Plus ça change

As of tomorrow I will be an Englishman in N7, living with two other English guys from All Souls and setting up an awesome flat: the TV's been ordered, the hi-fi is ready to go, the living room is big enough to have people round and we're 5 minutes from the Tube. I'm pretty excited! Should probably start packing at some point today...

A reading chronicle

I started reading the Bible straight through on December 1, and as of today have read 353 chapters, 30% of the total, at a mean rate of 6.7 chapters per day (yes, I made a spreadsheet to keep track of my Bible reading). I'm finding it a very helpful exercise, for several reasons:

• By reading from start to finish, the overarching narrative of the Bible is more clear - God is good and glorious and always accomplishes His will; humans' obedience is fleeting at best; there is a real groaning for ultimate salvation that doesn't depend on human achievements.
  
• There are still portions of Scripture I know I've never read, and probably lots more I've missed - reading the whole Bible means that I know I will have read all of God's word at least once (is this legalistic?).
• Keeping up a good pace means that I don't get bogged down - obviously this means I'm not doing in-depth study, but for a temporary period it seems to work.
  

If you do the addition you'll see that I'm currently in 1 Chronicles. To be honest, I've struggled to see the purpose of this book and its sequel. Having read through the Books of Moses and the history of Israel from Johsua to Zedekiah it seems incredible that there should be two books of mostly repetition, especially given the cost of publishing in the Iron Age.

A reliable commentary says that Chronicles was probably written by the same man who wrote Ezra and Nehemiah, aptly known as "the Chronicler". Obviously they date from later than Samuel & Kings, because the historical narrative goes further. If he wrote Chronicles at the end of the exile, there would have been much wooping and cheering by the rivers of Babylon as the remnant returned home. This must be the explanation for the TEN CHAPTERS of genealogy at the start of the book... they really knew how to have fun back then eh!

(Yes, genealogy for the Jews was crucial to their culture, history, politics, religion, geography, anthropology and faith. In all honesty though it's not the most inspiring portion of the Bible.)

False economy

Two of my flatmates are on a trip to Brussels this weekend. Unfortunately they didn't ask me (or anyone) what would be the best way of travelling there, which meant they left the flat at 3am today to catch a taxi to Baker St, where they'd take a bus to "London" Stansted Airport, over an hour away. After getting there, standing in the security queue and eventually catching a flight of less than an hour, they will have arrived at "Brussels" Charleroi Airport, which is just as far from Brussels as Stansted is from London. Check the map below to see what I mean.

The alternative? Take the Tube to St Pancras station, arrive 30 minutes before the Eurostar's scheduled departure, grab a coffee and enjoy the scenery on the journey, which takes less than 2h and gets you to central Brussels. Once you take into account all the buses, I bet it would work out cheaper as well. Oops!

As of next week, I'll be living literally 10 minutes from St Pancras (and with new flatmates), which will make decisions like this even more of a no-brainer.


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Eyewitness accounts

The crash landing at Heathrow airport today was a field day for journalists. BBC News 24 cleared its schedules for over 2 hours to talk about the incident; and the event was even sweeter for them because (a) nobody was killed, so there are no awkward arguments about morbid intrusion, (b) it emerged that British grit and stiff-upper-lip prevailed and resulted in the efficient evacuation of the plane.

What I thought was most interesting was the selection of eyewitness accounts that emerged. Some passengers phoned up the BBC, others were interviewed later, and a page of their descriptions is on the BBC website, here. There is considerable variation in the reports: some say the plane landed on the tarmac, others that it swerved 90 degrees, some that the pilot was clearly struggling, others that it all happened suddenly. Yet despite this variation, the storyline is clear. Everyone is agreed that a plane made a crash landing on Runway 27L at Heathrow and that nobody was seriously hurt. The different angles actually add to the story, especially those inside and outside the plane.

It is reminiscent of another set of eyewitness accounts about a surprising and unexpected event in history, isn't it?

The power of the atom

The UK government has given the "go-ahead" for a new generation of nuclear power plants in Britain. Given that our electricity currently comes from a mix of North Sea oil/gas, oil/gas from Russia and the Middle East, and a number of hamsters running around in wheels connected to 9V batteries, the decision is a good one.

