MainiacJoe

Papa John's Pan Pizza

2007-08-29T16:09:00.000-04:00

Don't try it. The crust is not quite crispy, but it's not chewy either. It's got all the grease embedded in to become crispy, if it just got cooked a little longer. On top of that, there was very little cheese and the sauce is too spicy for my tastes.

Out of the Mouth of Babes

2007-08-23T11:22:00.000-04:00

"Mommy, can I have a dog?"
"Why do you want a dog, honey?"
"I don't like cats. They bite me."
"When do they bite you?"
"When I pull their tail."

Things That Go Bump in the Night

2007-08-21T10:19:00.000-04:00

I didn't sleep well last night, which put me in a position to participate in this farce. The middle of last night, I didn't check the clock, but I heard a lot of hissing (we have three cats). Some time later, I heard thump, thump, etc. It sounded like something was about to get knocked off a shelf, so I got up and went into the living room. I flip n a light and see Julie and Lucy staring behind the game chest, where I can see Jenny's tail. "A bug" I think, and go to see what it is. It turned out to be a a glue trap, with a mouse in it, stuck to her paw. Later investigation revealed that she'd brought it all the way up from the utility room. "Poor girl," I try to pull the trap off, it doesn't budge and she cries. Great. I pace a bit trying to remember what the pest guy said to do if this happens, realize I don't want to wash my cat's paw with soap and water at 3:30 AM, pick her up, and try slowly pulling off the glue trap. It works, I don't know why but I'm not complaining. Now to look at the mouse. There's droppings in the glue, and it isn't moving. How long has it been in there? Then I see its chest moving, it's just really stuck, but not where it can get its nose stuck and suffocate (the trap is a tube, not a flat sheet, and his back was stuck to the top of it somehow). Well it looks like I'm going to have to put it out of its misery. I go down to the utility room looking for the rubber mallet, but the handle I grab is attached to the one-handed sledge instead. That'll do. I take it outside and lay the trap on the driveway. I don't have the heart to wield the hammer myself so I let Newton do the dirty work, from about four feet up. In the morning, Alethea tells Rachel that we had a mouse in the house last night, so Rachel says, "What's it's name?" and I say, "Flat Stanley," and Alethea glares at me. I never really got back to sleep.

Galatians 5

2007-08-20T12:41:00.000-04:00

This is the first in a sermon series I'm going to attempt. I really profit a great deal from our pastor's sermons, and write lots of notes. I've found, though, that I don't look at them much afterwards. I'm hoping that blogging my reaction to the sermon each week will help me process it more. Some of it will be summary of what he said, some of it will be what came to mind during the sermon.

This week's passage is Galatians 5 (we go through the New Testament one chapter at a time on Sunday mornings and through the Old Testament the same way on Wednesday nights).

Synopsis:

The Gospel is utterly incompatible with legalism. There is no middle ground: you cannot mix Law and Grace.

Sound Bites:

How does God lead people? By rules or by his Spirit?
God wants my heart more than my ability to keep rules.
You manufacture works, you manifest fruits [of the Spirit].

My Notes:

From 5:1: Freedom begins when we come to Christ--freedom to be what we were made to be--but it almost immediately comes under attack. The following verses make it clear that it is legalism that we need to stand firm against, and that it cannot coexist with grace. I had not previously understood how strongly Paul was condemning legalism here. I know full well from personal experience how bad it is, but hadn't thought of it as being literally antithetical to the gospel, or of being something we needed to strive against to prevent it from taking us captive. I hadn't ever anthropomorphized it as an enemy before, but that sure seems to be what Paul is doing here.
A Tripartite View of Legalism?: The obvious kind of legalism is the "Don't smoke, don't chew, and don't go with girls that do" variety. This is the legalism of behavior, which says, "Christians must behave this way." I'd guess it is what people think of first when they hear the word legalism. There is another kind. I recently had a long-time friendship fall apart over the question of whether difference of opinions on lesser theological issues should be tolerated or confronted the same way sinful behavior should be. This is the legalism of theology, which says, "Christians must believe this." After I thought of these, I saw that they could be characterized as a legalism of the body and a legalism of the mind (soul), so I wondered whether there might be a legalism of the spirit, too, or of the emotions side of the soul. It's easy to think of the legalism that dictates how Christians must respond emotionally to various situations--gotta have joy 24/7, you know. The legalism of the spirit has been harder to pin down; I think, though, that this is the legalism that says, "A Christian's relationship with God must happen like this." It is essentially putting rules on what God is going to do. Here's an example, perhaps: someone who has a prophetic dream, but rejects it or ascribes it to Satan because "God doesn't give dreams anymore." Peter on the rooftop may be another example.
Having One's Reward In Full: This is one of Jesus' cleverest phrases. He was talking about hypocrisy, the Pharisees being overtly religious to get the praise of men. This idea can be abstracted, however: whenever you are seeking the praise of anyone or anything other than God, that praise is likely getting all the reward you're ever going to get. Legalism works like this, because the legalist praises himself when he checks himself against his list of rules, or is praised by others that share the list of rules. The legalist's satisfaction that he has the right behavior or the right theology or the right kind of relationship with God--whatever he sees in the mirror when he looks at his rules--that's all he'll ever profit from it. When the rules tell him he's okay, actually he's deceiving himself: Paul here is laying out very strongly that Law and Grace are incompatible. In the context of legalism and rewards, I think he's saying that we must make a choice: are we going to walk by grace, or are we going to walk by a rulebook? The second half of the chapter tells us that walking by the Spirit will answer the question, "How will we know if we are doing what's right, if we don't have a list of what's right and what's wrong to consult?" Do we trust the Spirit enough that following him will result in right living? If so, then we are walking in freedom. It's hard to let go of the list of rules, though--really hard. The temptation is to say, "Tell me what to do, and I'll do it," instead of, "I'll follow you one step at a time."

* This isn't a copy of his outline, rather it is what stood out to me or occurred to me based on what he said. I typically have my notes page full halfway through.

AccuRadio Trick

2007-08-20T11:44:00.000-04:00

Being only a beta geek, I still use Windows but do use Firefox. This means I have IE on my computer doing nothing. A while ago I set the homepage to my favorite internet radio station AccuRadio (which works better with IE anyway). That works, but after a while I found I was always going to the same station (A Flock of Eighties, No Rap). Somehow I've been clicking, scrolling, clicking each time I start it for a few months without figuring out what I did today: copying the URL for the pop-up player window into the IE home page field. Now, I just click the IE icon on the Quick Launch and the tunes start. Now if I could only figure out how to get it to respond to the Windows Media Player audio control buttons on my Inspiron 6000--I could skip songs without switching windows to IE!

