Over the last couple of years I’ve spent many hours on planes, huddled over my iPod watching shows and movies on the little screen. In fact I watched the first three seasons on Battlestar Galactica (awesome show) in this manner. And almost invariably if you look around the cabin on any flight you will see several people with those characteristic white earphones in their ears. So the above story definitely appeals to me and I’m sure many other travellers. In a nod to the increasing ubiquity of these devices, United Airlines have installed iPod connectors in some of their planes so you can browse your iPod or iPhone and watch or listen to your own content on their screens, as well as keep your device charged. Certainly beats huddling over a tiny screen and definitely good to have more choice beyond the usual in-flight entertainment. Hope this comes to Australia soon…

In other iPod news, I noticed today that you can now purchase some TV shows via the Australian iTunes store. Only a couple of years behind the rest of the world! Hopefully movie rentals will follow. My guess is they’ve finally got their act together and done this because of the upcoming Australian iPhone launch.

Here’s the preview which I just found at Hello Internet. As Ben points out it’s a bit strange seeing Lucasfilm and Star Wars with a Warner Bros intro instead of 20th century fox

I’m going to start making a few brief notes on here about some of the books I’m reading. I never seem to have the time to do a full review but I’ll try and make some quick, one paragraph comments. Of course, as I realised talking to Jen the other day my reading habit may have to be curtailed once I start Uni in a month or so. Trying to fit in 12 hours or more of study a week will be a challenge, and reducing the amount of time I spend reading other books will have to be one of the first changes I make… So in the next month or so I’ll try and churn through as many books as I can while I have the chance

Two books I want to mention today :

1. The River of Lost Footsteps : A Personal History of Burma by Thant Myint-U. Reading books like this makes you realise what a big world we live in and how there are vast swathes of human history that I haven’t even thought of. Well written narrative history with lots of little stories to keep it interesting. Looks at Burma’s history from ancient times to the current regime. Ordered this when it looked like I might be going over there. I’m doubtful that will happen now but it’s still a fascinating read. Hope to get the chance to visit there one day.
2. Arminian Theology : Myths & Realities by Roger Olson. I’ve been thinking a bit lately on Arminianism and Calvinism and this is not a bad book on the subject. Olson does a good job at articulating some of the core Arminian beliefs and debunking some commonly held myths about Arminianism. Along the way he also takes a few good-natured swipes at Calvinism. It’s a worthwhile book to read but I have a couple of criticisms. Firstly it tends to be repetitive as he examines the theology of a range of historical Arminians from Arminius and Wesley down to the present day. Secondly, although he makes it clear what classical Arminians do and do not believe, I didn’t feel he interacted enough with scripture. This may not have been his main aim but for me it would have been nice to have more written on the Biblical basis for Arminian concepts (like that of prevenient grace, for example) and also a more thorough critique of Calvinist exegesis of key passages. Overall though it’s a well written, fairly easy to read, irenic, and generally convincing treatment on the subject. Worth reading for both Arminians and Calvinists and also those who aren’t sure.

Well here’s what you’ve been waiting for - a documentary examining the inside workings of a Jedi church. They seem like Calvinist Jedis though, “I wish I could tell everyone they can be saved but they can’t. If you don’t have the midichlorians God doesn’t want you - it’s that simple.”

Worth a chuckle - I especially like the bit where Darth Maul goes forward for the altar call

Miss Mia’s first travel booking

Originally uploaded by baggas

For some reason I thought this was cute, seeing Miss Mia’s name in print like this

Jennifer and I are going to Adelaide in September for our anniversary for a few days, and Mia will be coming along for the ride.

