Year: 2014 Page 4 of 13

Christian’s boat shoes: Before and After pics

On Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Christian is Internet famous again. I wonder whether I should start worrying about his grades. He had some old, beat up boat shoes that he did not want to throw away so he spent Saturday rehabilitating them and made the front page of the Reddit Male Fashion Advice section. The pictures below are the first and last images in a quite complete how-to that explains and illustrates how he did it. The comments by the readers at the end of the article are hilarious. Here is a link to the article. Here is is a link to the images that go with the article.

My friend and colleague Ann R. said it best, “He wrote that? Well…. i guess he is thrifty….. And who knew that Reddit had a ‘male fashion advice’ section.”

The question I had was “Who knew that anyone actually read the ‘male fashion advice’ section of Reddit?” It is on Reddit! It is kind of horrifying if you think about it.

Before
Christian's boat shoes before he rehabilitated them.

After
Christian's boat shoes after he rehabilitated them

Betty Blonde #185 – 04/01/2009

Click here or on the image to see full size strip.

Consciousness, artificial intelligence and the image of the beast

By Dad

On Monday, October 13, 2014

In Christianity

Denyse O’Leary often writes about the mind-brain problem. Her most recent article over at Evolution News and Views is titled Would We Give Up Naturalism to Solve the Hard Problem of Consciousness? I was reminded of a discussion Christian and I had the day before yesterday about Information Theory and one of Christian’s graduate school projects. At one point the discussion turned to Christianity, eschatology, and artificial intelligence. Christian made the comment that the current state of Artificial Intelligence was no where close to what would be necessary to create the conscious image of the beast described in Revelation 13.

O’Leary’s article gives a good explanation of why we are so far from any understanding of how to create a conscious entity. It centers on an idea articulated by philosopher and cognitive scientist David Chalmers in a paper titled Facing Up to the Problem of Consciousness published in 1995. He divides the problem of consciousness into those parts that are tractable with our current understanding and abilities and the really big problem for which we do not have a clue. The part he calls the easy problems include things like the deliberate control of behavior, the ability to discriminate, categorize and react to environmental stimuli and other measurable phenomena.

For the hard part of the problem, I recommend a reading of the entire article. It set off a firestorm of response and really framed this issue for our generation. Here is the paragraph that starts his description of the part on which naturalistic science is stuck:

The really hard problem of consciousness is the problem of experience. When we think and perceive, there is a whir of information-processing, but there is also a subjective aspect. As Nagel (1974) has put it, there is something it is like to be a conscious organism. This subjective aspect is experience. When we see, for example, we experience visual sensations: the felt quality of redness, the experience of dark and light, the quality of depth in a visual field. Other experiences go along with perception in different modalities: the sound of a clarinet, the smell of mothballs. Then there are bodily sensations, from pains to orgasms; mental images that are conjured up internally; the felt quality of emotion, and the experience of a stream of conscious thought. What unites all of these states is that there is something it is like to be in them. All of them are states of experience.

I think Chalmers did a great service in framing this problem properly. Almost two decades have passed since this paper was written. Many people, including Chalmers (see the bottom half of the linked paper), have taken a run at providing a naturalistic explanation of this hard problem of consciousness and failed. O’Leary has spent a good chunk of her career writing about these failures. The upshot is that the image of the beast described in Revelation 13 is beyond the scope of our current understanding. I do not know whether that is a relief or not.

Betty Blonde #184 – 03/31/2009

Click here or on the image to see full size strip.

Trying to figure out information theory

By Dad

On Sunday, October 12, 2014

In Science, Technology

I usually wimp out when it comes to learning hard mathematical stuff like what is required to have a working understanding of Information Theory. In this case, though, I am glad I let Christian convince me to give it a shot because it appears to be fundamental to things like how the brain works, intelligent design, statistical inference, cryptography, quantum computing and a ton of other stuff related to my work and/or are my avocational interests. I looked around for a decent introductory book that did not get so bogged down in the math that the big picture did not emerge. John R. Pierce’s book An Introduction to Information Theory: Symbols, Signals and Noise seemed to be an almost universal choice to meet this criteria.

I am half way through the first chapter of the book. It has become abundantly clear that a full understanding of Information Theory is not really possible without an engagement with the math at a deep level. Nevertheless, a review at Amazon made the following observation about the book that makes me think I am on the right path. I might need to read one or more additional books to arrive at the working understanding I want, but this will definitely get me started at a level that does not discourage me from taking the next steps. Here is an excerpt from the review:

The book is geared towards non-mathematicians, but it is not just a tour. Pierce tackles the main ideas just not all the techniques and special cases. Perfect for: anyone in science, linguistics, or engineering.