SkyBus

2007-08-19T14:11:00.000-04:00

I read about Skybus in Popular Mechanics or Popular Science, one of the two, while at the store. It is a cut-cost airline, that offers everything a la carte. At least 10 seats per flight are guaranteed to be $10 one-way, and the rest are $30, $50, $90 etc. based on how early you are on the first-come-first-served availability. For going home to Maine, there are flights between Columbus, OH and Portsmouth, NH, so it seems ideal for us right now. Plan early enough ahead, and be willing to travel on a Tuesday or Wednesday, and my wife and I and two kids could go to Maine and back for $80 airfare, or so it seems. It will bear looking into.

What I Did This Summer

2007-08-19T13:47:00.000-04:00

It has been that long. Sorry about that. Here's the rundown:

I had research assistantship looking for extrasolar planets. This has turned into my thesis project. We haven't find any yet. The problem with this is that it involves staying up all night to use the scopes, but only when it's clear. With Indiana weather sometimes you don't know whether you're going to get any sleep that night until after dinner. Then, in the morning, the kids want to be with Daddy, so Daddy doesn't get any sleep and gets grumpy. I'm going to try to crash in the planetarium for morning naps this fall, we'll see how that goes.
When I did have free time, too much of it was spent playing Nethack.
My parents came to visit and we had a good time together.
We found a place on the Cardinal Greenway, starting south from the Medford trailhead, that is gorgeous and best of all shaded. We've seen a bittern, a deer fawn among other wildlife, plus there are tons of black cherry trees along the way.
I've been taking classes at my church to prepare joining their prayer ministry. These have been challenging but I am excited about getting involved in this.

Once again, here starts another attempt at regular blogging.

Playing The Farming Game With a Local

2007-05-24T11:58:00.000-04:00

A couple nights ago Alethea and I had Dave and Callie over for dinner. We played The Farming Game (BGG), which just so happens to be set in Callie's hometown of Yakima, WA. Not only that, but she actually worked for a cherry processing plant. She was constantly commenting about place names and events in the game reminding her of home. It was the most fun I'd had playing a game in a long time.

Dave and Callie got engaged recently. Dave managed to surprise her. Instead of a ring, he gave her a diamond nose stud. It looks really nice and bonus points for creativity.

You Thought Route 1 Was Slow In Summer Before

2007-05-23T15:16:00.001-04:00

Wait until the tourists discover this.

Thanks to my Mom for the heads-up.

Gmail: Customize Your Spelling Dictionary

2007-05-18T11:53:00.001-04:00

If you aren't using Gmail, then you should be, enough said. For those of you who are, here is something I stumbled across today: you can add words to your spelling dictionary. When you right-click on the red underline, look for the option under the suggestions. It doesn't appear to transfer over to Google Documents, though, which is odd.

Making Inefficiency More Efficient

2007-05-18T08:29:00.000-04:00

My department secretary tells us work orders for University Maintenance can be made online now.

Evolution and the GOP Primaries

2007-05-15T10:01:00.000-04:00

I was on vacation last week and my mom was visiting. During that week I read a Kathleen Parker column in the local paper, which she buys but I usually don't read. She writes about a nasty question given by an audience member at the recent GOP debate: "Do you believe in evolution?" Here is her analysis of the dilemma each debater had to contend with:

The truth is, each man took a calculated risk -- or a courageous stand, depending on one's view. To say ``yes'' would have been to betray evangelical Christian voters, 73 percent of whom believe that human beings were created in their present form in the last 10,000 years or so.
To these folks, ``no'' didn't mean anti-science; it meant pro-God and conveyed a transcendent, non-materialistic view of the world. To secular Darwinists, ``no'' meant either ignorance or pandering to the ignorant -- most likely both.

Two things in the column really bothered me:

I was absolutely shocked to learn that 73% of evangelical voters are young-earthers--I'd like to know her source. I knew it was bad, but I didn't know it was that bad. This was the straw that broke the camel's back for me. I cannot continue to call myself an evangelical--there are too many differences between myself and the stereotypical "evangelical" for it to be an accurate label for me. For a while I resisted disowning the label because I do share the core theology of the gospel of grace, but I realize now that just about everything else is different. So I'm going to be label-less for a while, if that even matters.

The second thing that bothered me is related. Parker quoted one of the debaters saying, "If I'd had time, I would have asked whether he meant macro or micro evolution?" A couple of paragraphs later, she explains the terms: "Microevolution and macroevolution can't be properly distilled in this space, but broadly speaking, micro allows for the possibility of a creator. McCain more or less expressed the micro view that evolution doesn't necessarily preclude God." Here's what bugs me: she's 100% wrong when she implies that macroevolution does not allow for the possibility of a creator. 100% wrong. I've written a little about this already, but to make it perfectly clear: there are plenty of versions of macro-evolution that allow for a creator. There is a spectrum of possibilities ranging from where the creator is the only possible source for the new genetic information that causes speciation to the one where the creator made the universe and the laws that allow for speciation to occur naturally. The only thing that macroevolution precludes is the young-earth position. Getting people inside and outside the church to think that belief in a creator requires belief in the young-earth position is the most impressive and most damaging achievement of the professional young-earth organizations.

I certainly hope that evolution doesn't become a major campaign issue in the GOP primaries. It would certainly be a good thing for the evangelical voting bloc to learn how to compromise, if it is going to insist on being a political power.

9/11 Conspiracy Theories

2007-05-03T07:36:00.000-04:00

My buddy Peter has been writing lately on his blog about the Truthers, a group that believe the Bush administration orchestrated and faked 9/11. Now I knew that there were some people who thought this, but I hadn't realized how much legs the idea had nor how significant it was becoming in the Democratic nomination race. So I looked into their claims. It seems that the most organized segment of the movement believes the Twin Towers were brought down my controlled demolition after remote-controlled planes were flown into them, that government complicity was evidenced by a lack of timely military response, that the Pentagon was hit by a missile in an unoccupied, recently renovated area, that Flight 93 was shot down, and that the OBL tape claiming responsibility as faked or fraudulently translated. I found this article to be very helpful in sorting through these claims.

Rand McNally Driving Directions

2007-04-30T11:19:00.000-04:00

I have long preferred Rand McNally's driving directions. The interface was just cleaner and more intuitive. Today I went there to get directions to the Dayton airport to pick my Mom up next week, and they have a new feature: multiple point directions!!! You can enter in up to 10 locations, arrange them as you'd like, and get point-to-point directions!

