Sports cars where sports cars shouldn’t be

Tam has a post up about the delights of driving in Indianapolis, which sounds almost as delightful as driving in Miami:

One thing that’s always baffled me is the profusion of exotic automobiles you’ll see in downtown Indy of a weekend evening. The streets around the circle are almost crowded with exotic German, American, British, and Italian cars. Why anybody would take a stiffly-sprung, low-slung sports car with low-profile tires and a manual transmission and go drive it through that cratered hellhole of traffic lights and one-way streets at parking lot speeds for fun is completely beyond me.

Yes, almost like Miami, except for the Spanish.

Her remark does remind me of the definition of frustration once given by a co-worker of mine.
A Lamberghini driving through a school speed zone.

And there was war in Heaven….

Or at least in Canberra.

Saturday the 17th of October was an amazing day of history making for our nation of Australia as around 200 Christian prayer warriors from across the country converged on our capital city Canberra to pray and repent on Mount Ainslie, a strategic high place considered to be the headquarters of satanic activity. All glory to our Most High God as the spiritual warfare prayer mission was very successful in enforcing the victory of the Cross of Christ over the forces of darkness through the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit!
As hundreds and perhaps thousands of Christian men, women, and children from nearly every denomination gathered in strategic high places, churches and homes across the nation with the same focus to repent, pray and declare Australia for Jesus, Satan’s kingdom of darkness was thrown into complete confusion as it was so clearly demonstrated on Mount Ainslie in Canberra!

Other reports from the battlefield differ. At the very least, Satan’s minions weren’t leaving without a fight.

Apart from a protest and pious people gathered on a hill, what does one expect of an exorcism? It was very easy to conjure up Hollywood associations, spinning heads and all. The reality was the weirdest festival you’ve ever been to. The crowd of 200 divided neatly into about a third Catch the Fire followers, another third gay and atheist activists, Wiccans and metal t-shirt wearing young people and the remainder were a bewildered group of observers in the circus. These three groups, I wager, will never likely be seen together again.
Entering into the crowd of Nalliah devotees, Christian and Australian flags waving, was akin to going to a pokies venue on Christmas eve – people desperate, alienated and confused participating in something that gives them hope. Nalliah at the centre of it dressed in white suit jacket, shades and a small mega phone permanently in front of his face spoke much of forgiveness and healing of the nation, interjected only with the odd “hallelujah” and “praise Jesus”. Many in the crowd spoke in tongues or mumbled prayers, the first of a series of communions on different parts of the hill, the relocation of the prayers perhaps to do with the spiritual mapping (which would be?).
In the background near the “black altar” – a communication tower further up the hill – were protesters singing It’s Raining Men and waving placards. Into the middle of the Catch the Fire group walked a young gay man who stripped down to his underwear and threw his arms in the air, facing off with Nalliah and his entourage. Other protesters adorned themselves in rainbow flags, witches’ hats and t-shirts with slogans: “I am what you are afraid of”

As to what sparked this divine offensive (from a prebattle report):

According to my colleagues from News Ltd.’s Satan Watch desk in the parliamentary press gallery — well, actually, I think that’s been the mission statement for Lord Rupert’s entire gallery contingent since the Ruddbot and his devil-worshipping cabal of devil worshippers drew their first pentagram on the big table in the Cabinet Room — well, anyway, they reckon that the Rev. Danny reckons that, “there is a spiritual fight over the nation of Australia being fought in the heavens” and that although most people don’t believe in the Devil he is like, totally real, and just look at the number of divorced politicians if you don’t believe him.
Pastor Danny, a former running mate of Family First Sen. Steve Fielding, is headed Canberra way this weekend to lead a prayer meeting of at least a handful of Christians concerned about the discovery of a “Black Mass altar” on Mount Ainslie recently.
“The type of altar discovered on Mount Ainslie pointed to a black mass and the work of dark forces wanting to cast spells on Australia and Federal Parliament,” according to Nalliah. Actually what it probably points to are a couple of discarded condoms and Nudie juice bottle bongs. But what the hell, I’m going to be in Canberra this weekend, and it’s not often you get to battle Evil with a capital ‘E’.

And yes indeed this Pastor Danny does blame the downfall of Australian society on all those divorced politicians.

Asked what evidence of Satan there was in parliament, Mr Nalliah said: “The number of politicians who have serious marriage problems.”
Legislation supporting homosexuality, abortion and a push for a bill of rights were other areas where the devil was having influence.

Pictures of the battle in progress can be seen at the CatchtheFire link.

H/T Lucymonster

A new killer app

Out of work TV exec comes up with a new app for the Iphone.

“I speak two languages, I’ve won a bunch of Emmys, and I’m pretty much qualified to do a whole bunch of things,” Sherno, 50, says. “But all my contacts in the TV industry are searching for work as well.”
It’s enough to make a guy want to mete out some justice.
“‘Shoot a banker’ ran through my mind,” Sherno says. “I’m not an inherently violent kind of guy, but a lot of people were angry.”
Also, he had an iPhone.
So Assassin FPS, the first iPhone application from Sherno’s one-man company which he runs out of his Silver Spring home, Differentium LLC, was sort of inevitable. The first-person shooter game uses the iPhone’s built-in camera, but instead of shooting at computer-generated enemies, the target in Assassin FPS is whatever’s in front of you. Once you’ve selected from weapons like an AK-47, a bazooka, a laser blaster, or even Nerf darts, the weapon and its crosshair appear over the objects—or people—in your viewfinder, and you can commence blowing them into the next realm.

Apple’s initial objections had nothing to with the violence factor, and everything to do with the fact that it relied on the Iphone’s camera feature

Apple initially rejected the app, not because of its content, Sherno says, but because it used the iPhone’s camera. “Apparently we were too far ahead of the curve,” Sherno says. So he and and coder Kris Zabala dumbed down the guts and pitched the game a second time, only to have Apple reject it again. It wasn’t until June, when Android, an open-source mobile operating system used by Google, began incorporating the camera into its apps to create “Augmented Reality,” that Apple was forced to follow suit. (Augmented reality is a technology that allows visual data to be projected over the image in a mobile phone’s camera.) The company released a new application programming guide last month, Sherno and Zabala re-applied, and bingo: They were in the Apple store.

Of course, there is a political angle to the story

Sherno created an appropriately violent YouTube trailer to promote the game. “[I]t shows the user shooting Rush Limbaugh, Dick Cheney, and Nancy Pelosi,” he says. “I got in some hot water with and took out Pelosi and Cheney—but left in Rush. No one really cares about Rush.”

Found here via Radley