The front page of the Courier Mail (Brisbane) this morning began with a classic typo. “The wormed turned on John Howard last night as Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd outshone the Prime Minister in the one and only debate of the campaign.”
I listened to the first half an hour of the debate on ABC Radio, without the benefit of a worm. I arrived home to see the rest of the debate on Channel Nine.
It was surprising to see the audience response to Howard and Rudd as they spoke. I think I agree with Tony Abbott’s assertion that most of the audience had already made up their mind and were reflecting their personal response to the two contenders rather than engaging with what they had to say.
There were exceptions. Howard’s assertion that George Bush was changing his mind on climate change sent the worm to the pit. Howard saying that George Bush was wrong and Turnbull was right on climate change sent him up again. Rudd got a solid response to his claim that Bush was not open to discussing global warming. His alternative vision of reconciliation sent the viewers’ responses soaring. Rudd talked briefly about saying sorry as a matter of respect that could make it possible to get on with the task of working together for positive solutions.
It would be interesting to see the two prospective treasurers in debate. Peter Costello clearly would have liked to have been up front last night. The wormed would be treated to a different perspective on taxes and IR reform perhaps.
Brian McLaren’s new book, Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Change and Revolution of Hope, is coming out in October. He’s provided a few samples from the book on YouTube.
The first video comes from the introduction. Be aware that the last 50 seconds of the video allow you time to reflect on what you’ve just heard…
A reading from chapter 24, reflecting on materialistic culture and the pressure to keep up with the latest.
An explanation of the title of the new book…
Brian talks about some of the examples of deep shift he’s been looking for…
From Brian McLaren’s Deep Shift site, he explains the background to the book and the speaking tour he’s doing around its publication…
We Are In Deep Shift.
A time of transition
rethinking
re-imagining
and re-envisioning
A time for asking new questions
and seeking answers
that are both new and old
fresh and seasoned
surprising and familiar
What does it mean, in today’s world, to be a follower of God in the way of Jesus?
What does it mean to be a faith community engaged in the holistic, integral mission of God in our world today?
How do we, as individuals and faith communities, respond faithfully to the crises facing our world?
What is our duty to God, ourselves, our families, our neighbors, our enemies, and our planet in light of Jesus’ radical message of the kingdom of God?
How can we engage in personal formation and theological reformulation for global transformation?
Have you seen the “Did You Know” “Shift Happens” video presentation - gone viral in the last few months…
This collection of facts and questions was originally put together by Karl Fisch as an eight minute PowerPoint presentation for staff development at Arapahoe High School in Centennial, Colorado. Fisch used content from David Warlick, Thomas Friedman, Ian Jukes, Ray Kurzweil and tied it together with music from Last of The Mohicans.
Scott McLeod adapted the presentation by removing many of the school-specific slides (shortening it to 6 minutes 5 seconds) and reformatting it in a number of formats, including Quicktime, WMV, streaming flash movie, downloadable flash movie, AVI video, YouTube (as above) and PowerPoint with mp3 audio file. Scott has them all online at his Dangerously Irrelevant blog.
Did you know . . .
Sometimes size does matter.
If you’re one in a million in China . . .
There are 1,300 people just like you.
In India, there are 1,100 people just like you.
The 25% of the population in China with the highest IQ’s . . .
Is greater than the total population of North America.
In India, it’s the top 28%.
Translation for teachers: They have more honors kids than we have kids.
Did you know . . .
China will soon become the number one English speaking country in the world.
If you took every single job in the U.S. today and shipped it to China . . .
China would still have a labor surplus.
During the course of this 8 minute presentation . . .
60 babies will be born in the U.S.
244 babies will be born in China.
351 babies will be born in India.
The U.S. Department of Labor estimates that today’s learner will have 10-14 jobs . . .
By the age of 38.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor . . .
1 out of 4 workers today is working for a company they have been employed by for less than one year.
More than 1 out of 2 are working for a company they have worked for for less than five years.
According to former Secretary of Education Richard Riley . . .
The top 10 in-demand jobs in 2010 didn’t exist in 2004.
We are currently preparing students for jobs that don’t yet exist . . .
Using technologies that haven’t been invented . . .
In order to solve problems we don’t even know are problems yet.
Name this country . . .
Richest in the World
Largest Military
Center of world business and finance
Strongest education system
World center of innovation and invention
Currency the world standard of value
Highest standard of living
England.
In 1900.
Did you know . . .
The U.S. is 20th in the world in broadband Internet penetration.
(Luxembourg just passed us.)
In 2002 alone Nintendo invested more than $140 million in research and development.
The U.S. Federal Government spent less than half as much on Research and Innovation in Education.
1 out of every 8 couples married in the U.S. last year met online.
There are over 106 million registered users of MySpace.(September 2006)
If MySpace were a country, it would be the 11th-largest in the world (between Japan and Mexico)*
The average MySpace page is visited 30 times a day.
Did you know . . .
We are living in exponential times.
There are over 2.7 billion searches performed on Google each month.
To whom were these questions addressed B.G.?
(Before Google)
The number of text messages sent and received every day exceeds the population of the planet.
There are about 540,000 words in the English language . . .
About 5 times as many as during Shakespeare’s time.
More than 3,000 new books are published . . .
Daily.
It’s estimated that a week’s worth of New York Times . . .
Contains more information than a person was likely to come across in a lifetime in the 18th century.
It’s estimated that 1.5 exabytes (that’s 1.5 x 1018) of unique new information will be generated worldwide this year.
That’s estimated to be more than in the previous 5,000 years.
The amount of new technical information is doubling every 2 years.
That means for a student starting a four-year technical or college degree . . .
Half of what they learn in their first year of study will be outdated by their third year of study.
It’s predicted to double every 72 hours by 2010.
Third generation fiber optics has recently been separately tested by NEC and Alcatel . . .
That pushes 10 trillion bits per second down one strand of fiber.
That’s 1,900 CDs or 150 million simultaneous phone calls every second.
It’s currently tripling about every 6 months and is expected to do so for at least the next 20 years.
The fiber is already there, they’re just improving the switches on the ends. Which means the marginal cost of these improvements is effectively $0.
Predictions are that e-paper will be cheaper than real paper.
47 million laptops were shipped worldwide last year.
The $100 laptop project is expecting to ship between 50 and 100 million laptops a year to children in underdeveloped countries.
Predictions are that by 2013 a supercomputer will be built that exceeds the computation capability of the Human Brain . . .
By 2023, a $1,000 computer will exceed the capabilities of the Human Brain . . .
First grader Abby will be just 23 years old and beginning her (first) career . . .
And while technical predictions farther out than about 15 years are hard to do . . .
Predictions are that by 2049 a $1,000 computer will exceed the computational capabilities of the human race.
What does it all mean?
Shift Happens.
Now you know . . .