I enjoy using paper maps a great deal, so I am usually planning my route that way and going to the online directions for time-of-trip only. If my way isn't the site's route, I have to make it piecemeal and add times up. Now, though, I can force it to go my route. For instance I'm going to visit the University of Toledo next week while my Mom is here. The default quickest route from Muncie is to take I-69 to I-80, 3:35. I'd like to see how cutting across to I-75 would compare, so I add Wapakoneta to the route between Muncie and Toledo: 3:25, no tolls, and countryside! It will be a long time, I think, before a free online site has the spatial skills to construct a best route, but it is great at adding up hours and minutes!

Wow, It's Been More Than a Month!

2007-04-30T11:17:00.000-04:00

Sorry about that. My electrodynamics class has been very time consuming. Another thing that happened is that I accidentally deleted my bookmarks, so I didn't have that "New Post" button on my browser bar. Out of sight, out of mind. In any case, I'm going to ease back into posting.

Coming Off the Fence

2007-03-20T11:22:00.001-04:00

It seems that every other car here has one of the new "in God We Trust" Indiana license plates. These really bother me. The first thing that popped into my head when I saw these was, "Where can I get my Allāhu Akbar license plate?" After all, Allah's greatness is a core principle of Islam parallel to God's faithfulness in Christianity. The obvious reason is that Christianity is popular in Indiana and Islam is not. All well and good, except that this is an official state license plate.

These plates have helped me clarify my position on the separation of church and state: it's a good, good thing. I'd guess that most people who are vocal about this principle are seeking to protect the state, but my primary motivation for supporting it is to protect the church. The church has a very bad track record of getting messed up when it gets its hands on political power. I see this current season in U.S. politics as an example. Evangelicals have wormed their way into the GOP's inner circle, but for what gain at what cost? To my mind too much effort is being expended in areas that are not the church's core mission. I think that I'm going to be more vocal and insistent on the separation of church and state from now on.

I'll just mention in passing that another reason I dislike these plates: they're another evangelical "witnessing" fad like fish car decals and WWJD bracelets. Blech.

Hiatus

2007-03-20T11:11:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. Last week was my Spring Break, meaning that two weeks ago I was doing all the homework and studying for all the tests I had before the break. During the break itself, I spent time with my family and visited a couple potential Ph.D. schools. One of them, Indiana Bloomington, was very nice. Another that shall remain nameless was very rude to me once it became apparent that I have a non-traditional background (master's but not bachelor's in physics). So both of those were good pieces of information. Now though I hope to get back to more regular blogging, mainly because it is fun.

Blue Screen of Death

2007-03-07T10:03:00.000-05:00

One of my lab students today got the blue screen of death when he inserted his thumb drive into the the computer to save his data. Since this meant he was going to have to take his data all over again, I thought it pretty ironic what XP says, "Windows has detected a problem and has shut down to prevent damage to your computer." This is supposed to prevent you from kicking it how?

WikiSpecies

2007-03-05T15:55:00.000-05:00

I've long been interested in taxonomy. I'm an analytical type and it helps me to understand something to categorize it. Looking at how taxonomy has changed shows how our understanding of organisms and their evolutionary relationships has changed with new data--especially genetic and protein sequencing. Today I stumbled across WikiSpecies, which basically is a wiki of taxonomic relationships. Now it isn't Wikipedia, meaning that all you'll see is the parent and child taxons, but occasionally there is an "In Wikipedia" bar on the left where you can go to the Wikipedia article. I don't think it is truly useful to a layman like me yet, but it sure it fun to poke around in it.

Polar Views of Saturn's Rings

2007-03-02T09:04:00.000-05:00

Do yourself a favor and visit the Cassini/Huygens mission website today. Lots of new pretty pictures. In the one shown here, overexposed Saturn has been deleted from the image. Yes, that is Saturn's shadow across the rings on the lower right.

The Cassini probe currently orbiting Saturn uses the gravity of Titan, Saturn's largest moon, to alter its orbit so it can investigate whatever is next on the mission agenda. This image comes from a polar orbit, one that is roughly perpendicular to the plane of the rings. We've never been able to see the rings from this vantage point before.

I got a kick out of the CNN.com article about the images, though. In case they edit out this gaffe by the time you go there, I'll fill you in: "Planet is fully surrounded by the rings, images show." Wow, that is amazing! I always had a suspicion that there was a gap in the rings that always stayed on the far side of Saturn from Earth, but I guess I was wrong.

Solving Systems of Linear Equations in Excel

2007-02-27T12:19:00.000-05:00

I just learned today how to do matrix arithmetic in Excel, from here. In particular, it turns out to be extremely easy to solve systems of linear equations in Excel. I think it is quicker to enter in the data into spreadsheet than to fiddle with MATLAB's syntax, at least for this simple application.

The method uses the matrix inversion method, instead of Cramer's rule. Here are the steps:

Enter the coefficient matrix in an nxn range.
Enter in the vector of constants in a n-tall column.
Select a blank n-tall column. It is important that you not have only one cell selected.
Type, =MMULT(MINVERSE(coefficients_matrix_range),
constants_vector_range) in the formula text box and press [CTRL][SHIFT][ENTER]. It is important that you not simply press [ENTER].

Your variables should be in the column you selected in step 3. If the system has no solution or infinite solutions, you will get the #NUM! error in these cells.

Bizarre Antarctic Echinoderms

2007-02-26T20:53:00.000-05:00

I found this article today on cnn.com about explorations in the Weddell Sea in areas previously hidden under ice shelf. What immediately struck me about the picture with the article was a sea star with seven arms! I thought all echinoderms were pentamerous, but here are two examples (another in the gallery applet linked to from the site has 12 arms) of radial symmetry that isn't a multiple of five. Not only this, but it looks to me that one is from the sea stars class and the other from the brittle stars class, so it isn't just one weird family or genus. a little more research on this today revealed that archaic echinoderms often were not pentamerous and that there are other modern examples but I couldn't find any details.

This is a good example of why I enjoy reading about biology: there is seemingly endless variety and adaptation, some of it very appropriate, some of it baggage from past evolutionary paths. An example of the latter in Echinodermata are the sea cucumbers which have moved as much as they can back towards bilateral symmetry. All echinoderms have bilateral larvae that transform into radially symmetrical adults. Sea cucumbers are very elongated in the oral-aboral axis, unlike most echinoderms that are flat, and assume a preferred one of their five sides to crawl on like a worm. If I remember right the tube feet disappear on the other four sides in some forms. Selective pressures seem to have pushed sea cucumbers back to bilateral symmetry but they are stuck with their peculiar metamorphosis.

