpiece. Hmm. Where should you hold a cell phone when talking on it? What will minimize the damage? When not in use, I usually have it in my coat pocket, which is situated about an inch or three (depending on if I flex my pecs) away from my heart. That's also not a good place for a tumor. Poll time. If you had to have a tumor somewhere on your body, where would the optimal location be?

Was it ever satisfying to see the Habs defeat the leafs, twice in a row. I only got to watch the final 5 minutes of Saturday's game, and what a crazy finish. Darcy Tucker, who says he holds no 'ill-will' towards Kovalev got caught with his head down, hard. It was slightly dirty on Kovalevs part, but he pled 'self-defence', or rather 'retaliation'.
Photograph by : JOHN MAHONEY, THE GAZETTE

Game 1. Petes 3, Ottawa 2. Double OT. It was a good game, with some rather one-sided refs (IMO), but overall, very entertaining. I nearly lost my voice cheering and barking at the refs. I was sitting two rows up, right on the blueline, and based on my understanding of offside, the linesman must have had his head up his ass, because we weren't seeing the same thing. Trevor Hendrix was the OT hero.
In other hockey news, my Habs pounded the Leafs last night. Hard.

Hanging people for what they believe

Rex Murphy, as usual, raised a very very strong point last night in his 'Point of View' on the National:

Mr. Harper has today talked to the Afghan president about this aberration of democracy, human rights, and freedom of religion, and has had, in reply, the assurance of Mr. Karzai that respect for human and religious rights will be fully upheld in this case.

That's another contradiction. What case? Trying a man for changing his religion is the breach of religion and human rights.

It's such a contradiction that human rights will be fully upheld, when the guy is on trial for his faith. What human rights? The guy is on trial for converting from one faith to another.
Regardless of the outcome, if human rights were an issue, this wouldn't be a case, it would be a trial.

Rex continues:

But it is going to be more than a little difficult for Mr. Harper to sustain the morale of the troops he so evidently cares for and to hold a majority of Canadians to their support for those troops if the democracy of Afghanistan, one of its leading judges, and its attorney general, contemplates hanging from the end of a rope till dead a person who converts from one religion to another.

...the full text...

Have you heard about this? Here's a Time.com article about an incident in Iraq. It's still under investigation, but it doesn't look good. I'm not a big fan of war, especially the one in Iraq, but I'm especially not a fan of kids and innocents being caught in the middle of it all regardless of what their fathers or brothers have done.

And, via Jordon, a timeline of Iraq, Three Years of War. It's pretty sad, seeing a summary of the last three years. Try as they might, there is no memory hole to throw this stuff into.

I get a laugh when I hear Pat Robertson accuse other people of brainwashing.

Running from the cops

I was driving on the QEW from Niagara Falls towards Hamilton on Saturday. My sister's birthday was on Friday night and on Saturday morning everyone disbanded and I decided to go for a drive through the countryside with Niagara as my final destination. I hadn't seen the falls in a while and kinda felt like going there. It's remarkable that that town exists, and that people spend lengthy amounts of time there. There's a waterfall there. You visit it, snap some pictures, throw a penny over it, and then leave. Well, at least that's what I did.
After leaving, I decided to take the less scenic route, so as to meet up with HC Joel when I told him I would. As I was driving along the QEW, driving my normal 120, I noticed two OPP cruisers coming up behind me in my rearview mirror. I eased off the gas a bit, brought it down to 110, and they stayed there, about 50 meteres behind me. Then a third showed up. They went into formation, each taking a lane, side by side, and threw on their flashers. At this point I was the only car ahead of them, and because I had slowed to a little over the speed limit, there wasn't any left in front of me for a few hundred meters either.

It's an odd feeling, driving down a three lane highway with three cruisers directly behind you, all lights flashing.

It's even more unnerving when two of them start to slow the rest of the field down, like a pace car at Indy, and one of them continues to follow me, the lone law breaker. The icing on the cake is that all of this is just as I'm about to ascend a rather large bridge over the Welland Canal. I have a pretty vivid imagination, so I'm driving along wondering why they're stopping everyone just before the bridge. Is the bridge is out? Is there a jumper, or really high winds that are gonna toss my little car over the edge?
Finally, the trailing cop begins to slow and appears to stop at the crest of the bridge, which I discovered was fully intact.
I just carry on driving slightly above the speed limit, in the middle lane of three lanes of highway, with no one else around; not even the sounds of the radio (I turned it off to concentrate on why the cops were following me).
This lasted a couple more kilometers and then a few cars trickled onto the highway at the next onramp. I sped up to 120, and turned the radio back on.

