Month: January 2015

Holiday Highlights

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We are enjoying a short break, a few days in Newcastle with Margaret’s mother. Tomorrow we return home to Narrabri and a busy schedule.

Yesterday we had to go to Shelly Beach, near The Entrance, to pick up a pram (of course). While there, we went for the obligatory beach trip. The water was wonderfully refreshing and crystal clear. Best of all, no sharks to be seen!

Shelly Beach is more southerly than we usually venture on these trips so we wondered if our pastor friend Tony Rae was in the vicinity. He normally hangs out at the southern end of the Central Coast, but I texted him anyway. Despite being officially on holidays, he was in a meeting with his church’s business manager just 5 minutes from where we were! We had a great time chatting about all kinds of stuff before going our separate ways.

Margaret had been checking out online “For Sale” ads and had come across a big play gym not far from Grandma’s place. A $1500 setup was on offer at just $100. What a bargain! How could you not buy it? The play gym in its destructed form fills up our iMax so it may be a while before we can get it all home.

This afternoon we caught up with our old friends Dan & Sue Armstrong who now live near the centre of Newcastle in an upmarket apartment complex. Dan & Sue are special people who have spent their lives serving the Lord including preaching the gospel in remote Aboriginal communities. We spent three hours there but the time flew past. Sue said that it is a joy having us visit because we always give them a lift in their emotions- we feel the same about them. In many ways they exemplify a life sold out to Jesus.

It’s been a good few days, catching up with friends and just relaxing. Now we feel refreshed and energised for a new year in God’s own country.

The January Parliament: marking 750 years of British democracy

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From The Week

The January Parliament: marking 750 years of British democracy

This year is the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta, the treaty which limited the power of the monarchy and laid the foundation for British democracy. But today marks another, less well remembered anniversary: 750 years since the January Parliament.

What was the January Parliament?

On 20 January 1265, knights, burgesses and aldermen met in London for the first real parliament in British history. Of course, the representatives were ‘elected’ in a far less democratic way than they are now, but the meeting is still seen by academics as the birth of British parliaments.

Why isn’t the January Parliament better known?
The BBC suggests the gathering has been eclipsed in history by the signing of the Magna Carta, fifty years previously. Magna Carta limited the power of the monarch and, after some teething troubles, changed history – but it did not institute anything resembling a parliament.
Who called the meeting?
The January Parliament was summoned by French-born noble Simon de Montfort”, says the Daily Telegraph. He had beaten and taken prisoner both Henry III and his heir – later Edward I – at the Battle of Lewes the previous year, becoming de facto monarch, though ruling in Henry’s name.

Why did Montfort institute a parliament?
Montfort’s position was tenuous – he had risen to the top as one of a group of barons and could expect to be unseated at any moment. He wanted the backing of “as wide a section of society as possible”, the BBC says. But his motive wasn’t purely self-interest: as a Christian, Montfort was advised by the church he should work for the good of the poor.

Who were the first ‘MPs’?
Montfort ordered each county of England to send two knights, says the Telegraph. Towns were asked to send two burgesses and two aldermen. The delegates were ‘elected’ locally – in some cases chosen by lot.

Was it really the first parliament?

There had been parliaments before – but in a more limited sense. They were “elite gatherings between the king and his chosen advisors”, says the BBC, to which knights were occasionally invited – but only to discuss taxation. The January Parliament discussed wider affairs of state, was not called by the king, and included burgesses from the towns. ·

Read more: http://www.theweek.co.uk/uk-news/62173/the-january-parliament-marking-750-years-of-british-democracy#ixzz3POyReuoZ

Hottest Year Ever! Probably Not.

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You won’t hear this on the ABC, but NASA now admits that 2014 probably was not the hottest year ever and we are only talking about hundredths of a degree, well inside the margins of error (how accurately can you read a thermometer? And if you add thousands of thermometers around the world to get an average, how accurate is that going to be?)