Corey Dillon

2007-02-23T11:55:00.000-05:00

Corey Dillon is likely to announce his retirement soon. The SI article is here I think they update the same URL as news changes. I want to highlight one aspect of this. Dillon was drafted by the then-Bungles and quickly got a reputation for being a bad egg. The Patriots surprised a lot of people when they acquired him, because they had a reputation for avoiding poisonous personalities. Dillon was an instant impact and helped them win a couple Super Bowls. This quote in the SI article shows that Dillon was simply supremely frustrated in Cincinnati and really did have a team attitude buried inside:

In three years with the team, he ran for 3,180 yards and scored 39 touchdowns in 43 games. After not playing in a single playoff game in seven season in Cincinnati, he played in eight in three seasons with the Patriots. "I gave them what they wanted, I didn't come in and steal money," he said. "I felt like the money they spent was well earned."

Accuradio Gets Better

2007-02-23T09:05:00.000-05:00

New today is AccuRadio's Build Your Own Channel. Instead of being stuck with just one genre at a time, you can listen to several at a time. Currently I've got 50's Oldies, 60's Oldies, 70's Oldies, 80's Oldies (that makes me feel decrepit!), Classical, Celtic, Pop Standards (classic), and Classic Rock. It will tell you the genre a particular song is from if you want to tweak what you have selected.

Currently, it is only for PCs running IE. Firefox and Mac coming soon, they say, but it's the first day so I'll live with it.

Arthropod Immune Systems

2007-02-20T11:27:00.000-05:00

I was thinking about this the other day, and I realized I have no idea how the arthropod immune system works. I'm guessing it's a good one, since arthropods are so common and excel at parasitism. I'm also guessing that it is very dissimilar to ours. I wonder how a map of immune apparatuses would match the Deuterostomia/Ecdysozoa/Lophtrochozoa taxonomy.

This is the sort of thing that will go under the "Idle Curiosity" label. I have flashes of idle curiosity very often and this blog wouldn't be an accurate reflection of "whatever I'm thinking about at the moment" if I didn't include them.

Does My Subconscious Do Jackson While I Sleep?

2007-02-20T11:15:00.000-05:00

For those of you who do not know, one of my classes this semester uses Jackson's E&M which is the standard electricity and magnetism graduate text and widely-described "rite of passage," which of course is a euphemism. Problems typically take several days to finish. What I have noticed, however, is that if I spend too much time on it in one session, I hit a wall. If I set it aside and do something else, lo and behold an answer to the latest sticking point (alas, not always the correct answer) will just occur to me at he oddest times. This has been especially noticeable after I've been sleeping. I wonder whether my subconscious is really working on Jackson. It's happened too many times for me to dismiss that something unusual is happening.

What a Pleasant Surprise

2007-02-19T12:31:00.000-05:00

So the Answers in Genesis guy came to our church yesterday. I was not looking forward to it, and neither was my wife because she didn't want to put up with me being grumpy for the rest of the day. As I've been writing here, I was upset because my previous experiences reading or listening to professional young-earthers have been characterized in my view by mockery and misrepresentation of the opposing view, religious manipulation, and other unethical practices. Well this guy wasn't that way at all. For the most part only spoke positively about his own position, spoke about why he didn't like certain opposing views, and didn't once ridicule opposing viewpoints. I was floored, and I went up to thank him for it afterwards. Now, I didn't agree with hardly anything he said, but I have to say that nothing that he said made me angry. That was indeed a pleasant surprise, and I have to say, maybe AIG isn't all bad as I'd been led to believe by my previous exposure to them.

Stellar Modeling Software

2007-02-17T21:53:00.000-05:00

I have a lab assignment for Astrophysics that uses a numerical simulation of the evolution of a star. We've been learning in class how five coupled differential equations describe the internal processes of a star. The really neat thing about all of this is that one simple process, the fusion of light nuclei into heavier nuclei, is all it takes to drive all of the phenomena that occur in a star over its life cycle. As the chemical composition of the core of the star changes (more specifically, as the mass per particle changes) the behavior of the core under the ideal gas law changes. At the same time, the rate of energy release from fusion is not constant, since the ratio of raw material to by-product is constantly changing. It is quite an achievement for twentieth-century astrophysics to go from a simple census of stellar properties with no clue why to a full-blown explanation that describes the diversity of observed stars as a different stages in a temporal sequence with remarkably few input parameters, namely the initial mass and composition. I wonder whether by the end of the 21st century we'll have figured out this embarrassing dark matter and dark energy stuff.

In any case, I need to run these simulations and see what I can learn from them for three stars of initial mass 0.6, 3, and 100 times the mass of the Sun. The first thing I have learned is that you cannot have too much RAM. As for the astronomy side of things, one thing that was quite spectacular was to see just how big stars get in their red giant phases. In general, though, there were more surprises and unanswered questions than illumination. Why, for instance, would a very large star have two shells of convection with a layer in between of very low temperature gradient? Plus the program crashed a lot, when I asked it to do more than the RAM available could handle (it was a on a bootable Linux CD so the OS took up some RAM). Apparently there are Ph.D. level classes that spend a whole semester on stellar structure, and I hope to take one of those someday.

Asking Questions About the Universe

2007-02-17T09:54:00.000-05:00

I would like to recommend the book The Fourth Day: What the Bible and the Heavens are Telling Us About the Creation by Howard van Till. Van Till presents his method for "taking both the Bible and the Cosmos seriously." His approach is closest to my own. The book also has a quite good explanation of basic astrophysics.

My time is limited today but I would like to share with you his paradigm for analyzing various questions we can ask about the natural world. The eight categories of questions we can ask are (alphabetical order):

Behavior: What does the universe do? Does the universe exhibit patterns of behavior?
Governance: What agent causes the universe to act in a certain way?
History: What sequence of events occurred in the universe's past? How do present conditions reflect these past events?
Origin: What is the cause of the existence of the universe?
Properties: What discernible physical characteristics does the universe display?
Purpose: Does the universe exist for a certain reason? Does it behave the way it does for a certain reason?
Status: Does any realm exist apart from the universe? If so, what is the universe's status relative to it?
Value: Does the universe have value? If so, what criteria establish that value?

Van Till separates these eight into two categories: Internal Affairs (1,3,5) and External Relationships (2,4,6,7,8). His thesis is that natural science is the domain for investigation of questions about internal affairs and the Bible (since he is a Christian) is the domain for investigation of questions about external relationships. He argues that incorrect conclusions are drawn when answers are pursued with the wrong tool.

I believe van Till's analysis can give us insight in the efforts of young-earth activism. The crux of the controversy is whether the Bible is an appropriate authority to consult on questions about the history of the Cosmos. The young-earthers believe that it is, and I am one of many Christians who believe that it is not. In my experience, however, young earth speakers and publications take their position on this issue as an assumption and then proceed to spend their time bashing evolution. For one thing, this is a waste of time: if the Bible is an authority on natural history, then evolution is contradicted right there, so who cares if you can show it is "full of holes"? Much worse, however, it is outright deception to refuse to acknowledge that there is a diversity of opinion on this core issue within the Church. Young-earthers would do much better on many levels to make theology be the focus of their outreach efforts, instead of science.

