Awake this morning at 3:30 AM listening to the dawn chorus. They eventually quietened down about 4:30 am.
I am not complaining though, I think it is a wonderful sound. A downside though is that once it wakes me up, it can then stop me getting off to sleep again.
I have often intended to record the dawn chorus from our home but have never got round to it. We live with many trees around us so it a good one, and the blackbird recently has been sounding great.
If you don’t have a dawn chorus near you you can try Birdsong radio. It is great. There are those moment when it is just the thing for relaxing. I had it on in the office yesterday.
This is the birdsong radio I prefer as the sound player on the other one does not seem to work with my machine.
Last night the Marie Stopes abortion agency advertised on the television. I have complained to the advertising standards agency.
Buying abortion is not like buying toothpaste. It is a serious surgical procedure that impacts upon the mental health of the patient with many suffering from some sort of depression afterwards.
According to one study, women who had had abortions had twice the level of mental health problems and three times the risk of major depressive illness as those who had given birth or had never been pregnant. This study caused the American Psychological Association to withdraw their previous official statement denying a link between abortion and psychological harm. These serious consequences were not hinted at in the advert.
Even those selling financial services have to have a ’small print’ statement.
Abortion is not a simple solution to a late period.
I know that Marie Stopes is an abortion agency, yet abortion was never mentioned in the advert. Marie Stopes in its own press release is presenting it as a commercial for abortion services. A vulnerable person could turn to them for advice regarding their late period without realizing that they are turning to an agency that sells abortions. I think the advert was deceiving.
To see some of my previous posts re abortion just put ‘abortion’ in the search window.
Fantastic answer to prayer – Maryam and Marzieh have been acquitted of all charges by the Iranian judicial authorities. However, they were warned that any future Christian activity in Iran would be seriously dealt with.
On Saturday 22nd May they left Iran and arrived safely in another country.
Maryam and Marzieh have sent a message of thanks to Christians who have been praying for them. “We are most grateful to everyone who prayed for us,” Marzieh said, “I have no doubt that God heard the prayers of His people.” Maryam added, “I believe our arrest, imprisonment and subsequent release were in the timing and plan of God, and it was all for His glory. But the prayers of people encouraged and sustained us throughout this ordeal.”
How awful for the Christians that remain there and are not allowed freedom to serve the risen Jesus.
If you are still Googling for answers about the lost backlight control on your Samsung NC10 after upgrading to Lucid (Ubuntu 10.04), I have the solution.
First add ppa:voria/ppa to your Software Source list. This will add more software into your Software Centre. The quick way to do it is to open a Terminal. Then paste in the following and press ‘Enter’.
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:voria/ppa
Enter your password when asked for it.
Next go to your Ubuntu Software Centre, under ‘Applications’. Just put Samsung in the search box and you will see ’samsung-backlight driver’, click ‘install’.
At last it is sorted and Britain has a coalition government.
It has been the most interesting election I have ever watched. I thought the news coverage on TV was great, though I now discover that Sky News was supposed to be the best, and that was the one I did not use - typical!
My wife has been unwell so she has been glued to the 24 hour news coverage. She now seems to be going through withdrawal. I don’t know how she is going to cope. At the moment she is reading a newspaper and reading to me about the jokes and insults the various politicians have said about each other.
I do wish David and Nick well. I hope they succeed in holding it all together. It was like a new sort of politics to hear those two men side by side talking like adults instead of the usual juvenile pettiness of politics. Even the government website is looking more adult.
I heard a discussion on BBC Radio4 with a few journalists talking about what their job now is with this new government. One person said they will all look for any gaps or divisions between them and try and drive a wedge in. Another person summed it up by saying such unity was not good news and they will tear in to them at every opportunity.
For Christians of course unity is not about hanging together but about the process of reconciliation that Jesus gave us. Same with a marriage, it is not that there are no disagreements but whether they are worked through well. I would be surprised if there were not problems with unity within this coalition, I just hope they will be good at the work of reconciliation when troubles come. The problem is that many politicians have proved themselves to be short on emotional intelligence.
Well done Gordon Brown though. He said in his resignation speech that his greatest job is being a husband and a father. I agree with him. It is a shame so many do not value their greatest work. Some day I will face God and I will have to give an account for what I was as a husband and a father, more important than anything else I can do.
Since updating my Ubuntu to 10.04 I have been a bit miffed that Nautilus seems to have lost the normal address window (I think the correct name is the location bar)
Now I have found out the short-cut. You can switch to a text bar by using Ctrl + L. To go back to a button style bar, just press the escape key.
You can also go directly to the Nautilus bar in text-mode by pressing the “/” key and then typing the location.
