Our Times: March 2006

New Age Men

In an attempt to get Austrian men to do a fairer portion of housework, one-day courses have been set up across the nation to teach men how to iron, advertised under the slogan, “A real man knows how to iron.”

Self-Healing Body

A car that repairs itself from superficial damage is on the drawing board at General Motors. Using a “shape memory” alloy that expands when heated, manufactures claim that minor dents will automatically repair. This process involves an alloy of nickel and titanium being heated to around 70°C by an elextrical current causing it to expand and remove any dents.

Enfranchisement

A New Zealand man successfully registers his Jack Russel, Toby, to vote in the country’s 2005 general election. Toby’s registration application was signed with a paw print and his occupation was listed as “rodent exterminator”. The mutt was duly registered and sent a voter’s card, but did not vote in the polls.

Hypnotic Robber

Police in Maldova are searching for a bank robber who allegedly hypnotises bank tellers then asks them to emplty their tills of cash. One victim said that while the thief was chatting to her, he established eye contact, then put her in a hynotic state.

81 Years Ago in Signs

The March 1925 edition of the the SIGNS OF THE TIMES features an article exploring the concept of “home“. 
In it George B Thompson describes the way in which images of home are etched into each out our hearts, “One may travel amid eternal frosts of the noth or among the waving groves and balmy breezes of the south; be pinched by poverty or revel in luxury…yet ever and anon the memory of home will float upon him.”
Thompson continues to descibe the earth as a home, specially created by God for humans. Now scarred by sin, Thompson explains how our earthly home will be restored to perfection, “The earth restored to the people of God will not be as it now is. It will be a new earth. Edenic beauty will be everywhere, anmd the glory of the Lord will fill the earth…Our Father opens wide the door, and bids us enter, and be at home.”