There is a precedent for the problems that arise when answers are pursued in the wrong place: the Copernicus-Bruno-Galileo revolution in celestial mechanics. These men got in trouble because the religious authorities of the day saw the Bible as an authoritative resource for van Till's category 1, Behavior. Verses like, "the Earth is firmly established, it cannot be moved," and, 'The Sun rises and the Sun sets and hurries to the place of its rising," were used to argue that the Earth cannot go around the Sun. We think that these are ridiculous arguments today (there are a few die-hards) but there is no functional difference between the opponents of Galileo 400 years ago and the opponents of geology and biology today. The crux of the matter is not the content of the scientific theories, but whether the Bible is intended to be a comment on them.

Valentine's Day

2007-02-15T11:22:00.000-05:00

There was no driving anywhere given how low the student areas of town are on the Muncie Street Dept. priority list, so I picked up a DVD at the library on the way home. I got the classic Romeo and Juliet from the 60s. About ten minutes into it, when Romeo and Juliet are kissing five minutes after meeting each other, we both said, "This doesn't happen in real life!" When they get married the next day, we started giving it the Mystery Science Theater treatment, and had a great time. So that was our snowed-in Valentine's Day.

Google Maps Pedometer

2007-02-13T08:53:00.000-05:00

If like me you walk places then you might be interested in Google Maps Pedometer. It works just like Google Maps; use the Hybrid view to best see the path you actually take.

I found that the way that I typically walk to work is nearly exactly one mile, but I also found the valuable information that an alternate route that passes by the shuttle bus stop is essentially the same distance, plus I have a good chance of catching a bus every other day. My current route is the going home route since it passes by a northbound shuttle bus stop, the new route is the going to work route since it passes by the southbound shuttle stop.

Firefox Live Bookmarks

2007-02-12T22:20:00.000-05:00

Now that I'm writing a blog I want to keep track of other blogs. I have found a really neat way to do this right in Firefox, using a feature I already loved, the Bookmark bar. Firefox 5.0 (and maybe earlier versions too, I don't know) has something called Live Bookmarks. You "subscribe" to a page, and a button appears on your bookmark bar that is a drop-down menu of recent posts! It is easy to subscribe: either click the "Subscribe" button on the Google Toolbar or go to Firefox's Bookmarks menu > Subscribe to This Page. One drawback that I see to it is that you have to make a separate bookmark to go to the main page, the Live Bookmarks take you to individual post pages.

Speaking of the Bookmark bar, you can change the properties of a button to reduce the length of the website's name. On websites with distinctive icons I just change the button Name to null, and it really looks like a button.

Sausage Lentil Stew

2007-02-11T19:18:00.000-05:00

This recipe comes from my wife's friend Cathy. We had it for dinner tonight and it was really good.

1/2 lb. bulk Italian Sausage
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 small green pepper, finely chopped
1 small carrot, grated or finely chopped
1 large garlic clove, minced
1 bay leaf
2 cans (14.5 oz.) chicken broth
1 can (14.5 oz) coarsely chopped tomatoes, with liquid
1 c water
3/4 c dry lentils

Cook and drain the sausage
Throw everything in a big saucepan and simmer for an hour
Don't eat the bay leaf

AIG Using the Ape Card: Smoking Gun

2007-02-11T13:43:00.000-05:00

In my Monkey Cooties post I wrote about the complaint against the theory of evolution that man is created in the image of God, not the image of monkeys. I showed why I am not persuaded by this complaint, by explaining why I believe that the image of God is a purely spiritual thing. The theory of evolution, being a theory of natural science, has nothing to say one way or another about spiritual matters. The complaint collapses IMO because it accuses evolution of making an erroneous statement about the image of God in Man when in fact it says absolutely nothing about it. I speculated that its persistence is due to emotional distaste at what evolution teaches about human bodies WRT apes.

At the end of that post I said that young-earthers would do well to stop using the ape card against evolution. My friend Bert, who is a supporter of Answers in Genesis, The Institute of Creation Research, and other young-earth organizations, commented, "AIG and ICR do not use this argument in the least." I did not have a contrary example of a professional young-earth publication that did at the time, but I do now: the flyers my church is passing out to advertise its AIG conference this upcoming Sunday. Because I find this picture so distasteful and furthermore do not want to risk someone idly scrolling through my blog and thinking I actually agree with it, I'm going to hide the picture below the jump:

There really are only two things on this front side of the flyer: Several gorillas all dressed in human clothing, and an invitation to come and let AIG exchange your evolutionary thinking for "biblical" thinking. If this isn't the ape card, what in the world would be?

I am not typically one that would indulge in "I told you so," particularly with a friend, but in this case I feel it is necessary. AIG and similar organizations are wrongly teaching evangelicals that science is an enemy incompatible with Christianity. I was angry when I heard AIG was coming to our church. Blogging about it has helped me realize exactly why I get so upset. I really, truly do not mind it that some people are young-earthers. It is not the young-earth position itself that I mind so much, though I do not myself hold it. It is the unethical methods of that position’s most vocal proponents, such as the emotional manipulation and misrepresentation of this flyer, that makes my blood boil.

Anonymous Posting

2007-02-09T09:26:00.000-05:00

I'm not going to disallow Anonymous posting yet, because I want to encourage my friends to leave comments on my blog without having to sign up for Blogger. Please do leave your name in form field above the comment text box, it just helps me know who's talking. Anonymous posts containing links to commercial websites will be deleted, so if such a link is relevant to what you're saying, leave your name!

Anna Nicole Smith

2007-02-09T09:00:00.000-05:00

Is there a good reason why everything that happens to this woman is a national headline, or is it just the boobs?

Venus and Mercury

2007-02-06T14:30:00.000-05:00

If you look in the southwest after sunset, you will see a very bright "star." This is actually the planet Venus. In early February, if you look to Venus's lower right you may see Mercury. It is brighter than most stars but still a lot dimmer than Venus. It moves swiftly and you won't see it for long, perhaps not even by mid-February. In the mornings, Jupiter is the bright "star" in the southeast.

What Have I Wrought?

