Book Review:: Rising Tide, The untold Story of the Russian Submarines That fought the cold war. Gary E. Wier, Walter J. Boyne

I've become quite interested in the Cold War. There are some great examples of how the West and Eastern country's pushed each other on technologically. Submarine warfare is one good example of this.
The Russian built machines that could dive deeper, go faster, run longer. Yet had the reliability of Lada car which we had in Australia for a few years and where renowned for been terrible.

You have to admire the men that lived and worked in these machines which duelled with the Americans. Working for hardly nothing, risking and often loosing their lives. A number of times sacrificing their lives to save their comrades.
K19 is a great example of this. 'Hiroshima' as it was nicknamed by the Russian sailors because of the lives lost because of nuclear accidents on-board.

It is strange reading this book, knowing that this stuff really happened. It puts a new perspective on the submarine genre of movie. Hunt for Red October etc.

Well written and full of amazing stories; worth reading.

All things

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I can remember when one of my good friends child was baptised. The message was memorable to me.
The 'Father' in the Anglican Church got up and proceeded to tell us how the days reading from Old Testament book of Genesis was just a story. A genre to help people understand the world thousands of years ago. 
At the time I was incensed. Classing myself as a good evangelical I wondered how he could speak such rot; denying that these story where not true.
Now days my theology is probably a lot closer to this 'Father'. Yet I still think getting up, speaking his position was not sensitive.
I've come across people with simple faith. Where they have an understanding of the Bible as really happening, literal. This in itself gives them great comfort. A shelter. I've often envied these people who don't have the need to probe, ask questions. 
A message which usurps a persons simple faith is a disservice to Christianity. A stealer of grace.
Yet I also think that you can hold the same position as the 'Father', validating both positions of literal and metaphor. Squeezing all the goodness out of a passage to bless all.

House building :: 22

Ok I've bee a bit slack here, but we are now in the house!

 

Front View

Rear view

We are still living out of boxes. They should be gone in a year or so. The next couple of weeks we are getting some boarders, different types of soils and sand for the landscaping. We have already planted a few trees.

Lastly we are also looking into getting some solar panels.

John Domonic Crosson in Australia

Just got to listen with the interview with John Domonic Crosson and John Cleary.

Here is the blurb on the ABC web site::

Irish-American Catholic priest John Dominic Crossin is a Biblical scholar. A member of the Servite order, he has specialised in investigating the historical Jesus - including examination and comparison of both canonical and apocryphal scriptures. His understanding of the life of Jesus as a Mediterannean peasant helped renew interest in the historical Jesus and shape the scholarly group known as the Jesus Seminar.

I'm pretty interested in Crosson's scholarship. I think the search for the 'Historical Jesus' should be an ongoing search for all Christians or even those are interested about Christianity.

Some interesting thoughts on what we 'actually know about Jesus.'

You can hear the interview here

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Look me in the eye Tony x2....

Image by David Jackmanson via Flickr

From the ABC

Earlier, a statement issued in Mr Somlyay's name indicated he had rejected the entire deal.
But Mr Somlyay's office now says the statement was issued by the office of Opposition Leader Tony Abbott.

Tony's now putting words into his colleges mouths.

Slow down Tony your loosing all credibility.


Related :: Look me in the eye Tony...

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Look me in the eye Tony...

Image by MystifyMe Concert Photography™ via Flickr

Interesting how the liberals but probably more significantly Tony Abbott has gone back on his word regarding the speakers role.

Its pretty blatant. To me it just shows his driven nature to get into power.
It would appear his tactic is for the current government to be in as a precarious position as possible. Then for his party to have another go at winning an election as soon as possible.

For me especially in the Church I have always remembered the words 'Character over Anointing'.
I think it can be applied to politics. That's why I like Malcolm Turnbull. Even though he stuck to his principles over the emissions trading deal, and lost. In the long term he gained a lot of respect.

Tony Tony, read a bit of Shakespeare, your going down a slippery slope.

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In the garden

A bit of excitement for the garden today. We recieved from Diggers today 3 apple and 2 pear trees. We also planted the lemon 'Eureka' tree. Which the girls from 1 north gave me as a going away present.

Not sure which is which because the girls took the tags! The plants are Apple granny Smith, apple rome beauty, and apple snow. The pears are 'Corella' and 'Faccia Rosa'

The 'Lemon Eureka', hopefully it will live up to its reputation as tough as nails. Got it in Just in time I hope.