Well today I received an email confirming that I have been accepted into Uni next semester (starting July - August). I will be studying part time towards a Masters degree in Public health & tropical medicine (MPH&TM) at James Cook University in Townsville, Queensland. For non-Aussies, Townsville is a city in the tropics up on the far north east coast of Australia. It’s diagonally opposite Perth on the map 3391 kilometres away (as a rough guide imagine the distance from LA to Washington DC in the United States). Mostly I’ll be studying at home but will probably have to go over there once or twice a semester for short stints. I guess if you have to travel anywhere for study, a tropical city on the Great Barrier Reef is not a bad choice

As for the degree itself the Master of Public Health & Tropical Medicine covers a range of units relating to medicine in the tropics and the developing world. This will help me on future medical missions like my trips to Uganda over the last couple of years to actually have a more solid knowledge base behind me (instead on just winging it!). Also it means I will be qualified to move more into the field of Travel Medicine as part of general practice here in Australia. If I ever get tired of regular GP work and my obstetrics I could go and work full time in a travel clinic. Short of that it’s definitely an area of practice that I want to build and expand as time goes on. Thirdly this degree would be a useful qualification if I was to ever move into more serious or full time international medical, relief or humanitarian type work. From what I hear it’s actually quite difficult to get jobs with the big aid organisations so if I ever went in that direction this degree would be valuable.

Also it looks like I might be able to get 12 points credit towards the course by virtue of having had over 5 years professional medical experience, which would cut a third off the degree. I wasn’t necessarily expecting that so it will be a big bonus if it works out that way.

Very exciting stuff. I can’t believe I’m so keen to get back to study again. After a 6 year medical degree and another 6 years of postgrad study in surgery, obstetrics, and general practice, I thought it would be a long time before I ventured into medical academia again. But I’m looking forward to it. The only question mark is how I’m going to fit this into my already busy life.

This is a cool story. The California Governor’s mansion lawn has a mixture of signs supporting John McCain and Barack Obama as Gov Arnold Swartzenegger and his Kennedy family wife Maria Shriver back the respective candidates.

Nice to see that a family like this can have differing political alleigances without it being nasty. But hard to imagine this sort of situation popping up too often. Can you imagine if Kevin Rudd’s wife was openly supporting the Liberal party? Or if Laura Bush showed up at an Obama campaign rally? An article worth reading. I quite admire Arnie’s attitude in the interview.

An artist has no need to express his thought directly in his work for the latter to reflect its quality; it has even been said that the highest praise of God consists in the denial of Him by the atheist who finds creation so perfect that it can dispense with a creator.

~ Marcel Proust

Well it’s been a wild, stormy day, but at least we’ve been treated to a pretty spectacular finish

Major storms in Port Kennedy today. Constant thunder, lightning and heavy rain for much of the morning. And this is what happened to our fence..

Today’s been a crazy day in general. I’m on-call for the hospital. Have already had 2 babies delivered today with at least one more on the way, so I’ve been driving back and forth to the hospital in the heavy rain. Also our gas hot water system stopped working this morning so we had to call out the gas man to fix it in the pouring rain. Not looking forward to getting the bill for that.

What’s your theological worldview?
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You scored as Neo orthodox

You are neo-orthodox. You reject the human-centredness and scepticism of liberal theology, but neither do you go to the other extreme and make the Bible the central issue for faith. You believe that Christ is God’s most important revelation to humanity, and the Trinity is hugely important in your theology. The Bible is also important because it points us to the revelation of Christ. You are influenced by Karl Barth and P T Forsyth.

This story just popped into my inbox, which suggests that it may be easier to reset your body clock when food is scarce. In other words, fasting before a long flight might help reduce the amount of jet lag you feel. This data is derived from animal experiments and has not yet been validated on humans but it’s worth thinking about.

If nothing else it just gives one more excuse to avoid eating dodgy airline food…

For a young, single, athletic, educated guy, this would have to be one of the best jobs in the world. This story from the NYT looks at Reggie Love, 26 year old personal aide to Barack Obama. If you’re a West Wing fan think of Charlie and you’ll get a rough idea of this guy’s job - assistant, friend, training partner. Better yet, read the article.

And not only does he have a cool job but he’s got a pretty funky name - Reggie Love.  Speaking of cool names, another good one I heard last week is the Australian Indy car driver Will Power. I once worked with a doctor who’s surname was Power - now that’s a name you can get creative with. I think if it were me I’d name one son William and the other Max. Anyone else got any naming suggestions for the Power family??

Now we’re just waiting for the Lego Indiana Jones computer game to be released. Owen especially can’t wait to see that one…