2007-02-06T14:24:00.000-05:00

I just ran a planetarium show for fifty seventh-graders, and I actually told them that Pluto is made of frozen farts. We were talking about how Pluto isn't classified as a planet anymore, and one of the reasons why is because it is made of ice instead of gas or rock like the Jovian and terrestrial planets. Well one of them asked what kind of ice it is made of (a pretty good question from a seventh-grader, I'd say), and I said, "Well, there's water ice, and then there's ammonia ice, that's like frozen cleaning fluid, and then there's methane ice, and that's like ..." and I couldn't come up with any other methane example. So Pluto's made of frozen farts. One fringe benefit, though, they paid attention to me for the full hour. At least I didn't tell the kid who asked where he could see Uranus that he was sitting on it.

Lenses

2007-02-06T11:19:00.000-05:00

One of the thing that particularly annoys me about Answers In Genesis is how frequently they refer to the young-earth view as, "biblical." "Get a biblical worldview," the flyers for the event at my church say. The clear implication here, particularly when you listen to an AIG representative speak, is that the young-earth view is the only "biblical" one. The bait-and-switch being pulled here (most likely unwittingly) is invoking the doctrine of the inerrancy of Scripture when discussing an interpretation. of Scripture. No doctrine can claim inerrancy, and here's why: there are several "lenses" in the way.

First you have God's thoughts. If inerrancy exists anywhere, here would be a place.
Next, you have the lens of human language. Somehow these ideas need to get distilled into Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. People who appeal to the inerrancy of their doctrines need to demonstrate that God's thoughts are fully capable of being expressed in human language. Predestination and free will come to mind as a counterexample.
Next we have the lens of reading. No humans can ever communicate faithfully with each other, because the ideas put into words (spoken or written) by one person get decoded back into ideas by the other with imperfect accuracy. Anyone who is married knows what I mean.
Lastly there is the lens of systematic theology, where we have to take all these various ideas and hammer them into a coherent whole. The mere existence of several different schools of theology is proof enough that this isn't foolproof--unless you want to take the step of saying everyone else is wrong but you.

AIG is committed to the literal interpretation of Genesis, hence the young earth, from which flows the opposition to evolution. Step 2 above is where literal interpretation is disqualified from claiming inerrancy. Here is where the use of, "biblical" gets abusive, because that word has a connotation within evangelicalism of being the Christian "kosher," used in exactly the same way. When someone says their position is biblical, they are implying that opposing position is unclean. It's really close to the ad hominem fallacy and really short-circuits dialog of the various issues, particularly in a conference when advocates of differing views are not present.

I think the kosherness connotations associated with, "biblical" make it a word that should not be used lightly, and particularly not on controversial ones like natural history. AIG needs to be talking about why literal interpretation is preferable, instead of simply assuming it is best and plowing ahead under the "biblical" standard.

Answers in Genesis

2007-02-05T14:51:00.000-05:00

My church has a representative from Answers In Genesis coming to town in a couple weeks for a weekend conference and the Sunday sermon. I am pretty upset about it, and it has been an interesting week or so since I learned about it processing through all these emotions. I am not opposed to the young-earth view itself, though I do not share it. I once had that view myself, so I'm sympathetic to the theological reasons why some people choose this position. I am, however, quite upset about this particular organization for its methodology which seems quite unethical to me.

My church showed a video series published by AIG last fall, and I attended a couple of sessions. It struck me that there wasn't much difference between the speaker and some of the outspoken atheists such as Richard Dawkins:

The opposing position was consistently mocked. This sets up a sort of peer pressure that is not conducive to honest discussion. For the creationists, it is monkey jokes, for the atheists, it is imaginary friend jokes. I frankly don't see much difference between sarcasm-speech and hate-speech int his context.
The opposition is consistently misrepresented and misunderstood. Frequently the video was saying, "science says such and such, but look at this, that disproves it" when I knew biology or geology claims no such thing. Similar incorrect accusations can be found in atheist writings, when incorrect theology is talked into a corner.
Both sides seem to have fallen into a false dilemma trap of either a 6000-year old earth or godless naturalism. Young earthers in particular make the mistake that disproving the opposition is the same thing as proving their own position.
Both sides use emotional manipulation. I spoke about this a little in my Monkey Cooties post. The use of the word, "biblical" is another example that I'll write about later. On the atheist side, the emotional manipulation focuses more on ridicule and intellectual pride.
Boogeyman tactics are frequent. Atheists warn about the conspriacy to turn America into a theocracy, young-earthers warn about the conspiracy to eliminate religion from society. Neither of these has very much to do with a discussion of merits of various explanations of natural history.
Both sides are engaged in a polarizing warfare mentality on this issue that is completely unnecessary and counterproductive.

I really wish there was a mature forum for discussions of origins and the interaction between science and faith. I feel like I don't have any label left for myself that hasn't been hijacked by connotations I'd rather avoid. I'm out of time today but over the next couple weeks I'll try to post more on this topic as the conference approaches and I work through what I am thinking and feeling about it.

Monkey Cooties

2007-02-05T14:11:00.000-05:00

In the first chapter of the book of Genesis in the Bible we read that man is created in the image of God. The text is skimpy on details--pretty much the only thing we can conclude about it from the text is that it is something unique to humans, from the contrast between verses 25 and 26. We can nevertheless make some progress understanding this through simple examination of the world around us.

I'm going to assume here the tripartite model of humanity, that is, that we are body, soul and spirit, soul being the intellect, emotions and will. Let's take these one at a time to see whether they might be unique to humans.

Body: There should be no question on this one. Humans are mammals: they have hair, mammary glands, varied dentition and chewing muscles, warm-bloodedness, you name it. You don't have to look at biochemistry, but if you do, humans work on the inside essentially the same as all other organisms. So the body is not unique to humans, therefore it cannot be the image of God.
Emotions and Will: If you've ever owned a pet, you know animals can feel emotions. They also choose to obey you or not, etc. So these too are not unique to humans.
Intellect Here we can go to invertebrates. Octopi are excellent planners and problem solvers. The Portia spider will scan it's spider victim's lair for a couple hours before choosing an optimized approach for its attack. Clearly intelligence is not unique to humans, and not even language--it's a matter of degree only.
Spirit This is the only thing left for the image of God to be, if the image of God is something unique to humans.

The important thing to notice about this exercise is that we don't need to do anything more than take a causal look around us to know that the image of God is a purely spiritual thing. Specifically, this conclusion does not require one to take a position on the theory of evolution--and hence the converse is true as well, evolution takes no position on the image of God. Evolution gives an explanation for why Body and Soul are not unique to humans, but because it is a scientific theory it says nothing about Spirit by definition. Since evolution says nothing about the spiritual realm, and the image of God is our spirits, the doctrine of the image of God cannot be a valid objection to evolution.