Green Day

Happy St.Patrick's day!

Get your green on.

Rock Star

GoogleMars

some recent photos taken in the Peterborough area...

Finally. The Canadian Tire couple is no more.

New Apostolic Reformation

Len, over at Nextreformation.com, has been writing an interesting series over the past couple of days about the 'New Apostolic Reformation'. I've read with interest as I've been around certain groups of people that place extreme emphasis on labeling certain people with the title 'apostle' or 'prophet'. I think people exercise prophetic and apostolic gifts from time to time, and some more than others, but the second we put a label/title on them and place them in a hierarchy power structure, I start having problems. Here's a few of Len's thoughts:

I have argued that apostles and prophets never really disappeared, and that they have been among us somewhat hidden. This shouldn't be too surprising since it was Jesus own way of being among us. There is cause for concern that NAR movement links the gifts of Jesus to a particular eschatology and to a global administrative structure. Jesus, the ultimate apostle, ran away from political agendas. Paul, the apostle who gave us most of the New Testament letters, declined to accept any office or stipend, and continued to support himself with the work of his hands. One wonders why a modern apostle would pursue any other agenda or why any central apostolic network is needed in the world?

Apostles are best unseen, quietly doing the work God has given them. We need to concern ourselves when someone identifies themselves as an apostle. We can legitimately inquire as to their agenda. The purpose of power and authority is to give it away.. to use it to empower and equip others.. to serve. Jesus was God, veiled in flesh, yet His ministry was mostly unspectacular. He avoided prominence, and when they tried to crown Him as king he snuck away. Apostolic ministry will often be like leaven in a lump; it's effects will be slow but pervasive, and may only be measured effectively in hindsight. How appropriate when the goal is to glorify Someone else.

...post 3 of series...
...post 2 of series...
...post 1 of series...

Revolution

I read an article on Sojo.net today that was an exerpt from Brian McLaren's newest book. He was discussing new phrasing, new translations for the Biblical phrase "The Kingdom of God." Here's a brief quote:

The revolution of God. For people like Martin Luther King Jr., attuned to fighting injustice, corruption, oppression, racism, and other forms of social evil, the “revolution” or “revolutionary movement” of God naturally flows from the metaphor of the dream of God for creation.

This metaphor claims that we human beings have created a totalitarian regime—a regime of lust (where too many people are reduced to sex objects or hyped into sexual predators), a regime of pride and power (where some thrive at the expense or to the exclusion of others), a regime of racism, classism, ageism, and nationalism (where people are identified as enemies or evil or inferior because of the color of their skin or the physical or social location of their birth), a regime of consumerism and greed (where life is commodified, where people become slaves to their jobs, where the environment is reduced to natural resources for human consumption, where time is money, which makes life become money). This regime is unacceptable, and God is recruiting people to join a revolutionary movement of change.

The revolution cannot use the corrupt tactics of the current regime; otherwise, it will only replace one corrupt regime with another. For example, if it uses violence to overcome violence, deceit to overcome deceit, coercion to overcome coercion, fear to overcome fear, then the revolution isn’t really revolutionary; it’s just a matter of lateral conversion or regime change. The very success of such a revolution would reinforce confidence in its tactics.

So perhaps we need a modifier in front of revolution to show how the goals and tactics of this regime are radically different: the peace revolution of God, the spiritual revolution of God, the love revolution of God, the reconciling revolution of God, the justice revolution of God. In these ways, we get much closer to the dynamic hidden in Jesus’ original language of kingdom of God.

...more...

Hockey Fights

My brother sent me this link. The Peterborough Petes and the London Knights played last week, and in the first 10 seconds of the game, the following penalities were dished out:

Here's the video of it all. (scroll down, click on 'free')

ROTATION OF EARTH PLUNGES ENTIRE NORTH AMERICAN CONTINENT INTO DARKNESS

lent

Why does Tim Horton's roll up the rim always seem to overlap with Lent?
For Lent this year I'm saying good-bye to two of my favorite beverages, coffee and beer. Honestly, it's gonna be rough. I'm nursing a slight coffee withdrawal headache presently.
I'm hoping that I don't accidentally 'forget' and just start sipping a cup of coffee at my desk at work (there's always a full pot within a couple steps of my cubicle...)
Well, lent starts today, but I managed to get two 'rolluptherim' cups yesterday whilst travelling for work. I won a doughnut with the first one, but, alas, the odds were against me for the second one. Lent basically assures me that I will not be winning a RAV4, a bigscreen TV or a BBQ.