It's especially important given that the North Sea oil is about 95% used up and all of our current nuclear plants will have to shut over the next 30 years. Until nuclear fusion is developed to more than an option in Sim City, we're going to need a reliable, cheap and low-carbon option for a lot of our power. Wind and solar power are fine for micro-generation and supplements, but what happens when it's cloudy and raining? (It does happen occasionally.) Tidal power has potential - and it's certainly reliable - but only for 10% of our power at the most. Or we could reopen the coal mines and get burning, but that's not exactly the most sustainable choice.

You might have noted the inverted commas around "go-ahead" above. The government is excellent at "approving" major projects (Crossrail springs to mind) but doesn't have such a glowing record at actually getting stuff built. The government paper can be downloaded here. Let's hope we see some nuclear power plants online before the brownouts begin.

Vote Boris

Ken Livingstone has done a good job as London mayor - but Boris Johnson will do a much better job. In a traditional political ranking (appearances on Have I Got News For You), Boris beats Ken 7-0. What a result!

Catching up

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I had my Google account hijacked in mid-December which meant I couldn't access Gmail, Blogger or indeed any of the things I'd just written about. Not sure if that was irony or just providence; but in any case Google gave me back the keys this morning. Normal service has been resumed... ie. a post every two weeks or something equally lame.

Surveillance

Apparently the average Londoner is captured around 300 times a day on CCTV. I don't think my figure would be that high, since (a) I don't work in the City, and (b) I don't use public transport very much. It's still quite an interesting statistic though, and thinking about organisations knowing who I am, what I look like and where I live is a bit worrying.

But really, anyone who wants to know about me should go to Google. Since September 2005 I have made 1,615 Google searches which have been tracked to my account. This doesn't include the searches I've made using other people's computers, at uni, internet cafés, hostels, and so on. I have 4,590 Gmails in my inbox, which Google have indexed and provide relevant advertising next to. Why delete emails when you have 5GB of storage? Picasa (Google's photo application) has 13,500 travel photos taken by me all over the world. Not to mention the raft of personal information you could harvest on facebook!

For the moment I'm not too worried about all this, but it could be a very real problem in the future if I need to go somewhere 'under the radar'. Governments, organisations or even people I've never met could quite easily find out a lot about who I am without my knowing.

Ironically, I have chosen to voice my concern on my Google-hosted blog, which will be indexed and searchable for decades to come.

Rejoicing

The past week has been one of those fantastic ones where everything seemingly goes well. After a stressful interview for a graduate scheme last Wednesday, I suddenly had plenty of free time, and started to up my daily Bible reading, starting in Genesis 1 and aiming to finish Revelation in something like 6 months. I got through Genesis in 6 days (how ironic) and am ready to hit Exodus tomorrow morning. The word seems vibrant, living and powerful, and praying is a joy - praise God!

One stress leading up to my interview was not being able to find my A-Level certificates, which could have thrown a spanner in the application process. Thankfully the recruiters were happy to see them at some point later, and I was getting resigned to paying £106 for replacements.

Yesterday I'd booked a dentist appointment back in Reading (for which I'd paid £225), so headed back on the train and turned up. After an x-ray and a poke around, he said that I didn't need the root canal after all! Walking back from there, I thought that this was one of those situations where I see options A and B (finding my certificates or paying for new ones) but God plans option Q - returning £225 so I could afford the £106 for replacements. I got home and started filling in the forms to send off, and then thought I'd just check with my old school. There was, I thought, no reason for the school to have them... but they did! So in the space of a few hours I recouped £331. It's almost enough to believe in the prosperity gospel...

Well, not really. Then I had a call from a recruitment agency, asking me what I was planning to do after I finish my course next year. He said that I would have a multitude of options for jobs across the country and indeed abroad. Reassuring stuff for a geography graduate...

And then today, over a week after the interview, I had an email saying I'm through to the last stage of recruitment! Rejoice.

More new translation

Here's another exclusive preview of the upcoming PHV; this section is the rendering of Acts 2.

"Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ."

When the people heard this, they were largely unmoved, and said "Brothers, it's great that you feel so strongly about your faith - we really respect that aspect of your character."

Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call."

At this, the people were struck with apathy, and muttered "well, it's a little awkward to be preaching like that. We're pretty happy with how Roman religion is panning out, to tell the truth. Imposing your religion on us is not going to happen."

With many other words Peter warned them; and he pleaded with them, "Save yourselves from this corrupt generation." Those who were interested in his message filled out response cards, and three signed up for an Alpha course.