I feel that a lot of Christians with whom I discuss evolution eventually end up at the image of God, and I can understand their distaste of being associated with apes that way--call it monkey cooties if you want. This emotional objection is a perfectly valid reason why a particular person might choose to not accept the theory of evolution, but it is not a valid rational indictment of the theory itself. Appealing to squeamishness contributes nothing but vitriol to the discussion of natural history. Young-earthers would do well to stop using the ape card against evolution. This is reduced to pure emotional manipulation once when you take into account what the image of God transparently can and can't be.

Homemade Pancake Mix

2007-02-02T12:36:00.000-05:00

If it seems like this is turning into a cooking blog, that's not my intention. Mainly, it's an artifact of how quick it is to write a recipe post, plus I have a lot of good recipes I'd love to share.

This morning we had pancakes for Breakfast. We've taken the best scratch pancake recipe I've ever tasted ("Sweet Milk Pancakes" from the Family Recipes from Quilters cookbook). Here's the recipe, and below the jump the proportions for making about a gallon of mix. I think you'll agree that this is a rally tasty pancake.

2 c Flour
4 t Baking Powder
1 t Salt
4 T Sugar
2 Eggs
2 c Milk
4 T Oil

Mix the wet together first and add it slowly to the dry. Too much mixing makes for a stiff pancake, just like with muffins.

Here's the mix:

12 c Flour
1 1/2 c Sugar
1/2 c Baking Powder
2 T Salt

To make it, mix up 1 egg, 1 c milk, and 2 T oil. Add this to 1 cup + 3 T of mix.

If anyone knows how I can better do fractions in Blogger, tell me how!

Sausage and Mushroom Something-or-Other

2007-02-02T12:34:00.000-05:00

My wife threw this together last night for dinner and it was scrumptious. I was surprised because I'm not usually a mushroom fan:

1/2 lb. Sausage
1/3 lb. Sliced Mushrooms
3 Eggs
"a couple handfuls" of Shredded Colby-Jack

Brown the sausage
Drain a little grease and sauté the mushrooms
Add the cheese and beaten eggs and cook till the eggs are done

It is more like the eggs are holding everything together than it's scrambled eggs with stuff added. Anyone know the proper cooking term for that?

Bread Machine Pizza Dough

2007-02-01T09:24:00.000-05:00

I've been looking for a good pizza dough recipe for a while. My Dad sent me a recipre that takes five hours to rise, etc. It sounds really good, but I don't really have the time for it. So I've been looking something non-gourmand for the bread machine.

This recipe is the result of a mistake. I accidentally added 3/4 cup too much water as I should have--but the results were great! It tastes adequately good, but the real plus is that it isn't sticky: you can roll it out without flour! I hate rolling with flour. You can even press this out with your hands!

Add to the bread machine in this order:

1 c water
2 T oil
2 T sugar
1/8 t salt
3 c flour
1 T yeast

Put it on the dough setting and 90 minutes later, you're cooking!

The only problem I have is how to get the bottom of the crust to crisp up. I'm tried baking it on a metal sheet and on a stone. Does anyone have any ideas?

Bible Paraphrases

2007-01-31T09:49:00.000-05:00

My friend Bert (BikeBubba) has written a couple posts at his blog about the "New Gelded Version" (his name for the gender-neutral Today's New International Version). In a follow-up post today he interacts with one of his commenters and adds this about paraphrases in general:

Let's consider how the TNIV translators might update the Declaration of Independence, specifically the phrase "all men are created equal".

One might say "men and women," or "people", or perhaps "white male landowning slaveholders", depending on one's point of view, no? One could get a great argument for, or against, any one of these, right?

Which is the central objection I have to the TNIV, and to paraphrases in general; even if they get the "sense" of a passage right, they've made all of the decisions for the reader, and the reader is powerless to use the hints provided by the author to apply the text to other writings.

I agree with Bert in this, that paraphrases necessarily make interpretation decisions for the reader. Unlike him, however, I don't think this is a bad thing, for several reasons:

Any English translation, no matter how much it attempts to be word-for-word, is going to contain interpretation on the part of the translator. It is simply unavoidable, because languages are structured differently, do not have perfect overlap in connotation and denotation, and on top of all that our knowledge of contemporary idiom is imperfect. All that remains to be decided about the interpretation in a translation or paraphrases is a matter of degree. Deciding whether a particular version has "too much" interpretation is also something, "one could get a great argument for, or against." The interpretation-less version that would remove this uncertainty, however, simply doesn't exist.

Just as there is a scale that goes from little to much interpretation, there is also a scale that goes from little to much readability, and guess what: it's directly proportional to the amount of interpretation. In one's zeal for understanding and accuracy, be sure to not trivialize Scripture's relational aspect. A lot of the books in the Bible were originally personal letters, and I don't think anyone today writes a letter to a friend using NASB style. I currently prefer the NLT, because its readability enhances its devotional usefulness. I once was an NASB man, but no longer--I think paraphrases speak better to the heart, and IMO that is Scripture's most important function. In my concern for accuracy I had forgotten that God was a person instead of a subject. I'm not saying that everyone who reads a version from the word-for-word end of the interpretation spectrum will fall into this trap, but I will say that switching to a paraphrase was part of how I got out of it.

A lot of the errors I think Bert is concerned about are easily remedied simply by recognizing that there is interpretation going on. When I have a theological question, I dig out my Nestle-Aland and commentaries, and tread very carefully. Yet much more often I am hoping that God will speak to me through the Scriptures, and in those cases paraphrases are more accessible.

I'll end like Bert did: I'd rather someone read the NASB than no Bible at all, but I'd prefer to read something else. There's no "best" translation. Everyone should find their comfort zone on the interpretation spectrum, recognize the potential hang-ups of that choice, and then get reading.

Great Walmart Bargain on Ground Pork

2007-01-29T13:05:00.000-05:00

We have made a discovery at Wal-Mart. They sell unseasoned ground pork in 1 pound packages for about 2/3 the price of 70/30 ground beef. This stuff is so lean, there is almost not enough fat to cook it in. Yesterday we picked up three packages about to expire for the freezer for $1.25 each. Cheap, lean, tasty meat doesn't come along very often.

A Robot Steered By a Slime Mold

2007-01-25T11:37:00.000-05:00

I am utterly astounded. Researchers from the University of Southampton and the University of Kobe have built a robot that is controlled by a slime mold. Yes, you read that right. Best as I can tell, the slime mold doesn't like light, and the robot detects the direction it is oozing in and moves that direction. Apparently the things works so well that it looks like the robot is actively hiding from light. Remember, this is a slime mold--a single-celled protist. No AI, just crude biomechanics. Hat tip to Wikipedia.

