GPS-Equipped Pigeons Enlisted as Pollution Bloggers

Submitted by Rick Eyre on November 3 2006, 12:30 am

GPS-Equipped Pigeons Enlisted as Pollution Bloggers - A project known as PigeonBlog is using birds carrying high-tech backpacks to create accurate, detailed urban pollution maps. Related projects are also taking flight. [National Geographic]

Now let me get this straight... National Geographic don't have a reputation for doing April Fools Day jokes in November, do they?

Which means that Pigeonblog is for real, too.

All Hallows Eve

Submitted by Rick Eyre on October 31 2006, 11:10 pm

October 31 is All Hallows Eve. Over the years it has been corrupted into Halloween. The Church of England Diocese of Manchester is promoting a campaign called Halloween Choice. It's not intended to eliminate all the gruesome "fun" of Halloween, but rather to promote the positive and Christian aspects of All Hallows Eve and lobbies retail outlets to provide more diversity in their marketing.

halloweenchoice.org has more information. I think it would be nice to see this campaign taken up by the church in other areas, including Australia.

Would you like rodent with that?

Submitted by Rick Eyre on October 27 2006, 5:37 pm

" A Dallas Cowboys coach, his wife and the family's nanny have sued a McDonald's [NYSE:MCD] owner, alleging they found a dead rat in a salad purchased at a Southlake restaurant."
- Dallas Morning News, 27.10.06

Papa John's Pizza [NASDAQ:PZZA] are the fast-food sponsors of the Dallas Cowboys, who are 3-3 so far this season and play the Carolina Panthers this Sunday night.

More on:

Orthodox block bar mitzvah over ‘non-kosher’ circumcision

Submitted by Rick Eyre on October 27 2006, 10:28 am

It's not just Sydney's Islamic and Anglican clerics who have been shooting themselves in the foot lately, as rabbis from the Sydney Beth Din demonstrate that orthodox Judaism can do daft things as well.

The Australian Jewish News takes up the story. (And I'll have a lot more to say about the Anglican Synod at another time.)

Termagant Watch with Piers

Submitted by Rick Eyre on October 27 2006, 10:12 am

"Perhaps in the eyes of those who cling to the myth that everything Aboriginal is beyond criticism, naming a 22ha prime port precinct after such a pitiless termagant is a form of retribution for real or imagined wrongs committed by white colonists, but a better role model could have been chosen."
- Piers Akerman, "Hullabaloo about Barangaroo", Sunday Telegraph, 22.10.06

Cricket and baseball spark fellowship with Indian students

Submitted by Rick Eyre on October 24 2006, 1:16 pm

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.)