 

Jo Nova writes: 

Gavin Schmidt now admits NASA are only 38% sure 2014 was the hottest year

I said the vaguest scientists in the world lie by omission, and it’s what they don’t say that gives them away. The “hottest ever” press release didn’t tell us how much hotter the hottest year supposedly was, nor how big the error bars were. David Rose of the Daily Mail pinned down Gavin Schmidt of NASA GISS to ask a few questions that bloggers and voters want answered but almost no other journalist seems to want to ask.

Finally…

Nasa climate scientists: We said 2014 was the warmest year on record… but we’re only 38% sure we were right

Nasa admits this means it is far from certain that 2014 set a record at all 

Does that mean 97% of climate experts are 62% sure they are wrong?*

The thing with half-truths is that they generate a glorious fog, but it has no substance. Ask the spin-cloud of a couple of sensible questions and the narrative collapses. This is the kind of analysis that would have stopped the rot 25 years ago if most news outlets had investigative reporters instead of science communicators trained to “raise awareness”. (The media IS the problem). If there was a David-Rose-type in most major dailies, man-made global warming would never have got off the ground.

The claim made headlines around the world, but yesterday it emerged that GISS’s analysis – based on readings from more than 3,000 measuring stations worldwide – is subject to a margin of error. Nasa admits this means it is far from certain that 2014 set a record at all.

Yet the Nasa press release failed to mention this, as well as the fact that the alleged ‘record’ amounted to an increase over 2010, the previous ‘warmest year’, of just two-hundredths of a degree – or 0.02C.

The margin of error is about a tenth of a degree, so those error bars are 500% larger than the amount pushed in headlines all over the world. Gavin Schmidt of course, is horrified that millions of people may have been mislead:

GISS’s director Gavin Schmidt has now admitted Nasa thinks the likelihood that 2014 was the warmest year since 1880 is just 38 per cent. However, when asked by this newspaper whether he regretted that the news release did not mention this, he did not respond.

I’m sure he’s too busy contacting newspapers and MSNBC to make sure stories from NASA GISS are accurate and scientifically correct.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk

In the mood for sport? Turn the torch back on the journalists who were too gullible to ask a sensible question. Let’s start asking the ABC and BBC journalists why they didn’t ask “how much hotter was it” and “how big are those error bars”.

H/t to Colin, Gardy.

Somebody’s Been Sleeping In My Bed

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I’m glad the only critter we have to fight in bed is the cat, and she generally doesn’t bite.

From the ABC:

Snakes startle women in separate Darwin home invasions; grandmother bitten

 

Sun 18 Jan 2015, 4:14pm

A police officer secures an olive python that crawled into a home in Rapid CreekPHOTO: A police officer secures an olive python that crawled into a home in Rapid Creek. (Supplied: NT Police)
EXTERNAL LINK: Snake bites woman in Humpty Doo twice in a week
MAP: Rapid Creek 0810

Two Darwin women were given nasty surprises by snakes slithering into their homes, with one of them bitten as she lay asleep in her bed.

In the first incident, grandmother Eileen Whitely, 61, was lying in her bed in the rural suburb of Humpty Doo about 2.30am on Friday when she awoke with a start after a five-foot reptile plunging its teeth into her.

“At first I didn’t realise I had been bitten; I was in a deep sleep,” she said.

“I flew from the bed and thought it may have been a bug or something.”

But to her horror, she spotted a long tail disappearing under her covers.

Her husband, Lee Evans, threw a towel over the snake and she helped him put it into a pillow case.

The couple then deposited it into a small wheelie bin outside, from where it was photographed before it made a slithery escape.

A cup of tea before worrying

Ms Whiteley said she had a cup of tea before beginning to wonder whether the snake may have been venomous.

“I thought, oh well, it has been about an hour and I haven’t kicked the bucket, so I must be OK,” she said.

