Submitted by rickeyre on
The Baptist church campus ministry at the University of Louisville, Kentucky has begun conducting evangelical sports events with the university's cricket-playing students from India.
The Baptist Press takes up the story, which doesn't make it totally clear whether the evangelism is aimed at converting the Indians to Christianity, or to baseball. (Or indeed, both.)
Submitted by rickeyre on
Mrs Madonna Ritchie, 48, of Marylebone has been copping a lot of flak this week, what with "adopting" a Malawian child and transplanting him to a foreign society. Is that what the American Family Association is worried about? Nope:
AFA helps force NBC to cancel scene mocking crucifixion of Christ
AFA supporters have won a great victory! The efforts of AFA Online supporters has forced NBC to cancel a scene in the upcoming Madonna special in which she mocks the crucifixion of Christ!
More than 750,000 AFA supporters emailed NBC asking for the scene to be deleted from the special which is scheduled to air in November. NBC saw a potential loss of $25,000,000 and decided to edit out the scene.
Submitted by rickeyre on
Rabbits blamed for penguin deaths in landslide
- Erosion and heavy spring rains have caused a large landslip on Macquarie Island, in the Southern Ocean about 1500 kilometres south-east of Tasmania, killing penguins in an important colony.
[ABC Environment]
Submitted by rickeyre on
An Open Letter From Madonna
My husband and I began the adoption process many months prior to our trip to Malawi. I did not wish to disclose my intentions to the world prior to the adoption happening as this is a private family matter. After learning that there were over one million orphans in Malawi, it was my wish to open up our home and help one child escape an extreme life of hardship, poverty and in many cases death, as well as expand out family.
Nevertheless, we have gone about the adoption procedure according to the law like anyone else who adopts a child. Reports to the contrary are totally inaccurate. The procedure includes an l8 month evaluation period after which time we hope to make this adoption permanent. This was not a decision or commitment that my family or I take lightly.
Submitted by rickeyre on
"POLICE officers called in to help with the Cronulla riots and their aftermath ate more than $500,000 worth of food, but the force has ruled that what they ate - and who supplied it - is information too sensitive for public release."
Matthew Moore and Jonathan Pearlman take up the story in today's Sydney Morning Herald.
Submitted by rickeyre on
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech....
- The First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America
Last week, a fourteen year-old eighth grader from Sacramento was interrogated by Secret Service officers for putting a picture of the president on her Myspace website with the words "Kill Bush" on it. They pulled her out of class to do the interrogation without notifying her parents or the school principal.
Submitted by rickeyre on
What do our pollies in Australia care for microcredit? On September 4 Peter Garrett initiated a debate in the House of Reps urging the government to support the Microcredit Summit goals. As usual, six MPs got five minutes each to speak to the motion, and then the debate was adjourned indefinitely. (Refer my item of September 17 re Darfur.)
Submitted by rickeyre on
The award to Orhan Pamuk of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature put a smile on my face, but I was utterly delighted, if somewhat surprised, to see Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank announced on Friday as winners of the Nobel Peace Prize.
So often, the Peace Prize is awarded to inappropriate people, UN bureaucracies and so forth - there can have been no more daft award of the Peace Prize than to Le Duc Thi and that great humanitarian Dr Henry Kissinger in 1973. And there are people who genuinely believe that George W Bush would be a worthy winner.
Needless to say, they're rather proud of Yunus' award in Bangladesh. Today's coverage of the Nobel Prize from the Daily Star:
Submitted by rickeyre on
I've long been an admirer of Ian Chappell, having fond memories of his batting, his captaincy, his slip fielding, his willingness to drop his daks mid-pitch in the name of wardrobe maintenance. More than that, he has shown himself to be one of that rarest of breeds - an Australian cricketer with a social conscience.
Chappelli was interviewed by Andrew Denton for the October 2 edition of "Enough Rope". The transcript of the half-hour interview is online, as is an MP3 of the full interview as put to air, and a video excerpt.
