Friday, August 31, 2007
Tutorials
I ♥ people with the time to put together stuff like this: Digital Image Manipulation Tutorials
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Toys
My 2x teleconverter that I got on eBay came today - put it between the lens and the camera, and double the size (at the expense of the amount of light you allow). So of course I had to play with it. Thanks to the remnants of Hurricane Dean, we had clouds (and RAIN!) today for the first time in about 3 months, so my roommate and I trekked to the TMCC campus to take some pictures on a hill. Two of my favorites follow:
On the need for heretics
An interesting article...
My first heresy says that all the fuss about global warming is grossly exaggerated. Here I am opposing the holy brotherhood of climate model experts and the crowd of deluded citizens who believe the numbers predicted by the computer models. Of course, they say, I have no degree in meteorology and I am therefore not qualified to speak. But I have studied the climate models and I know what they can do. The models solve the equations of fluid dynamics, and they do a very good job of describing the fluid motions of the atmosphere and the oceans. They do a very poor job of describing the clouds, the dust, the chemistry and the biology of fields and farms and forests. They do not begin to describe the real world that we live in. The real world is muddy and messy and full of things that we do not yet understand. It is much easier for a scientist to sit in an air-conditioned building and run computer models, than to put on winter clothes and measure what is really happening outside in the swamps and the clouds. That is why the climate model experts end up believing their own models.
There is no doubt that parts of the world are getting warmer, but the warming is not global. I am not saying that the warming does not cause problems. Obviously it does. Obviously we should be trying to understand it better. I am saying that the problems are grossly exaggerated. They take away money and attention from other problems that are more urgent and more important, such as poverty and infectious disease and public education and public health, and the preservation of living creatures on land and in the oceans, not to mention easy problems such as the timely construction of adequate dikes around the city of New Orleans.
My first heresy says that all the fuss about global warming is grossly exaggerated. Here I am opposing the holy brotherhood of climate model experts and the crowd of deluded citizens who believe the numbers predicted by the computer models. Of course, they say, I have no degree in meteorology and I am therefore not qualified to speak. But I have studied the climate models and I know what they can do. The models solve the equations of fluid dynamics, and they do a very good job of describing the fluid motions of the atmosphere and the oceans. They do a very poor job of describing the clouds, the dust, the chemistry and the biology of fields and farms and forests. They do not begin to describe the real world that we live in. The real world is muddy and messy and full of things that we do not yet understand. It is much easier for a scientist to sit in an air-conditioned building and run computer models, than to put on winter clothes and measure what is really happening outside in the swamps and the clouds. That is why the climate model experts end up believing their own models.
There is no doubt that parts of the world are getting warmer, but the warming is not global. I am not saying that the warming does not cause problems. Obviously it does. Obviously we should be trying to understand it better. I am saying that the problems are grossly exaggerated. They take away money and attention from other problems that are more urgent and more important, such as poverty and infectious disease and public education and public health, and the preservation of living creatures on land and in the oceans, not to mention easy problems such as the timely construction of adequate dikes around the city of New Orleans.
Enemy Territory
Looking back on our participation in the Reno AIDS Walk, one person said "Wow. We were really in enemy territory today." He was referring to the fact that there was a statistically high concerntration of homosexuals and homosexual rights groups supporting the AIDS walk. Something about that has sat at the back of my mind for a few days, and I just nailed it down.
The truth is that every time we set foot in the world, we are entering enemy territory. It is easy to think of the world as a safe, neutral place. But he was jarred out of this by realizing that we were standing side-by-side with people advocating a sinful lifestyle - all the more obvious because it's one that creates a lot of divisions in the church and in the world today.
But if we want to be the church - to represent Jesus in a world run by Satan's rules, scemes, and devices, then we will ALWAYS be in enemy territory, whether in a car wash, the AIDS walk, or at the laundromat. That is truth #1. But truth #2 is that we're also promised that the bastions of hell will not stand before Christ's church. We live to assault those strongholds, not with anger, WMDs or protests, but the same way Jesus did - love, forgiveness, and grace. To follow the Son of Man who came not to be served, but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many.
The truth is that every time we set foot in the world, we are entering enemy territory. It is easy to think of the world as a safe, neutral place. But he was jarred out of this by realizing that we were standing side-by-side with people advocating a sinful lifestyle - all the more obvious because it's one that creates a lot of divisions in the church and in the world today.
But if we want to be the church - to represent Jesus in a world run by Satan's rules, scemes, and devices, then we will ALWAYS be in enemy territory, whether in a car wash, the AIDS walk, or at the laundromat. That is truth #1. But truth #2 is that we're also promised that the bastions of hell will not stand before Christ's church. We live to assault those strongholds, not with anger, WMDs or protests, but the same way Jesus did - love, forgiveness, and grace. To follow the Son of Man who came not to be served, but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many.
The Emergent / Emerging / Postmodern / ... / Church
I don't like labels, especially when applied to something so wondrously diverse that the label stands no hope of well-defining the labeled thing. That said, it's certainly true that Coram Deo has some things in common with the "Emerging/ent Church," most notably the idea of sharing Christ largely through our actions.
As humans with blind spots like everyone else, I want to know what the criticisms and weaknesses of the EC are, because like any group it has its weaknesses, too. In teh course of my looking, I came across this collection of articles, seemingly existing to take on the evils of the EC movement.
