Category Archives: News

News, Popular Culture

Toads Take Over Austrailia

The toxic cane toad in Australia is evolving into an “eco-nightmare” capable of covering huge distances, a study in the journal Nature reports.

Scientists say the species Bufo marinus is developing a leggier, faster-moving form that is now hopping out rapidly across the continent.

The toads were introduced 70 years ago to control pests, but have since wrought havoc on indigenous animals.

They kill snakes, lizards, water birds – even crocodiles and dingos.

A young boy from Springfield has been brought in for questioning. Details as the emerge.

BBC NEWS Link

Music, News, U2

Class Act That Bono

Last night, nearly twenty years after accepting the award for their definative album, The Joshua Tree, U2 took the Grammy stage and accepted the Album of the Year award for How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. Bono spent the bulk of his acceptance speech praising the other nominees which included Paul McCartney, Gwen Stefani, and Kanye West. He’s a class act that Bono. Class Act!

Not only was HTDAAB named album of the year but it won every award that it was nominated for including Rock Album of the Year, Song of the Year (Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own), Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal, and Best Rock Song (City of Blinding Lights).

Best. Band. Ever.

News, Rants

Here’s the Line… Here’s You Crossing It

3 Comments

I can’t remember how many times my Youth Ministry professor stressed the importance of never embarrassing a student. While I know that I’ve failed in the past and have embarrassed a student here and there nothing compares to this story I found today. Adolescence is tough enough without the help of jerks like this teacher from PA. What was this guy thinking?!?!?!?!

Teen says teacher made him sit on floor
Associated Press

BEAVER FALLS, Pa. – A 17-year-old high school student said he was humiliated when a teacher made him sit on the floor during a midterm exam in his ethnicity class – for wearing a Denver Broncos jersey.

The teacher, John Kelly, forced Joshua Vannoy to sit on the floor and take the test Friday – two days before the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Broncos 34-17 in the AFC championship game. Kelly also made other students throw crumpled up paper at Vannoy, whom he called a “stinking Denver fan,” Vannoy told The Associated Press on Monday.

Kelly said Vannoy, a junior at Beaver Area Senior High School, just didn’t get the joke.
“If he felt uncomfortable, then that’s a lesson; that’s what (the class) is designed to do,” Kelly told The Denver Post. “It was silly fun. I can’t believe he was upset.”

Vannoy was wearing a No. 7 Broncos jersey on Friday, because he is a fan of John Elway, the Broncos’ retired Hall of Fame quarterback.

Vannoy said he was so unnerved he left at least 20 questions blank on the 60-question test, and just wants out of Kelly’s class because he’s afraid the teacher won’t treat him fairly now that the story reached the media.

“I’m going to have to deal with him for two more nine weeks (school quarters) and he’s going to want revenge somehow,” Vannoy said Monday. “I took the test. I’m shaking. I’m furious. I didn’t know what to do.”

Kelly, who wore a Ben Roethlisberger jersey Friday, and his principal, Thomas Karczewski, didn’t immediately return messages left on their school voice mail Monday.

Big Beaver Falls Area School District Superintendent Donna Nugent said she was aware of the situation, but said confidentiality rules prevent her from commenting specifically.

“We’ll take whatever action we need to in order for the student to feel comfortable,” Nugent said.

If it were up to me John Kelly’s teaching certificate would be suspended indefinately. This man does not deserve to be in the classroom teaching children. I hope the school district comes down hard on this guy. Sadly, the only thing that will happen is that sports clothes will get banned.

Kelly,
Was it worth it?

Link

Music, News, Popular Culture

GAURD YOUR EARS!!!

In 1969 a legendary rock album was released called Tommy. The rock-opera told the tale of young Tommy Walker who becomes deaf, dumb, and blind after witnessing a murder.

This tale of a deaf, pinball-playing kid was given to us by one greatest and loudest rock bands ever to grace a stage: The Who. (named The World’s Loudest Rock Band by Guiness)

The Who’s guitarist, Pete Townsend, is one of the world’s great guitar players and, apparently, he is also now a safety inspector. Townsend has ben going deaf for a number of years. I always belived that the cause of his hearing loss was due to their infamous Smothers Bros. performance. Townsend believes otherwise.

