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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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safe streets
The government in Budapest has taken action to protect travellers from “bad music.” Buskers in Budapest are now required to take a yearly examination to determine whether they are proficient, and therefore protect tourists from musically incompetent beggars.
e-pastor
In an effort to halt the dramatic decline in national church attendance, the Church of England (in England) has appointed its first web pastor to oversee a new parish that will exist only on the net. It is hoped the initiative will bring computer nerds to church, as well as reaching shut-ins.
rumour exaggerated
A cricket club in the UK recently held a minute’s silence, flying a flag at half-mast, in remembrance of a deceased club member, only to find he was alive and hitting when club members delivered flowers to his home.
tall story
The Vietnamese Government has launched an initiative to make its population taller. In an attempt to have a height average above that of China and Japan, the program promotes better nutrition and healthful living. In Vietnam young people consider height a mark of beauty, and it is considered one of the top considerations for teenage girls looking for boyfriends and even friends.
election gimmick
A contender for election in India campaigned by holding a live rat in his mouth. His aim is to highlight the plight of starving farmers. The man says his actions were to draw the public’s attention to farmers in remote areas who survive only by eating rodents.
space oversight
Australian astronomers have discovered a huge arm of the Milky Way that hasn’t been recorded on existing maps of the galaxy. The new gassy limb is 77,000 light years in length and several thousand light years thick. Astronomers are amazed that the feature had been overlooked in maps, since it can be seen clearly in the night sky.
smart shoe
Adidas has created a new “smart” running shoe they believe will revolutionise distance running and training. This smart shoe has a microchip in the arch that drives a tiny screw and cable system which in turn adapts its cushioning level to a runner’s size and stride. It’s powered by a battery that conserves power by adjusting the shoe while it is in the air during a runner’s stride, avoiding resistance from the ground.
sculpture
Indian sand artist Sudarshan Patnaik gives the final touches to a huge sand sculpture of the Hindu goddess Durga, with a demon, on the beach at Puri, some 70 km east of Bhubaneswar, India. It was his contribution to the annual Durga Puja religious festival.—AAP/AFP
Sources: www.ananova.com, www.theage.com.au, AP, www.bbc.co.uk, www.kobtv.com
In his summary of the year 1954, the then editor of Signs of the Times, R Pavitt Brown, said, “This weekly newspaper has travelled a long and interesting road since its first issue of January 1886 [it was then known as The Bible Echo and Signs of the Times]. “For the moment we wish all our readers a very joyful Christmas season, and remind you all that the Christ who once lay as the Babe in Bethlehem’s manger is soon to return as King of kings and Lord of lords.”
It is this message that Jerry Thomas reaffirms, he points out that despite the mass of Old Testament predictions of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem, it was only a group of uneducated shepherds on the nearby hills who were expecting Him.
And that’s an oversight we wouldn’t want to make a second time.
Extract from Signs of the Times, December 2004.
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