Eighties Music

2007-01-25T11:11:00.000-05:00

Last night at about 2:30 I was working on my electrodynamics homework, and I was realizing that I needed new music. As I mentioned previously I listen pretty much constantly to but the Oldies station wasn't keeping me awake. I was doing a Maclaurin series on the magnetic field between two current loops, and I had to take it out the fourth derivative. Product rule to the face, buddy! On a lark I tried the Flock of Eighties station. Wow, what a flood (flock?) of memories! Anyway I eventually discovered that I'd factored a 7 out of a parenthesis when I'd wanted to factor out a 1/7. There's half an hour I'll never get back. Thanks, Jackson!

As I write this a Tiffany song comes on. I can't believe I used to like that crap. It must be because I thought she was hot.

Bill Parcells Retires!

2007-01-22T16:04:00.000-05:00

Well this is a surprise. When the Cowboys' quarterback is ~~the second coming of Jesus~~ Tony Romo I would have expected he'd give it one more year. He seemed to like coaching him, they seemed to fit together well. Maybe Romo isn't as good as most people think, or maybe his health is worse than he's letting on?

The Constrictor Knot

2007-01-22T15:42:00.000-05:00

Okay, homework break. The Constrictor Knot is a binding knot, meaning you can use it to tightly tie up something. It is best for cylindrical objects, where a Square Knot is better for flat objects. The Constrictor Knot can also be used as a hitch, to attach a rope to a post or something, like how a Clove Hitch would be used. Here's how to tie it (these instructions are written for tying around a horizontal bar):

Make a 360 degree wrap around the bar.
Make a 180 degree wrap around the bar, crossing over the standing part. The running end should be anti-parallel to the standing part and on the opposite side of the standing part from the first wrap.
Cross the running end over the standing part without crossing over the bar.
Tuck the running end under the cross in the bar made by the 180 degree wrap.

This knot will hold very tightly. That means of course that it's pretty hard to untie.

Macaroni Meat

2007-01-22T14:19:00.000-05:00

This is a family recipe that I made for the first time in a long time this past weekend. It's basically a baked goulash. I was reminded of it when I saw packaged shredded Monterey Jack cheese at the grocery store. Here's the recipe:

2 c uncooked elbow macaroni
1 lb ground beef
1 can Italian diced tomatoes
1 little can tomato sauce
coarsely chopped medium onion
coarsely chopped half green pepper
8 oz. shredded Monterey Jack cheese
Parmesan cheese

Boil the macaroni
Brown the meat
Remove the meat and sauté the veggies
Simmer the meat, veggies, diced tomatoes, and tomato sauce in a 3qt saucepan
Stir in the shredded cheese
Put everything in a greased 9×13 and sprinkle Parmesan over it
Bake it covered at 350° for 20 minutes, then uncovered and brown it as much as you want

Mmm, mmm, wicked good!

Color Pie? What Color Pie?

2007-01-22T10:43:00.000-05:00

Planar Chaos spoilers are here. Black's got Wrath, White's got Terror. Green's got Ball Lightning, Red's got Giant Growth. Serra Angel's blue, Akroma is Red. There's cool Suspend X and Vanishing mechanics, but all the balance in Magic is out the window--or is it? I'm going to trust that they playtested this to death, and instead of worrying, have fun. My sweet Time Spiral suicide deck is one Extirpate away from ruin, though, back to the drawing board I guess.

Forecast for Hell: Snow Showers

2007-01-22T10:32:00.000-05:00

Brady choked, Manning didn't.

Graph Paper PDF Maker

2007-01-18T15:00:00.000-05:00

Ever wanted some custom graph paper? Go here. There's stuff there that I didn't even know existed. Apparently you can just e-mail the guy and ask for something else if he doesn't have it already, since there are a lot of new kinds there in just the past few months. The site takes your parameters and with the click of a button you're downloading a PDF of your graph paper. And of course you know what to do with that.

AccuRadio

2007-01-18T13:48:00.000-05:00

AccuRadio is an internet radio station with a couple hundred different channels by genre. I never felt like Pandora ever figured out what I like, but AccuRadio can fill a dreary day (for instance, writing a grant proposal) with pleasant music. Nothing's perfect, of course. The Classical channels, for instance, treat each movement of a piece as a different song, so it has you jumping in and out of the middle of pieces--not very fun. There's some repetition, too, for instance the "Hey Hey We're the 60s" channel likes to play, "There Goes My Baby" by The Tremeloes a lot. But for free, it's real good.

The Zeppelin Bend

2007-01-18T12:25:00.000-05:00

There are going to be a lot of knot posts on this blog, because I got a knot book at Christmas from SIL Shawnna and I like it a lot. I've always wanted to know the right knot for given situations, and it turns out some of the ones I learned in Boy Scouts aren't the best ones.

Here's an example. Despite what some websites say, you should never use a Square Knot as a bend (a bend joins two ropes together). If one of the running ends gets yanked, it can spill, and the guy on the other end of the rope that you are hauling to safety will be annoyed.

Instead, use a Zeppelin Bend. This is easy to tie, and very uneasy to untie. Best of all, it doesn't jam, meaning that you can put a ton of weight on it and still be able to untie it, unlike say an overhand knot. There's pictures at the link, and here's step by step verbal instructions:

Make a crossing turn (loop) in one rope. Hold it so the standing end (the long part of the rope) goes west and the running end (the end of the rope) goes under and north.
Make a crossing turn in the other rope and lay it on top of the first one so the standing part goes east and the running end goes over and east.
Bring the bottommost (north) running end up and run it downward through the tunnel formed by the two loops.
Bring the topmost running end down and run it upward though the tunnel.
Grab the two running ends in one hand and the two standing parts in the other, and pull to tighten the knot. Then grab the two standing parts one in each hand and pull to reach the final shape. The standing parts and running ends should be a right angles to each other in the same plane.

Untying is the cool part. Just grab the two turns that go over the standing parts and simultaneously pull them away from the knot. Magic!

Try Foxit Reader instead of Adobe Acrobat Reader

2007-01-18T12:19:00.000-05:00

Why use Foxit instead of Adobe Reader? Well, it pretty much looks the same, but it doesn't try to take over your computer. Isn't that enough? Seriously, I don't do much with PDFs except read them, so I don't really know what all Adobe Reader can do that Foxit can't--but if there is anything, I don't miss it. Did I mention that I really don't like how Adobe Reader tries to take over your computer? Well, I don't.

Neat Firefox Trick

2007-01-18T11:58:00.000-05:00

Highlight some text. Right click on it. See the Search Google for "text" option. Never cut and paste again. It will even open in a new tab for you!

Hello Everyone!

2007-01-16T07:32:00.000-05:00

So this is like the third or fourth time I've tried to start a blog. We'll see how it goes this time.