The Sign Of The Cross

I remember my brother building this Sinclair Scientific calculator many, many years ago. Powered by 4 x AAA batteries and operating with reverse polish notation . I used it in earnest doing my HND at Southall College of Technology. And still working! Both me and the calculator. Battery life better than expected as people who borrowed it quickly returned it when they couldn't find the 'equals' key. And there isn't one.

Image via Wikipedia I have to wonder why the BBC is giving the revisionist whitewash treatment to Marie Stopes . Howard Falcon-Long seems to be deliberately leaving out the bits that taint her life and character by the standards of today. She is portrayed as a female pioneer in a man's world, someone with hidden depths and talent. Which in a way she was. But why has the more unsavoury aspects of her career and her thought been left out? We can start with eugenics. She was an advocate of selective breeding and eugenics to ensure racial purity. She disowned her son because his chosen wife needed to wear glasses. She campaigned to get people of mixed race, the poor and the sick sterilised. She continually called for the compulsory sterilisation of the diseased, drunkards, or simply those of bad character. That's Parliament dealt with then! She seemed to have a soft spot for Hitler and admired his initial policies on racial purity. She attended a Nazi party congres...

Saw this creature while out walking the dog. It was kind enough to stay still long enough for me to take a pic with my Nokia E71. It's beauty reminded me of the wonderful hymn by Draper, 'All Creatures Of Our God And King', itself based upon St Francis of Assisi's 'Canticle of the Sun'

Image by jimforest via Flickr Was on holiday in Kefalonia a few years ago. Had a choice of excursions. One was to do something, I don't know what. The other was to join the celebrations of St Gerasimos ' feast day. Because of his reputation as a healer his relics are brought out each year and passed over anyone who is suffering with an illness in order to effect a cure. Would have been interesting. Needless to say we did the other, a beach bbq I think. Now where's my time machine.

Along comes an article to derail me. Fr Lombardi: Great Expectations for Popes UK Trip Such an inoffensive article detailing some of the itinerary of the Pope's forthcoming trip to England and Scotland. But there's one section which just got my goat. It's this one here: Then, I would highlight the Pope's great address in Westminster Hall, his meeting with civil society, the world of culture, with all the most active and influential members of English society. And what about the rest of us? What's with setting aside this group as the 'most active and influential members of English society'? I'm betting that most of them will be there because of who they know or who they've brown-nosed. How many of them are actually Catholics who support the teaching of the Church and support the Holy Father? Call it inverse snobbery or something like that but these sort of concepts really, really get my blood pressure up. What about the rest of the English Catholic ch...

Using my Nokia E71 to see if posting to this blog works, and also how it works. Sent from my Nokia phone

I've been bitching recently, here and here about how the Blogcatalog recent visitors widget would only show on refresh and then refused to show altogether. Posting on Blogcatalogs support forum prompted not even a reply from the owners or the community. But I presume someone's fixed the remote code as it now seems to be working. So a big thank you to whoever rolled their sleeves up at Blogcatalog. Now, how to use Blogcatalog to increase interested and interesting traffic!

Wisdom like you have never heard it before! Pithless Thoughts: My New Personal Doctor

Image via Wikipedia The recent decision of the synod of the church of england not to accomodate those such as the Anglo-Catholics who cannot submit to the inclusion of women in the episcopate would seem to lay to bed the notion that the Anglican Communion is a broad and inclusive church. Those such as the Anglo-Catholics are now in a position where the apostolic succession of any Bishop, and any priest, male or female may be uncertain and there are obvious issues when it comes to priestly duties. It's a shame when a church which claims to be intolerant and inclusive refuses to show tolerance and patience to sections of it's own family. So the offer from Pope Benedict of the Anglicanorum Coetibus should be most welcome, although things do seem to be moving slowly. I do wonder why the existing Anglo-Catholic structure and family can't be brought into full communion with the Roman Catholic church simply by becoming Catholics? If I was an Anglo-Catholic I'd be in the Tiber ...