I can see my car!
And so much for invasion of privacy. If you are walking down the road and are in a compromising position, why didn’t you think before you got into the situation. Google Street View isn’t making get caught a new thing, just a new way for it to happen.
From Jesus Wants To Save Christians by Rob Bell
America controls nearly 20 percent of the world’s wealth. There are around six billion people in the world, and there are roughly three hundred million people in the US. That makes America less than 5 percent of the world’s population. And this 5 percent owns a fifth of the world’s wealth.
One billion people in the world do not have access to clean water, while the average American uses four hundred to six hundred litres of water a day.
Every seven seconds, somewhere in the world a child under the age of five dies of hunger, while Americans throw away 14 percent of the food they purchase.
Nearly one billion people in the world live on less than one American dollar a day.
Another 2.5 billion people in the world live on less than two American dollars a day.
More than half of the world lives on less than two dollars a day, while the average American teenager spends nearly $150 a week.
Forty percent of people in the world lack basic sanitation, while forty-nine million diapers are used and thrown away in America every day.
One point six billion people in the world have no electricity.
Nearly one billion people in the world cannot read or sign their name.
Nearly one hundred million children are denied basic education.
By far, most of the people in the world do not own a car.
One-third of American families own three cars.
One in seven children worldwide (158 million) have to go to work every day just to survive.
Four out of five American adults are high school graduates.
Americans spend more annually on trash bags than nearly half of the world does on all goods.
…
Human history has never witnessed the abundance that we consider normal. America is the wealthiest nation in the history of humanity. We have more resources than anyone group of people anywhere at any time has ever had. Ever.
God bless America?
God has.
Kind of puts things into perspective a little doesn’t it?
We claim we have no money.
Yet we can go on our yearly tours around the world. Visiting countries because we are young and we can. Giving to the poor, to World Vision, Oxfarm, Unicef off our profits not out of love. We give as little as we can to offset our guilt.
We rob the poor countries of their natural resources, send their children to sweat shops to make shoes for us. Then give to World Vision to set them free. It is just wrong. And sick.
How about God bless the East. God bless the poor. The real poor. The real needy. And may God teach us how to be better citizens of the world, removing our guilt and opening our eyes to our selfish ways.
According to the news there is a rain warning for all of NZ except Northland.
Check out the picture of it hitting us now:
Compare it to this post from earlier in the year: http://www.brad.net.nz/blog/2008/02/the-flooded-garden/
The current stats/comparison are:
Wind 38.7kmh (Feb storm: 38.9kmh)
Gusts 53.3kmh (Feb 53.8kmh)
Rainfall 11.4mm in last 24 hours (Feb 14mm in one hour) however it has only really just started pouring down here this time.
Bart referring to Marge babysitting Rod and Todd Flanders.
She’s with Nimrod and Nimtodd.
Hehe.
The final results of the November 8 election were released this afternoon after the 250,000 special votes were counted.
In the end National lost one MP and the Greens gained one MP. Labour were only 40 votes off getting another MP and National lossing a second MP.
| Party | Election Night % | Special % | Diff | Final % | Change |
| National Party | 45.45 | 40.61 | -4.84 | 44.93 | -0.52 |
| Labour Party | 33.77 | 35.82 | 2.05 | 33.99 | 0.22 |
| Green Party | 6.43 | 9.13 | 2.70 | 6.72 | 0.29 |
| ACT New Zealand | 3.72 | 3.04 | -0.68 | 3.65 | -0.07 |
| Mäori Party | 2.24 | 3.62 | 1.38 | 2.39 | 0.15 |
| Jim Anderton’s Progressive | 0.93 | 0.68 | -0.25 | 0.91 | -0.02 |
| United Future | 0.89 | 0.74 | -0.15 | 0.87 | -0.02 |
| New Zealand First Party | 4.21 | 2.90 | -1.31 | 4.07 | -0.14 |
| The Bill and Ben Party | 0.56 | 0.54 | -0.02 | 0.56 | 0.00 |
| Kiwi Party | 0.51 | 0.80 | 0.29 | 0.54 | 0.03 |
| Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party | 0.36 | 0.76 | 0.40 | 0.41 | 0.05 |
| New Zealand Pacific Party | 0.33 | 0.65 | 0.32 | 0.37 | 0.04 |
| Family Party | 0.33 | 0.48 | 0.15 | 0.35 | 0.02 |
| Alliance | 0.08 | 0.07 | -0.01 | 0.08 | 0.00 |
| Democrats for Social Credit | 0.05 | 0.04 | -0.01 | 0.05 | 0.00 |
| Libertarianz | 0.05 | 0.04 | -0.01 | 0.05 | 0.00 |
| Workers Party | 0.04 | 0.04 | 0.00 | 0.04 | 0.00 |
| RAM - Residents Action Movement | 0.02 | 0.02 | 0.00 | 0.02 | 0.00 |
| The Republic of New Zealand Party | 0.01 | 0.01 | 0.00 | 0.01 | 0.00 |
It is interesting to note the large differences between the election night results and the special votes.
Overall National lost 0.52% of the total votes once the specials were included. The majority of this was transferred to Labour (0.22%) and the Greens (0.29%) who gained. What is more interesting is the party vote % of only the specials.
If the specials were the election results (i.e. the Nov 8 votes didn’t count) the make up of the government could be quite different.
National polled 4.84% lower, Labour 2.05% higher, Greens 2.70% higher, Maori 1.38% higher. It is interesting to note that those who casts specials - i.e. those away from home, or overseas appear to be more left leaning then the majority of the country.