The Who’s live performances were traditionally extremely loud. For most of the 1970s they were listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the loudest Rock band in the world, measured at 130 decibels, though other bands, notably Deep Purple, have since taken over that dubious honor. Townshend’s later partial deafness and tinnitus is well known; popular legends hold that the members of the band suffered permanent hearing loss from their loud concerts, or that Townshend’s right ear was damaged as a result of being too close to the drum kit when Moon detonated an oversized concussion bomb in it at the conclusion of a performance on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in 1967. Townshend, however, maintains that the true cause was listening to the music at high volume through headphones.

Now Pete Townsend has come out to discuss the dangers of listening to loud rock music…. on your iPod.

According to ABC News,

Guitarist Pete Townshend has warned iPod users that they could end up with hearing problems as bad as his own if they don’t turn down the volume of the music they are listening to on earphones.

Townshend, 60, guitarist in the 60s band The Who, said his hearing was irreversibly damaged by years of using studio headphones and that he now is forced to take 36-hour breaks between recording sessions to allow his ears to recover.

“I have unwittingly helped to invent and refine a type of music that makes its principal components deaf,” he said on his Web site. “Hearing loss is a terrible thing because it cannot be repaired. If you use an iPod or anything like it, or your child uses one, you MAY be OK … But my intuition tells me there is terrible trouble ahead.”

Pete, I appreciate your heart-felt public service announcement but if I do shell out the money to see you and Rodger this summer I am going to pay for those extra decibels so CRANK IT UP OLD MAN!!!! My Ge, Ge, Generation likes it loud!

Best of 2005, Faith in Action, News, Popular Culture, U2

1 Corinthians 9:19-23

Time Magazine announced their annual Person of the Year this week. The honor went to 3 people on behalf of their work with the world’s poor. Bill and Melinda Gates and Bono were named Persons of the Year for 2005. I know that I talk an awful lot about Bono here but I wanted to call attention to his determination and his strategy for speading the word about helping the poorest of the poor.

As I read the article on Bono I couldn’t help but think about the apostle Paul. Paul tells us in Corinthians that he became all things to all men in order that the Gospel might be heard and accepted. Here is what the Time article tells us about Bono’s strategy to bring his message of debt eradication and developmental aid to the men and women of the US:

When he lunches with President Bush, as he did in October, Bono quotes scripture and talks about small projects in Africa that have specific metrics for success. Then he asks for more money to fund them. In the office of Sen. Dic Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, he speaks of multilateralism and how developmental aid reminds the rest of the world of America;s greatness. Then he asks for more money. In stadiums, he tells people that if they join together, they have a chance to make poverty history. Then U2 plays One.

Bono’s great gift is to take what has made him famous- charm, clarity of voice, an ability to touch people in their secret heart- combine those traits with a keen grasp of the political game and obsessive attention to detail, and channel is all toward getting everyone, from world leaders to music lovers, to engage with something overwhelming in its complexity. Although it is easy to cast his global road show as the vanity project of a pampered celebrity, the fact is that Bono gets results.

Know thy audience! Know thy message! Know how to tell that message to thy audience!

The rest of the article is great and gives you a real backstage glimpse at Bono’s “global road show”- briefings, meetings, days without sleep, concerts, and manilla folders. The article takes you from Live Aid through Live 8 and to today. A must read for U2 fans, ministers and leadership strategists.

Good on ya, Bono!

Time Person of the Year Photo Essay: Bono

Music, News, U2

HTRAAC

2 Comments

or, How To Rock an Awards Ceremony.

U2’s latest release, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb has been nominated for 6 Grammy Awards. Way to go guys!

BTW, next week my end of the year Best of 2005 lists will be posted. This year I’ve chosen to highlight my favorite albums and books. Keep your eyes open for the lists.

Song of the Year – Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own
Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal – Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own
Best Rock Song – City of Blinding Lights
Best Rock Album – How to Dismantle An Atomic Bomb
Producer of the Year – Steve Lillywhite, for How to Dismantle An Atomic Bomb
Album of the Year – How to Dismantle An Atomic Bomb

Ministry, News, Theology

Make a BIG Noise

If you have followed this site since the summer, you know that the ONE Campaign has been very important to me. This morning I recieved this message in my inbox. Please read this and prayerfully consider what you can do to help alleviate suffering around the world.