Ambulance officers took her to hospital to make sure, however an expert confirmed the culprit was a non-venomous children’s python.

Ms Whiteley said snakes in Darwin’s rural area were common and did not normally bother her.

“I shoo the bloody things away, and if they are deadly I just kill them, but when they get into your home it is scary,” she said.

Police detain ‘slippery, sinful, shifty serpent’

In a second incident police on Saturday night were called to a home in Rapid Creek after a frantic call from an 82-year-old woman.

Police went to the home and found the large snake, which was a harmless olive python.

“The officers entered the house and took the slippery sinful slimy shifty serpent into custody,” police said in a statement.

 

In May last year a 53-year-old woman from Humpty Doo was bitten twice by a snake in a week that crawled into her bed.

 

Don ‘t Drive Your Esky Without a Licence.

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It might be the quintessentially Aussie vehicle, but you still need a licence to drive one!

From the ABC:

Man fined for driving motorised esky without a licence

Updated 40 minutes agoSun 18 Jan 2015, 12:24pm

Impounded esky at Rosebud WestPHOTO: The esky was impounded by police and the driver fined $1,476. (Supplied: Victoria Police)
MAP: Rosebud West 3940

A man has had his motorised esky impounded after he was caught driving it without a licence and on a footpath on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula.

The 29-year-old man was intercepted by police on the footpath beside Point Nepean Road at Rosebud West just after 5pm on Saturday.

The 49cc esky was impounded for 30 days for the use of an unregistered recreational vehicles on council land.

The man was fined $1,476.

It is not the first time someone has found themselves in trouble for driving this type of vehicle.

Earlier this month, a South Australian man had his motorised esky impounded and was reported for driving unlicensed, and driving an unregistered and uninsured vehicle.

While a Perth man was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol after police caught him driving an esky, allegedly full of alcohol, along a major road.

Why We Need to be Careful.

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It’s easy to assume that there is no hope for people in certan medical conditions. Sometimes we write people off too quickly. From Lifesitenews.com

 

Man wakes up after 12 years in ‘vegetative state’: reveals, ‘I was aware of everything’

 Vegetative State

Martin Pistorius hates Barney. And it’s no wonder why. For 12 years, while he was in a coma that doctors described as a “vegatative state,” nurses, thinking that he couldn’t see or hear anything, played endless re-runs of Barney as he sat, strapped into his wheel chair.

But Martin wasn’t the “vegetable” that doctors said he was. In fact, he could see and hear everything.

“I cannot even express to you how much I hated Barney,” he recently told NPR.

In the 1980s, Martin was a typical active youngster growing up in South Africa. But, then, at age 12, he came down with an illness that baffled doctors, and that eventually resulted in him losing his ability to move his limbs, then to make eye contact, and finally to speak.

His parents, Rodney and Joan Pistorius, were told that he was a “vegetable” and the best thing for them to do was take him home and keep him comfortable until he died.

Image
Martin Pistorious with his wife Joanna

But the youngster continued to live despite the diagnosis.

“Martin just kept going, just kept going,” his mom said.

Now, in a new memoir, “Ghost Boy: My Escape From A Life Locked Inside My Own Body,” Martin has revealed that, although he was initially unconscious as doctors thought, after about two years he started waking up, eventually becoming fully conscious of everything around him.

Martin’s dad, Rodney, cared for his son throughout the ordeal, and recalls the daily routine of rising at five in the morning to get Martin ready for a day at a special care center.

“Eight hours later, I’d pick him up, bathe him, feed him, put him in bed, set my alarm for two hours so that I’d wake up to turn him so that he didn’t get bedsores,” Rodney said in an NPR report.

Martin remembers, however, that his mom at one point lost hope, and while gazing at her son and thinking he could not hear her, said “I hope you die.”

But he did hear her.

“Yes, I was there, not from the very beginning, but about two years into my vegetative state, I began to wake up,” Martin said.

 

Read the rest here