After running some more calculations this is how the results would of ended up if only specials counted. As you can see the overhang is gone. And the Maori Party becomes the King Maker. We could have had a Labour Government back.
| Party name | Party Votes won | Party seat entitlement | Actual Result |
| Act New Zealand | 3.04% | 4 | 5 |
| The Greens | 9.13% | 12 | 9 |
| Jim Anderton’s Progressive | 0.68% | 1 | 1 |
| Maori Party | 3.62% | 5 | 5 |
| New Zealand Labour Party | 35.82% | 45 | 43 |
| New Zealand National Party | 40.61% | 52 | 58 |
| United Future New Zealand | 0.74% | 1 | 1 |
| Totals | 93.64% | 120 | 122 |
National Government: Nat 52 + Act 4 + UF 1 + Maori 5 = 62/120.
Labour Government: Lab 45 + Prog 1 + Greens 12 + Maori 5 = 63/120
The funny thing is the special votes seem to more accurately reflect the polls in the lead up to the election then the actual election result.
Is it Vista?
Is it Ubuntu?
It is seamless virtualization with Virtualbox. Pretty cool aye.
Ha.
There is a new blog analyser, just like a people analyser but it reads your blog and works out what it is.
I am a:
INTP - The Thinkers
The logical and analytical type. They are especialy attuned to difficult creative and intellectual challenges and always look for something more complex to dig into. They are great at finding subtle connections between things and imagine far-reaching implications.They enjoy working with complex things using a lot of concepts and imaginative models of reality. Since they are not very good at seeing and understanding the needs of other people, they might come across as arrogant, impatient and insensitive to people that need some time to understand what they are talking about.
Jesus Freak Hideout have got their writers to each list their 15 favourite albums of all time.
It is pretty cool, check it out here: http://www.jesusfreakhideout.com/features/favorites/top15_2008/default.asp
Which made me think. If I could only have 15 albums from my collection what would they be?
So in no particular order, and I limited myself to only one album per band my list is:
Audio Adrenaline - Until My Heart Caves In
This was Audio A’s last original studio release. And it rocks. Opening up with Clap Your Hands, and featuring King, Starting Over, Are You Ready For Love, Undefeated and Losing Control it rocked from start to finish. Easily one of my favourite albums.
Delirious? - Access:D
Access:D was a great live album from the D boys. Featuring all the hits from the Cutting Edge era and more recent Touch material it was a great two disc live collection that really defined what it means to be a fan of Delirious.
Eight - Unfinished
Eight are a local Kiwi band, or were. Unfinished was released after the band went their seperate ways. Openning up with Build a 7 minute instrumental really does Build the album. Featuring Depends and Fall Apart the album really shows the beauty of Eight a very well polished band and album.
Jeff Deyo - Surrender
I really coundn’t leave this album of the list. I was front row at Parachute 2005 where it was recorded live. Other then the personal connection to the album it is a great collection of modern worship songs such as Let It Flow, Be Lifted Up, More Love More Power, Nothing Less Than All Of Me and Bless The Lord.
Kutless - Hearts of the Innocent
The highlight of this album is Winds of Change a beautiful rock song. But like almost all the other albums on this list it the entire album rocks. Million Dollar Man is a great description of our modern lust for greed.
The Lads - Lost at Sea
We all said it was okay to live our own way without God. The Lad’s late 1990s album Lost at Sea is powerful because it successfuly blends punk/pop rock with songs about God and life. The highlight of this album is the ballard Ode To Joy. A must have.
Lifehouse - No Name Face
Your all I want, your all I need, your everything. Lifehouse’s No Name Face album is fantastic. It contains a large amount of spiritual metaphors mixed into a mainstream rock album. Hanging by a Moment was the most requested radio single of 2001 in the United States and propelled the band to stardom.
Newsboys - Adoration
The Newsboys’ worship project is one of their best albums. Opening with He Reigns and containing a live version of It is You the album is exactly what it says it is, A worship album.
OneRepublic - Dreaming Out Loud
OneRepublic are a lot like Lifehouse sucessful at mixing God and the mainstream. My favourite song is Dreaming Out Loud which at first listen is a very confussed song, but on more indepth thought it contains many powerful metaphors about God and Church.
Paul Colman Trio - New Map of the World
The Paul Colman Trio was one of the best bands that never quite made it. Turn featured heavily on World Vision ads and helped the band get airplay on Christian Radio. The best song on the album is Killing Tree closely followed by Selfish Song.
Rapture Ruckus - I Believe
The third homegrown artist on my list. Rapture Ruckus has been very successful in proving you can have rap without having the negative images that go with it. A nice album with a powerful message.
Skillet - Alien Youth
Choosing what Skillet album to add to this list was hard. In the end Alien Youth was settled on because of the dynamic songs on the album such as Alien Youth, The Thirst is Taking Over and Will You Be There.
Thousand Foot Krutch - The Art of Breaking.
If you haven’t heard the song Hurt go and listen to it now. This album is brilliant at showing the success of christian rock, being well polished, clean and simply great!
TobyMac - Alive and Transported
Probably the best live album I own. Alive and Transported features all of the best songs from TobyMac and DC Talk, the lead in for Jesus Freak is fantastic.
Tree63 - Tree63
Tree63’s debut album is their best. Features: Joy, Look What You’ve Done, 1*0*1. Brilliant, just Brilliant.