Vote for Tim

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Friend of my Tim Hein is moving into politics, he is standing for the Adelaide council. Here's what he stands for::

1. A Fresh Perspective - Integrity & Action
2. A Thriving Community - Where YOU belong!
3. Growth Opportunities
4. Safe, Clean & Sustainable City
5. First-Rate Facilities & Services

I think he's do a great job. He's pretty passionate about politics. He is the only friend I could remember who had a picture of Paul Keating on his bed room wall. Gee I wanted one after I seen it.

ps3 vs apple tv

Out of despair I got my birthday present early. We had the horror of not been able to connect to the ABC on the old analog telivion so my birthday present was a play station three with Play TV. Play TV is a digital receiver which can also record your shows you want to watch. Now we have ABC 2 when we need it phew!


What amazed me when I was looking around was the 'Apple TV' and the spin they put on it

Apple TV          

Games::    No                    
Television Tuner::No
Stream from the net:: Yes (Via Apple rental $$)
Stream from your Mac (Itunes $$)
Hard Drive:: No
Free to air TV:: No
Cost:: $129 au

From what I can see its a streaming device to your TV plus bridges where apple takes money of you.


Sony P3s

Games :: Yes (Hardware probably the best, although I think wii games are more fun)                  
Television Tuner:: via Play TV, here you can record free to air. No need to rent.
Stream from the net:: Yes, in Australia you get the ABC's iView
Stream from your Computer:: Put "media tomb" on my ubuntu machine. It streams photo's video music (free!) 
Hard Drive:: yes, and upgradeable!
Free to air TV:: yes
Cost:: $599 au

summary

PS3's biggest downfall is it's price. Yet if you look at it as a long term investment its very good value. It wins hands down. So far I've been very happy with it. Yet to buy a game though!

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BHP and a Carbon price

From the ABC today ::

BHP chief executive Marius Kloppers says Australia will have to move to significantly cut greenhouse gas emissions if it wants to remain internationally competitive.
And he says it is in Australia's long-term interest to move ahead with a carbon price before a global agreement.
Professor Garnaut says the message from BHP is not unexpected but it is sensible.
"It does make sense for us to begin the transition now so that we're well-placed for the future world of carbon constraints that sooner or later is going to emerge," he said.

This is a pretty significant statement which I suspect other major Australian companies will follow.
It also makes the Liberals, especially Tony Abbott's position on environmental short sighted. While in many ways in makes Malcolm Turnball's position, visionary to Australias need especially considering the concessions he got out of Labour.

It will be interesting what back-peddling Tony Abbot is prepared to do as more business here and overseas start gearing up for a increasing carbon economy.

As for Labour who know what deals they will make....maybe some sort of forum?

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Von Braun, Dreamer of Space Engineer of War, by Michael J Neufeld.

 

Von Braun, Dreamer of Space Engineer of War, by Michael J Neufeld.

This was  a pretty good book. It gave a pretty comprehensive look at one of the most influntial men in the history of rocket and space travel.

I think Von Braun could be compared to Oppenheimer who headed up the American atomic bomb program. A brilliant mind who could bring together many engineering disciplines and overcome the many problems to get a rocket going.

Their is no doubt that Von Braun lifetime dream was space travel. Yet,  this is where it is interesting, he had to make compromises along the way. For both the Nazis and the Americans his sales pitch was often how rockets could be made as instruments of war.
His Nazi past clouds his many accomplishments, membership to the SS, the V2 production lines in the slave labour camps in the caves of 'Dora'.

The book missed much of what I wanted to know about the man. I would have been more interested in his Christian conversion (Was it to redeem his past...), What was he like as a father? did he show signs of remorse?

I found the book often got off topic with more of NASA's funding worries and the US space program than Von Braun.

Election 2010: Good bye Mr Fielding

The results have come in and Mr Fielding from Family First hasn't made the cut and will be leaving the senate in July next year.

I'm opposed to any religous party. It seems like they would just like us to become a theocracy. I'm much more impressed by Christians who want to influence major parties by joining them and spreading their 'salt' within.

Like Christianity in Australia I think the time of 'Christian' parties are in decline. Who knows what other religious groups will pop up though?

I don't think Family First will be able to make the transition away from 'Christian label', unless it can get its funds from others that aren't wealthy Christians. Thus in the long run I don't think Family First will be viable. Family First may pop up occasionally but I doubt they will have the balance of power like Fielding had.

