gregmelia's blog

Gordon met Gillian, now Dave's just met Elizabeth. Mr Cameron is our new Prime Minister and the end of the world is nigh, or at least it is if you believe some people I know. In the age of slacktivism, facebook is littered with friends – even the Christian ones – “crying”, “afraid”, “mourning”, “doomed” … in a generally apocalyptic frame of mind. Horror of horrors, the hackneyed R.E.M. song is doing the rounds again.

If one thing's bound to wind me up, it's people of any political stripe trying to claim Jesus for their cause.

Being colour-blind, Advent was always been a bit lost on me as a kid. Apparently, the guys at the front of church (and girls too, these days!) started wearing purple, but all I could see was a canny shade of blue. The season could have been salvaged had I ever got to play around with fire in church, but I was never chosen to light the advent calendar, so the season never really rose above the status of a four week wait, during which the weather outside got steadily worse, people inside became more stressed and I grew ever more impatient for Christmas.

In my field of study, the letters E and H denote electric and magnetic fields. They may as well denote "Ethicist" and "Hypocrite"

Tidying the lab recently, I came across a forgotten booklet, “Nuclear Electromagnetic Pulse”, published by an organisation called Electronics and Computing for Peace. Watch the film Goldeneye and you'll know of NEMP: a burst of electromagnetic energy following a nuclear explosion, that can wipe out communications, computers, power supplies and more, enough to halt a modern, technology-dependent society.

In the last days
the mountain of the LORD's temple will be established
as chief among the mountains;
it will be raised above the hills,
and all nations will stream to it.

Many peoples will come and say,
"Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,
to the house of the God of Jacob.
He will teach us his ways,
so that we may walk in his paths."

The law will go out from Zion,
the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

He will judge between the nations