WMD: My column about God, same-sex marriage and divine judgment got picked up by a couple of the suburban weeklies in the chain. The difference in the response from burb readers compared to urban Vancouverites was interesting. As far as I know, the Vancouver appearance of the column provoked two letters, one a fundamentalist response and the other a missive from a reader who took up the idea of divide judgment and applied it to the Gaia thesis, in which a potentially self-aware Earth is using plagues, storms etc. to shrug off a pesky human infection. That's environmental fundamentalism. Meantime, in the burbs the letters were along the lines of "You idiot, haven't you read Romans/Genesis/Exodus etc. so and so?" It turns out I have, many times.
Today's bLINKit: Speaking of divine judgment, Gaia etc., JaqPike sent me this link about yet another superbug, called Marburg, in Africa that's scaring people who know things about such things. This cute Ebola-like bug has a 90 per cent fatality rate. The problems of containment in Angola, where the virus has been found, is making people nervous. "The first thing that comes to mind is the international airport," said one concerned official. Sleep well, everyone.
Over on Randy's blog, you'll find a link to Irish bookmakers and the odds they're giving for various cardinal candidates for the next pope. Two Canadian cardinal possibles are rated at 80-to-1 and 100-to-1. Steep odds, but did that stop Paul Henderson in 1972?
And, Canadian Geographic has a free and comprehensive online atlas. You'll never need to ask where the Bay of Fundy is ever again.
Blogs that provoke far more hunger than my blog: Tara alerted me to Jim Cowling, someone we knew (or at least I knew him peripherally) in Victoria. He's now moved to Vancouver, is a blogger, and seems obsessed with food and cooking on his smart and sharp blog. Seems to know what he's talking about, too, judging from his recipes and his condemnation of crappy fast food.
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