Today is World AIDS Day, and right now, over 350,000 people are alive because Americans like you asked our nation to do more to fight AIDS.

Thank you.

Together, we can and must do more. This is what an emergency looks like: every day in Africa, HIV/AIDS kills 6,600 people, 8,800 people are infected with the HIV virus and at least 1,400 newborn babies are infected during childbirth.

This World AIDS Day, we are fighting back-and we know what works. We can prevent, educate and treat. Right now, the U.S. is providing life-saving medicines to kids, mothers, fathers, farmers and teachers who hold the key to their nations’ futures. Together, we have much farther to go. At the G8, leaders listened to your call and pledged near universal access to AIDS medicines by 2010. Let’s keep up the positive pressure and make sure we keep the promise.

You can continue the fight against AIDS and poverty right now by adding your name to the ONE Big Noise letter and ask America to do more to save lives around the world.

Whenever difficult topics such as AIDS relief come up I know that we get a little uneasy. For some reason, we tend to forget about the people who are suffering and focus only on the disease. I am constantly prodded by the words of my Savior:

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
 
“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ “The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’

  “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

  “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

  “He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

For what it is worth, check out ONE.org and see what you can do to help the helpless, clothe the naked, and feed the hungry. It is the least you can do.

Books, News, Popular Culture

Uh Oh!

6 Comments

According to a letter sent to BBC producer Lance Sieveking in 1959, C.S. Lewis would have been very opposed to a live-action movie based on The Chronicles of Narnia.

Dear Sieveking,
(Why do you ‘Dr’ me? Had we not dropped the honorifics?) As things worked out, I wasn’t free to hear a single instalment of our serial [The Magician’s Nephew] except the first. What I did hear, I approved. I shd. be glad for the series to be given abroad. But I am absolutely opposed – adamant isn’t in it! – to a TV version. Anthropomorphic animals, when taken out of narrative into actual visibility, always turn into buffoonery or nightmare. At least, with photography. Cartoons (if only Disney did not combine so much vulgarity with his genius!) wld. be another matter. A human, pantomime, Aslan wld. be to me blasphemy.

All the best,
yours
C. S. Lewis

Uh oh, indeed! The letter even mentions Disney.

I, for one, have been eagerly anticipating the live-action/CGI extravaganza The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. The movie, produced by Walt Disney and greenlit by the Lewis estate, is set to open on December 9th. From all accounts the movie seems to be a literal translation from page to screen. Still, this letter does make me squirm a little. I wonder if the media’s intrest in making the letter public has to do with a commercial campaign led by conservative churches a’la The Passion of the Christ. CNN reports that “Disney hopes that the movie, which has its world premiere in London on December 7, will be as big a hit with children as the “Harry Potter” series, thanks in part to the support of Christian church leaders.”

Regardless of the media’s agenda in making this letter public, the question remains:

What would Jack think of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe?

Blasphemy in Narnia
Via

News, Popular Culture, Theology

Let The Choir Sing…


Africa needs justice, not charity. The purpose of Live 8 was for the citizens of the world to demand this justice from the leaders of the 8 most powerful countries in the world at their summit a few days later. Under great pressure from the billions of people who took part in Live 8 and the Global Campaign for Action Against Poverty, world leaders made promises to double aid and cancel the unpayable debts of the poorest countries. This was an amazing breakthrough which we should all be proud of. Campaigners will be working to make sure world leaders keep these promises and go further.

One of the big stories over the summer was the historic Live 8 concerts that went on all over the world. Bob Geldof and friends used the G8 summit as a way to highlight the problems with poverty and AIDS, not just in Africa, but all over the globe. Thanks to the concerts and organizations like ONE the information and images concering young children dying of starvation and preventable disease made its way into Western homes this past summer.

Today, Live 8 was released on DVD. The 4 discs come loaded with music and images that you may have missed if you watched the Mtv and VH1 coverage that day. The sound quality is great and all of the best performances are included. Go check it out but… before you do that… make sure that you have signed the ONE Declaration. Let the world know that you care.

ONE.org