Church of England Newspaper December 2007

As I embark on January's surfing column here is the archive of December's. For those who actually read the Church of England Newspaper, although the column was attributed to Steve Parish last time that was an error. It was me what done it .

Happy New Year. Going to make some resolutions? Many nice online people will help you keep them. For general advice on being more disciplined try TheSite. For getting your life back go to myhouseandgarden. For food matters the Food Standards Agency have an article. The Independent has archived a nice piece about having a greener new year.

For a complete new start visit Elitetitles and buy a lordship. Bargain at £195 or £299 for a pair. It has to be kosher. I found the link in Private Eye.

To really get a feel for 2008 go to Beijing2008 the web-site of the Olympic games. 2008’s useful dates and links to sites with school holiday dates are at 2008 Public Holidays. 2008 will also see World Youth Day, the International Conference on Communications, The 25th Annual International Conference on Machine Learning, Networking 2008 and the 19th International Conference on Pattern Recognition. It’s conference hell out there. You could tour the world and only see conference centres. Recognise the pattern?

If all you really want to do is get away from the cold then Weather2travel will tell you where it’s hot right now. So hang those carbon footprints and visit Skyscanner who will help you find the cheapest flight there. To stay in this country consider a National Trust cottage. You can stay in some classic buildings.

Balance all this by cutting down the mileage your food does. Eattheseasons tells you what’s ready now. It’s a beetfest out there.

In many of the quality newspapers, errors are corrected speedily. Craig Silverman manages a site called Regret the Error. He has reported, since 2004 on ‘...media corrections, retractions, apologies, clarifications and trends regarding accuracy and honesty in the press.’

If you’ve ever wanted to send someone a printed copy of a document direct then Printer Anywhere allows you to do exactly what it says on the tin. You can print from anywhere using a printer connected to a computer you can connect to. Got it? Good.

Urban Dictionary is an online slang directory, compiled by its users. So if you have no idea what your teenagers are on about (and of course, that is the point) maybe it can help.

What would life be like if the historians fought back? History and Policy is an army of historians saying ‘told you so.’ Or at least, giving those who make public policy an opportunity to consult them before they get to say it.

If you have some moments to read blogs after Christmas then try the Internet Monk who ‘dispatches from the post-evangelical wilderness.’ Nice article last December 17th about how we get anxious over who is in and who is out of God’s kingdom. McLarenesque, the monk is more interested in conversation than conversion. The monk linked me to Oldspeak, the online journal of the Rutherford Institute and devoted to intellectual freedom. Lots of old interviews and articles gather there.

Challenging Times is David Couchman’s blog on living today’s world in the light of the Bible. He reviews contemporary culture with Christian comment. Always helpful. Hamo (Andrew Hamilton) is Backyard Missionary who has formed a Jesus community in Brighton, Australia and blogs about the experience. Frankly Mr Shankly is another Australian blog, this time of Rory Shiner, associate staff worker with the UWA (I guess, University of Western Australia) Christian Union.

Mr Gnome wanders around the Midlands being shaken by contemporary culture, amazed by church architecture and on the lookout for great customer service. Nice photos but he points the camera at himself a lot.

i-am-bored is a collection hub of links but boy do they go some. Vintage pac-man games, videos of cars failing to stop on icy roads and an introduction to the Turkish Rambo. It is, indeed an antidote to boredom if mind-filling nonsense is your sort of cure.

Revenge is not cool and it’s not clever. But if you do ever find yourself on a train or plane with a laptop available then broadcaster Neal Boortz will help you frighten your neighbour a bit.

Old archived articles and my 2007 Christmas news letter on my blog as ever. Do leave comments and share details of sites you’d like me to make more widely known.