Sole Survivor

Coming home from very lonely places, all of us go a little mad: whether from great personal success, or just an all-night drive, we are the sole survivors of a world no one else has ever seen.
- John le Carre

1600 Year Old Wisdom

Usually, even a non-Christian knows something about the earth, the heavens, and the other elements of this world, about the motion and orbit of the stars and even their size and relative positions, about the predictable eclipses of the sun and moon, the cycles of the years and the seasons, about the kinds of animals, shrubs, stones, and so forth, and this knowledge he hold to as being certain from reason and experience. Now, it is a disgraceful and dangerous thing for an infidel to hear a Christian, presumably giving the meaning of Holy Scripture, talking nonsense on these topics; and we should take all means to prevent such an embarrassing situation, in which people show up vast ignorance in a Christian and laugh it to scorn. The shame is not so much that an ignorant individual is derided, but that people outside the household of faith think our sacred writers held such opinions, and, to the great loss of those for whose salvation we toil, the writers of our Scripture are criticized and rejected as unlearned men. If they find a Christian mistaken in a field which they themselves know well and hear him maintaining his foolish opinions about our books, how are they going to believe those books in matters concerning the resurrection of the dead, the hope of eternal life, and the kingdom of heaven, when they think their pages are full of falsehoods and on facts which they themselves have learnt from experience and the light of reason? Reckless and incompetent expounders of Holy Scripture bring untold trouble and sorrow on their wiser brethren when they are caught in one of their mischievous false opinions and are taken to task by those who are not bound by the authority of our sacred books. For then, to defend their utterly foolish and obviously untrue statements, they will try to call upon Holy Scripture for proof and even recite from memory many passages which they think support their position, "although they understand neither what they say nor the things about which they make assertion." [1 Timothy 1.7]

- Saint Augustine (A.D. 354-430)

Study: Nearly 80 Percent Of Roommates Got So Drunk Last Night

Study: Nearly 80 Percent Of Roommates Got So Drunk Last Night

Oops...

marriedtothesea.com

Why Should We Bother?

Why Bother?
By MICHAEL POLLAN

Published: April 20, 2008
From The New York Times

"Why bother? That really is the big question facing us as individuals hoping to do something about climate change, and it’s not an easy one to answer. I don’t know about you, but for me the most upsetting moment in “An Inconvenient Truth” came long after Al Gore scared the hell out of me, constructing an utterly convincing case that the very survival of life on earth as we know it is threatened by climate change. No, the really dark moment came during the closing credits, when we are asked to . . . change our light bulbs. That’s when it got really depressing. The immense disproportion between the magnitude of the problem Gore had described and the puniness of what he was asking us to do about it was enough to sink your heart." [more]

I very good article of what we are facing!

Smoking ban, fitness tests for healthier nation

By Sharri Markson
April 20, 2008 01:36am

Found at: news.com.au

"SMOKING would be banned for everyone born next year, junk food would be taxed and everyone would be subjected to a fitness test by 2020.By comparison, the cost of healthy food, including fruit and vegetables, would be reduced to reflect its low environmental impact and obvious health benefits."

Read the rest of the article here... These Aussies really are nuts!

Two Types....

The international kilogram conundrum

From the LA Times - Read the Full Story by clicking on the Link, Article by Jia-Rui Chong, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer April 17, 2008

GAITHERSBURG, MD. -- Forty feet underground, secured in a temperature- and humidity-controlled vault here, lies Kilogram No. 20.

It's an espresso-shot-sized, platinum-iridium cylinder that is the perfect embodiment of the kilogram -- almost perfect.

In the more than a century since No. 20 and dozens of other exact copies were crafted in France to serve as the world's standards of the kilogram, their masses have been mysteriously drifting apart.

The difference is on average about 50 micrograms -- about the weight of a grain of fine salt. But the ramifications have rippled through the world of precision physics, which uses the kilogram as the basis for a host of standard measures, including force of gravity, the ampere and Planck's constant -- the omnipresent figure of quantum mechanics.

In essence, no one really knows today what a kilogram is.

[More]

International Bureau of Weights and Measures

A copy of the international prototype kilogram under its protective casing. The real prototype, known as Le Grand K, is rarely removed from its temperature- and humidity-controlled vault to avoid damage.

The Price of Oil Hasn't Budged Since 2001

Found at: TheDailyGreen.com The article is by Dan Shapley

"The steep increase in the price of crude oil in the United States remains a headline issue, along with the falling US dollar. The drop in the dollar has caused concern in oil-producing countries which use it as the economic basis for the commodity, and often their currency. The chart below shows the spot market price of crude oil per barrel (BBL) in US dollars and in euros from 2001 to today. The price of oil has grown faster relative to the dollar than to the euro. Yet, a portion of the rise in oil prices is due to the fall of the value. Of the dollar. The graph also shows the number of barrels of crude oil per cost of an ounce of gold, demonstrating the parallel growth in commodity pricing."

Barrels of oil per dollar in blue, Euro in red and ounce of gold in purple.

Creation!

The story of Creation

Found at: http://www.plig.net/things/capetown.html
Author: unknown

Once upon a time in the Kingdom of Heaven, God went missing for six days. Eventually, Michael the Archangel found him on the seventh day, having a rest. He inquired of God, "Where have you been?"

God sighed a deep sigh of satisfaction and proudly pointed downwards through the clouds, "Look Michael! Look what I have made."

Archangel Michael looked puzzled and said, "What is it?"

"It's a planet", replied God, "and I've put LIFE on it. I'm going to call it Earth and it's going to be a great place of balance."

"Balance?" inquired Michael, still confused.

God explained, pointing to different parts of Earth. "For example, Northern Europe will be a place of great opportunity and wealth while Southern Europe is going to be poor; the Middle East over there will be a hot spot. Over there I've placed a continent of white people and over there is a continent of black people." God continued, pointing to different countries. "And over there, I call this place America. North America will be rich, powerful and cold, while South America will be poor, hot and friendly. And the little spot in the middle is Central America which is a hot spot. Can you see the balance?''

"Yes" said the Archangel, impressed by Gods work, then he pointed to a small part of land at the tip of a large land mass and asked, "What's that one?"

"Ah" said God, "That's Cape Town, the most glorious place on Earth! There are beautiful mountains, vineyards, rivers, streams and an exquisite coast line. The people are good looking, intelligent and humorous and they're going to be found travelling the world. They'll be extremely sociable, hard-working, and high- achieving, and they will be known throughout the world as the best example of the human species.

Michael gasped in wonder and admiration but then declared, "But you said there will be BALANCE!?"

God replied wisely, "That's why I made Johannesburg."

Ikeys vs, Marties FNB Varsity Cup Final

It was UCT vs. Stellenbosch last night in Stellies, where the game was robbed from UCT by the biased Ref! Unable to tell the time, the overtime in the second half, to everyone in the stadium at least, seem to be a good 10mins over the 40mins! Oh well, we have the rematch at Intervarsity!!! Well done to both teams and thanks to Stellenbosch for throwing a good party.