Another thing that is abundantly clear is that Christian, in his current position with his current major professor and research sponsor, has an exceptional opportunity to get a strong grounding in the area of Information Theory and that such a grounding will serve him very well whether in whatever technical research pursuit he chooses when he finishes this degree. His first research project is the solution of a difficult problem that engages specifically with the material about which I am reading, but with mathematical rigor beyond the scope of the book.

If the material is not too tedious for a general blog like this, I plan to write about it more because it is so interesting. I am early in the book and engaged with topic of entropy as it is used in the field of Information Theory. Entropy has a very specific definition in this context and is different from entropy as that word is used in thermodynamics or statistical mechanics. The bigger deal for me is that I can see it has important ramifications for even the work I do in my day job.

Betty Blonde #183 – 03/30/2009

Click here or on the image to see full size strip.

Twenty-two years ago

By Dad

On Friday, October 10, 2014

In Family

Lorena signs wedding papers with Grandma Conchita and Grandma Sarah in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico
We got married in an event hall called El Tío on Avenida Eugenio Garza Sada in Monterrey, Mexico. It was one of the happiest days of my life. One for which I am still grateful. This anniversary is a little different in that we are, in a certain sense, back to how we started with no kids in the house. That is Grandma Conchita, Lorena’s mom on the left side of the photo and Grandma Sarah, my mom on the right. We are starting to understand a lot of those things that older people described to us about the shortness of life. Kelly is now about the same age as Lorena when this picture was taken and both the kids are out making their own way. I would not change a thing other than my own attitude. God is good.

Betty Blonde #182 – 03/27/2009

Click here or on the image to see full size strip.
*Drawn for Kelly’s 15th birthday

Steven Pinker and other Sonlight/Luke stuff

By Dad

On Thursday, October 9, 2014

In culture, Science

Luke, over at the Sonlight blog is on somewhat of a roll, both in what he is writing and what he is linking in his Other posts of note list. He went away for a week on a road trip and now I have several new blog posts that need to be written based on his stuff. Especially surprising was a link to an article on a humanist pop-scientist named Steven Pinker. Steven Pinker regularly says ridiculous things about science and is just as regularly slapped down by people with deeper understanding of the things on which he pontificates. That being said, the last line in the article about Pinker caught my attention and actually makes me want to read his book. It says,

Scholars who argue for the beauty of language over the correctness of it always win my heart.

To my way of thinking, that is high praise. New York Magazine wrote an article about all this titled Steven Pinker on Why It’s Okay to Dangle Your Participle. It is quite a good interview article and I recommend it in spite of the venue. Steven Pinker, amazingly, has a coherent idea or two, at least on the topic of writing.

Maybe Luke should try to go away for a week more often. Week long road trips are awesome for those taking them and, under the right circumstances, very educational for those stuck at home.

Lorena’s flowers

By Dad

On Thursday, October 9, 2014

In Health

This note came with flowers the kids sent Lorena flowers for her convalescence.
Note that came from the kids for Lorena's jaw reconstruction surgery
Kelly and Christian sent flowers to Lorena

Betty Blonde #181 – 03/26/2009

Click here or on the image to see full size strip.

Lorena surgery update

By Dad

On Wednesday, October 8, 2014

In Health

We spent the last two days up in Durham in a variety of hospitals. Lorena and Conchita stayed there the night after the surgery so they could assure everything is OK. The upshot is that everything is good, but Lorena will have to put up with having her teeth wired shut for two weeks. That cause quite a restriction on her diet. After that, she will have to stay on a liquid diet for another month. Then there are a few more restrictions and some dental stuff, but for the most part she is good to go. It is a relief to have all of this out of the way. This should be the last of these health posts for awhile. I have lots of good stuff about which I would like to write, so I am looking forward to getting back to that.

Betty Blonde #180 – 03/25/2009

Click here or on the image to see full size strip.

Lorena’s second surgery

By Dad

On Monday, October 6, 2014

In General, Health

(11:30 AM) Lorena, Grandma Conchita and arrived at the Duke Medical Pavilion for Lorena’s second surgery. The surgery is at 2:30 this afternoon, but we got here early so we could fill out the paperwork and Lorena can be prepped. Lorena will be here overnight tonight and I plan to give a few updates here for the family as we go along. The surgery is fairly routine, but also fairly invasive so she will be here over night. Conchita and I do not know yet whether or not we will stay here for the night or go home and then come back in the morning.

