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Signs of the Times Australia / NZ edition — lifestyle, health, relationships, culture, spirituality, people — published since 1886 |
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Signs of the Times Australia / NZ edition — lifestyle, health, relationships, culture, spirituality, people — published since 1886 |
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deep-sea marathon runner
Lloyd Scott, an athlete dressed in a deep-sea diving suit, has set a new world record for the slowest marathon time. He finished the Edinburgh Marathon in six days, four hours, 30 minutes and 56 seconds—up from his previous PB of 5 days, 3 hours, 20 minutes and 23 seconds in the 2002 New York Marathon—wearing a 60 kg (130 lb) diving suit. The former firefighter, who previously battled to overcome leukaemia, completed the 42.2 kilometres course to raise money for charity. Despite his slow time, Mr Scott wasn’t the last person to finish because he set off almost a week ahead of other runners.
gnome offence
Villagers in Brattleby, Lincolnshire, were baffled when they awoke to find their lawns invaded by garden gnomes. Fourteen home-owners couldn’t believe their eyes when they awoke and saw hordes of gnomes littering their gardens. “It’s a bit of a mystery,” said the local parish council chairman. “It’s such an odd thing to happen!”
step aside, TV
A digital music channel Music Choice employed cows, stencilling its logo on a herd of 10 Friesians, to promote itself at a rural British festival. These cows were placed by one of the main roads into the site to be seen by tens of thousands of festival-goers. For those who are concerned, the logos were applied using stencils and paint to avoid harming the animals, rather than using the traditional branding method of burning into the animal’s hide.
eat your
purple and blues?
A process developed by Australia’s CSIRO labs may lead to naturally blue noodles and purple bread and a range of coloured foods. Researchers have extracted natural pigments called anthocyanins from various fruit and vegetables, hoping to use them to make other foods more appealing. Anthocyanins are high in antioxidants, and are believed to be able to lower cholesterol, prevent blood clotting and defend cells against cancer-causing compounds. Developers hope that in the future these might replace synthetic food colourings.
ironic shift
Two Christian street-preachers have been heavily fined for their participation in an evangelistic outreach on the beaches of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Umbanda and Candomble spiritist groups sued a Baptist pastor and another worker accusing them of violating Brazil’s “hate crime” laws by distributing tracts that spiritists say disparaged the African goddess Lemanja. The two were charged with “inciting evangelicals to commit acts contrary to the liberty of religious belief.”
life preserver
Health research has shown that the Mediterranean diet significantly prolongs life and reduces the risk of coronary heart disease and cancer. The diet emphasises its meals of vegetables, fruit, cereals and olive oil, with only small amounts of dairy. A basic understanding of their results is a recipe of vegetables cooked in olive oil as a main dish.
a fair-dinkum Bible
Anglican Archbishop Peter Jensen attended the launch of The Aussie Bible (Well, bits of it anyway!), by journalist Kel Richards in Sydney in August. The Okker Bible attempts to translate the Gospels into colloquial (Australian) parlance and images, which, argues Richards, is how it was originally rendered. It's a “bathtub, bedside or beach Bible,” Richards said. “I don’t imagaine it will be used in church.” The Bible has been translated into some 2300 languages and dialects.
The following appeared in the Signs of the Times of October 3, 1910.
Some days ago, Paris time was transmitted from the Eiffel Tower by wireless apparatus within a radius of 2500 and 3000 miles. These time-signals are to be continued and will be sent out at midnight, also at two minutes and four minutes after midnight.
Extract from Signs of the Times, October 2003.
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