It'll be interesting to look through them, hopefully without too much of a defensive spirit, and see what the criticisms are, whether they are true of us, whether they are valid points of contention, and how we might change to better conform to the person of Christ.
As humans with blind spots like everyone else, I want to know what the criticisms and weaknesses of the EC are, because like any group it has its weaknesses, too. In teh course of my looking, I came across this collection of articles, seemingly existing to take on the evils of the EC movement.
It'll be interesting to look through them, hopefully without too much of a defensive spirit, and see what the criticisms are, whether they are true of us, whether they are valid points of contention, and how we might change to better conform to the person of Christ.
'Tis the Season
Where the Truckee's snow-fed waters
Drop from the mountain's crest
And the meadows meet the sagebrush
By the sun caressed
Cradled by the silver mountains
'Neath the Western Blue
Stands our noble alma mater
Our Nevada U
As the miner on the desert
Prospects every place
So Nevada seeks the future
With an upturned face
Everywhere she gathers knowledge
All that's good and true
Gives she to her sons and daughters
Of Nevada U
We will ever live to serve her
Live to give our best
Live to make our alma mater
Pride of all the West
Let her praises wake the echoes
While we pledge anew
Hearts and minds and hands and voices
To Nevada U
---
2 days, 3 hours, 23 minutes to football season!
Drop from the mountain's crest
And the meadows meet the sagebrush
By the sun caressed
Cradled by the silver mountains
'Neath the Western Blue
Stands our noble alma mater
Our Nevada U
As the miner on the desert
Prospects every place
So Nevada seeks the future
With an upturned face
Everywhere she gathers knowledge
All that's good and true
Gives she to her sons and daughters
Of Nevada U
We will ever live to serve her
Live to give our best
Live to make our alma mater
Pride of all the West
Let her praises wake the echoes
While we pledge anew
Hearts and minds and hands and voices
To Nevada U
---
2 days, 3 hours, 23 minutes to football season!
Incompatible goals
There are rumblings in Congress about "doing something" about the current housing situation - usually something along the lines of making sure people can keep the houses they have "bought" and/or propping up the market to keep housing prices from falling.
The housing market is overvalued. Prices went up too high, and people were making gambles that their houses would appreciate enough before their exotic mortgages reset and blasted them with higher payments. Now, the gamble has not paid off and people stand to lose the houses they have put little or no equity in to (paying interest-only mortgages means you haven't paid off a dime of the house).
But I have also heard rumblings from Congress that "the American Dream is slipping out of reach," namely that housing is getting so expensive that the average worker can no longer buy a house. This is a direct result of the housing price boom. When things get very expensive, fewer people can afford it.
So Congress is in a pickle. If they work to keep people in homes they could not afford and prop up the housing market, they keep prices from falling and perpetuate the fact that people can't afford their houses. If they let housing prices fall, people WILL lose their homes, and it will get worse if, as some analysts believe, the market is 10-15% overpriced nationwide. If they create new and exotic programs to help people buy houses that are too expensive, housing will just continue to get MORE expensive as people are able to buy. If they just artificially push all wages up across the board, they introduce inflation and likely recession with a lot of sound and fury and accomplish nothing.
But Congress hates to appear as though it is doing nothing. And so it will meddle somewhere, and it will make things worse. But you won't see them talking about the invisible people harmed by their actions. And in 2-6 years, you will hear them decrying the plight of the individuals they caused incidental harm to by their previous meddling, and promising to fix that, too. And so the cycle perpetuates itself.
The housing market is overvalued. Prices went up too high, and people were making gambles that their houses would appreciate enough before their exotic mortgages reset and blasted them with higher payments. Now, the gamble has not paid off and people stand to lose the houses they have put little or no equity in to (paying interest-only mortgages means you haven't paid off a dime of the house).
But I have also heard rumblings from Congress that "the American Dream is slipping out of reach," namely that housing is getting so expensive that the average worker can no longer buy a house. This is a direct result of the housing price boom. When things get very expensive, fewer people can afford it.
So Congress is in a pickle. If they work to keep people in homes they could not afford and prop up the housing market, they keep prices from falling and perpetuate the fact that people can't afford their houses. If they let housing prices fall, people WILL lose their homes, and it will get worse if, as some analysts believe, the market is 10-15% overpriced nationwide. If they create new and exotic programs to help people buy houses that are too expensive, housing will just continue to get MORE expensive as people are able to buy. If they just artificially push all wages up across the board, they introduce inflation and likely recession with a lot of sound and fury and accomplish nothing.
But Congress hates to appear as though it is doing nothing. And so it will meddle somewhere, and it will make things worse. But you won't see them talking about the invisible people harmed by their actions. And in 2-6 years, you will hear them decrying the plight of the individuals they caused incidental harm to by their previous meddling, and promising to fix that, too. And so the cycle perpetuates itself.
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Do you Doubt?
Do you doubt God? That God is good, sometimes that God even exists? Do you think that somehow disables you, or makes you useless for God's work?
You couldn't be more wrong.
You couldn't be more wrong.
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Orion
The source photo for the nebula picture. The first clear constellation I've gotten with my tracking mount. Just took me a little practice to get the hang of it..
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