Weblog Archive
June 11 - June 12, 2002
Wednesday 12th June, 2002
Martin Roth posts:
The Most Successful Independent
Artist in Australia’s History
I’ve never actually heard the
Paul Colman Trio, a popular local Christian musical group, yet I feel I
know them well. They’re from my part of Melbourne, and I keep reading
interviews with them in Christian publications here. They often play at
local Christian gigs. And I’ve heard several sermons from Paul’s dad
Robert, a pastor at
Crossway Baptist Church.
Asked in an
interview when he became a Christian, Paul replied:
I don’t relate with the word ‘Christian’. There are way too many ideas about
what it means. I’ve always believed in God, and I follow Jesus of Nazareth.
The Paul Colman Trio are now trying to
break into America - perhaps hoping to replicate the success of another
Aussie Christian superstar group, the
Newsboys – and their promoters are
talking about how the trio quickly established themselves as “the most
successful independent artist in Australia’s history”.
Boy, that’s news to me. But I wish them
well.
-posted 8:00pm, by
Martin Roth
Bene Diction posts:
Blog Watch
Mea Culpa to
Spudlets…..Martin, who is the epitome of
linguistic fussiness, is known to deftly catch my prolific typos, but it
appears the head honcho of this blog is a bit distracted by World Cup
soccer. I don’t have an excuse for my boo boo yesterday. You were very
gracious, thank you!
John DaFiesole of
Disputations and
Praying the Post had kind words for us also.
I discovered some Australian Christians journal blogging
at a site called
diary-x. Interesting post on community.
EslerFried is as surprised as I have been, to find so little posted on
line regarding the Burnhams. He is asking questions. Help him out.
Mark Byron says his local news lady got Gracia Burnham’s relational
priorities wrong. He is correct in his reasoning. If you read
Christianity Today’s coverage you’ll understand how, though we grieve
the death of the people dearest to us, our first love is still God.
JunkYard Blog’s Bryon Preston was an article in the
National Review Online. Way to go Mr. Preston. Preston also posts
possible connections between Al Qaeda and Oklahoma City. Thanks to
MidwestConservativeJournal for the heads up on that gem.
Sand in the Gears must have the same smart people reading his blog that
read Martin Roth.
Tim Drake has an article on Catholic Bloggers in The
National Catholic Register. You can read it on his blog
Streams of Consciousness.
Smallpox?
This story about a smallpox outbreak in a Pakistan
newspaper has raised
considerable skepticism since it appeared yesterday. The question I have
is this: Why not small pox? Al Qaeda operatives move freely in the area, and
have threatened to use biological weapons. Could a terrorist working with a
batch of it recently, accidentally or purposefully released some into the
population?
Books and Censorship
What is up lately with Europeans? An Italian writer,
Oriana Fallaci
faces legal battles in France for a new book entitled Rage and Pride.
Fallaci is being accused of racism. On June 7, 2002, I posted a piece on the
uproar over another Italian writer, Antonia Socci, in hot water for a book
on Christian persecution in the 20th century.
Big Things Start with Small Ideas
Japanese researchers have launched a paper airplane with
a laser beam. This
article explains the practical implications.
It’s Rude, But Not Against the Law
A karaoke singer got kicked out of a bar for
not drinking. I don’t know about you, but I prefer to listen to sober
singers.
Yes, Chimps Leave Fingerprints
This fast-fingered little simian has police
scrambling in the UK. It’s a funny story, and what I like is the droll
British sense of humor demonstrated by the writer, police and theft victims.
I suspect someone trained this little primate. He has discriminating taste.
Invading the National Press Club
Some big name bloggers will
address journalists at the National Press Club in Washington on June 28th.
The questions the panel will face are rather typical for a political town,
aren’t they? Link via
C-log
-posted 9:10am, by Bene Diction
Tuesday 11th June, 2002
Martin Roth posts:
Trust Me. I’m an Expert
Once every four years I make the decision
to take a break from my writing work and give myself over to the pleasure of
watching soccer’s World Cup on the TV.
Come to think of it, I do the same every
four years for the Olympics as well. And for the rugby World Cup. And every
January for the Australian Open tennis. And every Saturday for…no, never
mind.
Anyway, to help me stay abreast of the
soccer, I am using a World Cup pullout guide published here in Melbourne by
The Age newspaper. It contains the schedules and details of all the
teams.
It also has a “What the Experts Tip”
section, with the forecasts of six soccer experts.
Here they are, with their tips:
Winner: France
France is now out of the World Cup, and as
I write is one of only four teams – of 32 competing - not to have scored any
goals at all.
*
* * *
Last year the price of gold averaged
US$270 an ounce, and at the beginning of 2002 most analysts were forecasting
an average this year of around US$285. They may be right, but at present
it’s more than US$320 and in an upward trend.
I used to be an expert. I was a securities
analyst with a big merchant bank in Tokyo. Fund managers used to arrive
daily from London, New York, Hong Kong, Sydney and elsewhere, all looking
for ideas on where to invest the tens of millions of dollars in pension
funds entrusted to them by suckers (that's you) around the world.
I would tell them with great authority why
Nippon Oil shares were going to out-perform those of Cosmo Oil, and why
Canon shares were a Buy and Ricoh shares only a Hold. Then I’d take them
drinking in Roppongi and Akasaka and they would faithfully buy what I
recommended.
Sometimes the stocks I was pushing did
well (experts aren’t always wrong), and sometimes they didn’t. But it was
often hard to find much relationship between my reasoning and the stock’s
performance. A toss of the coin might have been as effective.
Perhaps that’s how we should decide World
Cup matches as well.
It would allow me to get a bit more work
done.
-posted 11:40pm, by
Martin Roth
Bene Diction posts:
Catholic Anguish
Andrew Sullivan looks at the changes needed in the Catholic Church, in
Time magazine.
Humane Treatment for Wounded
‘Martyr’
An 18-year-old Palestinian terrorist who was
frisked by a robot after surviving his attempt at martyrdom is
recovering and repentant in an Israeli hospital. He is surprised at being
treated like a human being.
Zayman echoes the sentiment.
"This Jewish policeman is better than many, many Arabs," he tells the
Times:
He said he was "pushed" to make
his attack not by Israeli action or a terrorist group, but by "the love of
martyrdom." He added: "I didn't want revenge for anything. I just wanted to
be a martyr."
Link via WSJ
Best of the Web.
Blogging
Bloggers are happily debunking the New York Times
article that says there is an alleged feud between tech bloggers and war
bloggers.
Jeff Jarvis has a foot in both camps and takes down the NYT.
Instapundit links up to other takedowns.
Blog Watch
Christianity Today continues coverage of the Burnhams.
As wildfires rage in Canada and the US, here is blogging
at its finest. It is instant, personal and well linked in Colorado blog
NoodleFood. Link via
Instapundit
JunkYard blogger Bryon Preston was up late last night pondering Jewish
Christian relationships.
Hawkgirl’s inside look at air cargo and air security.
While Russia deals with soccer violence fallout,
journalist
Peter Maass posts about a past soccer riot he covered, on his blog. Good
sobering read.
Don’t miss your
Tim Blair fix today.
Holy Weblog is on a roll. Where does she get this stuff?
Sudlets tackles tongues.
Confessions of a Jesus Phreak and
Cut on the Bias have moved. Update your links.
He Lives has a post on remaking God in our own image.
Our friendly tech over at
HealYourChurchWebsite has a fun post on usability. I noticed his Google
problem isn’t fixed yet.
-posted 9:55am, by Bene Diction
