On Politics

Posted on Monday 15 July 2013 by J. D. Bartlett

It’s election year in Australia, and one major party is trying to divert attention away from the party as a whole towards their leader while the other is trying to divert attention away from their leader towards the party as a whole.

I wonder… what would happen if the leader of a major party actually encouraged people to vote for representatives on the merits of the representatives in question rather than on the merits of their party or their leader? That would put pressure on candidates to actually prove to their electorates that they’re worth voting for. Perhaps candidates would try to do what’s best for their electorate and the nation rather than just what’s best for themselves and their party.

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Spotted in Brisbane

Posted on Monday 24 June 2013 by J. D. Bartlett

I think the TV was put there for kerbside garbage collection. Perhaps the couch was the same…?

image

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A Caring Gentleman

Posted on Monday 17 June 2013 by J. D. Bartlett

Ten months ago, I was in Hobart for PyCon Australia. While there, I had a few chances to stroll around the neighbourhood of Sandy Bay. I sat for a while on a bench overlooking the bay. The bench bore this commemorative plaque:

Commemorative plaque on a bench overlooking Sandy Bay, Hobart

Commemorative plaque on a bench overlooking Sandy Bay, Hobart

I don’t know anything about Anthony Neville Harvey, but I was moved by the epitaph: “A generous, compassionate, caring gentleman who touched the lives of many”. As an extension of what I wrote about a fortnight ago, I want to live up to the epitaph on that plaque. I want to be known as a generous, compassionate, caring gentleman who touches the lives of many.

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Just a Moment

Posted on Monday 10 June 2013 by J. D. Bartlett

Last week I wrote about a couple. This week it’s a different kind of couple that I’m writing about…

The resultant moment of a couple is called a torque. This is not to be confused with the term torque as it is used in physics, where it is merely a synonym of moment. Instead, torque is a special case of moment. Torque has special properties that moment does not have, in particular the property of being independent of reference point, as described below.

—from Wikipedia, Couple (mechanics), available under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License

This is my new favourite confusing paragraph from Wikipedia. If you followed that on your first reading, you’re doing well. I can only assume that when it says “Torque has special properties that moment does not”, it means “Torque has special properties that not all moments have”. But my assumption could be wrong, so I’d better not try to fix things—I might just make them worse.

Also, I generally think of mechanics as a subset of physics. This means that “Don’t confuse torque (mechanics) with torque (physics)!” is just confusing.

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That’s What Christians Do

Posted on Monday 3 June 2013 by J. D. Bartlett

Moving houses can be a lot of work. A month ago or two ago the pastor at my church let us know that a particular couple was moving houses and would appreciate any help. The couple have been coming to the church since the start of the year.

The week after the move, the couple got up in church and thanked everyone who had helped. The gentleman said, “Having so many people turn up to help out is something that we are not used to. We are overwhelmed by all your kind help. I mentioned to my brother afterwards how surprised I was that so many people generously helped out, and he said, ‘Yeah, they’re called Christians!'”

Just before he was arrested, Jesus told his disciples, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:35)

As someone who bears God’s image and Christ’s name, I want to be a faithful representative of God. I want to be known for putting others first, truly caring about people, and not holding grudges. I want to show people true Christianity, because people look at us when they want to know about the God we serve.

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