Election 2010 :: NBN

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If their was one key election issue winner or looser it was the National Broadband.
To be honest I was suprised that Abbott didn't go along with the vision of NBN for Australia's sake. The usual opposition line is.

"...We will honour any previous government commitments..."

Well as time has shown the rural independents have decided the issues with one of their main reasons been the NBN.

The other failure which I think can be seen by Tony Smiths move from the shadow communication portfolio is their inability to actually sell their alternative. The press conference was a joke. Tony Abbott didn't show, Andrew Robb looked like he was running the show and overshadowed Tony Smith the Coalitions expert. 

I don't think the liberals will make the same mistake again. I think Abbott has already reflected upon this with putting Malcolm Turnbull in the shadow minister for communication.

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Election 2010:: I'm the winner

Really interesting post from Garry Morgan via 'The Poll Bludger' on Crikey::

Analysis of ‘past vote’ — how respondents claimed they voted at the recent Federal election shows, ALP (42.5%, 4.5% higher than actual ALP vote recorded at the 2010 Federal election) cf. L-NP (39%, 4.5% lower than the L-NP vote recorded at the 2010 Federal election). “The difference between the reported ‘past vote’ and the actual election result can be due to either — a Labor biased sample, or by an unwillingness of the part of respondents to admit to voting L-NP. This latter problem has been noted in previous polls over many years. Regardless of the reason for the difference, if the Morgan Poll is weighted correctly for ‘past vote,’ the estimate would be 50:50, exactly the same as the special SMS Morgan Poll conducted on Wednesday/Thursday this week.”

It reminded me of the Melbourne Cup: Everyone that you ask has picked the winner. I suppose its human nature for people to want to be on the winning side...

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The Gospel blur...

I always took for granted that the authors of the Gospels wrote slightly different accounts of the stories of Jesus because  as human they see and interpret things differently. I still believe this yet there are other issues which need to be taken into account. Such as the time between the event happening and the text actually written.

This was brought home to me when reading  "von Braun, dreamer of space engineer of war" by Michael Neufeld.

In the biography he cowrote long after von Braun's death, Stuhlinger claims that von Braun went to an SS guard in the Mittelwek to criticise the mistreatment and crudely threatened with being put in a striped uniform too; later von Braun allegedly went to a higher SS officer and complained that the prisoners' bad health conditions contributed to poor workmanship in manufacturing. The problem is that Stuhlinger attributes an identical encounter with a guard to Auther Rudolph, whose Nazi enthusiasm is in little doubt, and both von Braun stories are told decades after the fact solely from memory of conversations with him, and in the context of defending him against charges of complicity in the horrors of Dora. As historical evidence, these uncorroborated, second hand anecdotes are highly dubious, although they cannot be ruled out as impossible. (p163) 

 What I think is interesting is the compared to the Gospels how time can change how people view events. For example the earliest Gospel Mark from the wikipedia ::

Most critical scholars believe that Mark was written around or shortly after the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Second Temple in year 70.^[31][32][33]

70 years is a lot of time to blur what actually happened. It is the equivalent of myself writing  about the second world war. The above example of von Braun you can see how flakey these accounts are writen 30 years after the events.

So what does this mean? Well I think the gospel stories are true; but it means the quest for the historical Jesus is more difficult.

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Another hero gone!

One of my favourite theologicans Clark Pinnock has passed away, from Christianity Today, Doug Koop::

Clark H. Pinnock's life journey is over. The influential and often controversial evangelical theologian died unexpectedly August 15 of a heart attack. He was 73. In March, the long-time professor of systematic theology at McMaster Divinity College in Hamilton, Ontario, had announced he was withdrawing from public life and revealed that he was battling Alzheimer's disease.

It was a difficult admission for a man whose mercurial mind and openness to the Holy Spirit led him to stake out theological positions that challenged evangelical orthodoxies. Renowned for exploring the frontiers of biblical truth, he was reputed to study carefully, think precisely, argue forcefully, and shift his positions willingly if he discovered a more fruitful pathway of understanding. He said he preferred to be known, "not as one who has the courage of his convictions, but one who has the courage to question them and to change old opinions which need changing."

I'm not surprised he had Alzheimer's, his finding mp3's or any recent information was pretty much zero
Pinnock was always a refreshing read. It was rare that I ever picked up his book and didn't find some amazing truth about God and his ways.