Floods in England

For the past few weeks there has been terrible flooding in parts of England. This seems to have coincided with Gordon Brown becoming Prime Minister of the UK, and not an easy situation for a new PM to deal with.

Here is a map of areas affected so far:

Hopefully the floods will soon come to an end, but I wonder if maybe this is a warning to the people of this country to change their ways before it is too late. The USA suffered terrible flooding in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina paid a visit. These floods have not happened before in recent history, so something must be different that is causing this to happen.

Could it be that God is sending a warning to the people of the USA and UK (the descendants of ancient Israel, in part) to wake them up to their sins? Although it might remind us of Noah's Flood, a great worldwide flood like that will not happen again, but local floods may well continue.

Will the people of the USA and UK realise their sins and repent before it is too late? The Bible reveals that there will be a great tribulation at the end of this age before Christ returns to set up the Kingdom of God on earth.

For more on prophecy visit this site.

Metric is not so foreign, more English than the Imperial system

In a bit of a blow to those who want to cling on to good old British Imperial measures like pounds and ounces - it turns out it was an Englishman who invented the "foreign" metric system.

Or so claims Pat Naughtin, a metrication specialist from Australia, who carried out his research at Wadham College in Oxford, at Trinity College in Cambridge, and at the Royal Society in London.

He says John Wilkins, founder of the Royal Society, first published his ideas for a metric measure in 1668 → 120 years before the French adopted the metric system.

Wilkins' system was complete in that it was based on decimal numbers (10s, 100s, and 1000s) and its measurements were to be based on an internationally agreed 'universal measure', which would become the basis for other measures.

Our modern measuring methods now use all of Wilkins' ideas: we use prefixes to go from millimetres via metres to kilometres, we have a universally agreed definition of a metre, and a litre of water has a mass of a kilogram.

Although Wilkins did not use the word 'metre', its use became common after Tito Livio Burattini translated Wilkins 'universal measure' to its Italian equivalent, 'metro catholico' and, it seems that this was later translated, and shortened, to the French word, metre.

(From a Press Release issued by the UKMA)


Metric was invented by a good Christian bishop, rather than an atheist or someone of another religion. I have found that many well-meaning christian people have erroneously thought that imperial was better than metric and that God invented the imperial system. Yet the imperial system is almost totally pagan in its origins, whereas metric is christian.

“Bishop John Wilkins among other things:

• Was Master of Trinity College, Cambridge.
• Was Warden of Wadham College, Oxford.
• Married to Oliver Cromwell’s sister.
• Wrote “the first book in English on cryptography”.
• Was one of the Chief Founders of the Royal Society, the UK’s most important science academy.

Let’s hear it for rational polymathic Bishops who have no trouble reconciling a rational faith in a rational God with a rational outlook on the rational world.”

(Quoted from the Wardman Wire blog)

Further commentary can also be found at Metric Views.

Alan Johnston Is Free

Our prayers have been answered, God has been merciful to the kidnapped British journalist, Alan Johnston, who has been held captive for 114 days in Palestine. But now he has been freed.

Be thankful that he is free. This is a victory for journalists, the British people and the free world.

Trouble at the Station

Yesterday I tried to get to work as usual in the afternoon and caught a bus to the station in good time. However, when I arrived there were police and an ambulance outside the station and the station was closed. A sign on the door said it was closed due to a fatality, not a pleasant thing to happen to anyone.

So I then had to take a bus to another station to catch a train from there. I got to work 15 minutes late in the end. When I arrived outside the building I noticed a greater police presence in the street, and security guards outside the building. No doubt in response to the recent attempted terrorist attacks.

These are difficult times and we must remain vigilant and careful.