(2:30 PM) We are still waiting. Lorena was supposed to have started surgery prep two hours ago, but we have not heard from anyone yet. We have a beeper that is supposed to go off when they are ready for us. I guess there were complications in the surgery before this one. Lorena just went to check on how much longer would be the delay and they took her in to get her prepped. Conchita and I are now the ones who are waiting.

(5:41 PM) We just got a call and were told the surgery had started. It should take about an hour. The doctor helped us decide some things that will make the surgery take about half the time we thought.

(7:20 PM) Lorena is out of surgery. Everything is OK. It was a pretty invasive thing. She will spend the night at the hospital.

Betty Blonde #179 – 03/24/2009

Click here or on the image to see full size strip.

What should one do with their life?

By Dad

On Saturday, October 4, 2014

In Christianity

Kelly and I had a long talk last night. A lot of it centered what one should do with their life when there are many options. We actually talked about Katie Davis of Amazima Ministries in Uganda, Mother Teresa, and, even more particularly, some of our dear friends who have given themselves wholly to ministry with little or no hope of appreciable recognition from an ungrateful world, at least in this life. It is a difficult discussion. I think I might write more about this going forward. The upshot of last nights discussion is that you cannot push a rope. The only thing one can do when they are young, have options and do not know what to do is wait for direction from God, keep preparing and have a hopeful, thankful spirit.

Betty Blonde #178 – 03/23/2009

Click here or on the image to see full size strip.

We need more professors like UNCW’s Mike Adams

By Dad

On Friday, October 3, 2014

In culture, Education, Politics

I have been a fan of Mike Adams for years. He is an extremely engaging writer and his column over at Townhall is well worth reading whenever he writes. He won teaching awards and has a very high rating on RateMyProfessor.com. He has written some books that were well received titled Feminsts Say the Darndest Things: A Politically Incorrect Professor Confronts “Womyn” on Campus and Welcome to the Ivory Tower of Babel: Confessions of a Conservative College Professor.

UNCW denied him tenure because of some conservative personal opinions he expressed while not at work. They denied they had discriminated against him. Over the last couple of month or so he wrote a series of articles on how he beat the administration and faculty at the University of North Carolina Wilmington into submission for their blatant and continued discrimination against him for being a Christian white male. The funny deal is that he was an atheist when he started. They loved him then. He even had the good sense to leave leave UNC Chapel Hill after spending only a year there in law school. So he is a man of conviction and a man after my own heart.

Here are the articles in the series he wrote about the trials:

Article 1: This is Providence
Article 2: Pharisees and Pharaohs
Article 3: Prayers and Preparation
Article 4: Pride and Perjury
Article 5: David French Slays Goliath
Article 6: To Speak the Truth

Read them all!

Betty Blonde #177 – 03/20/2009

Click here or on the image to see full size strip.

Baba Yetu: the Lord’s Prayer in Swahili

By Dad

On Thursday, October 2, 2014

In Music

Kelly pointed this out to me this last night. It is an amazing version of the theme song for Civilization 4, one of the few games Christian played growing up. The lyrics of the song are a translation of the Lord’s Prayer into Swahili and the lady singing the song is singing remotely from Monterrey, Mexico (Lorena’s home town). There is a very nice explanation of the composition of the song on Wikipedia here.

Betty Blonde #176 – 03/19/2009

Click here or on the image to see full size strip.

Discovery Institute on the case of David Barash

By Dad

On Wednesday, October 1, 2014

In Education

I wrote a blog post a couple of days ago on David Barash’s absurd statements about the impact of the study of evolution on History, Philosophy and Theology. Barash is the University of Washington Biology professor who pontificates vigorously and confidently about this from what is, quite evidently, a position of complete ignorance about how work is done in those three fields.

His ignorance does not even slow him down. He continues to clown himself in new venues, the latest being an op-ed he wrote for the New York Times. That seems fitting somehow in as much as the Times is not too much of a paragon of clear thinking and veracity itself. It turns out that the Discovery Institute in Seattle has been on the case. Their Evolution News and Views blog articles here, here and here are well worth the read both in terms of entertainment and as a reality check for David Barash, PhD.

Betty Blonde #175 – 03/18/2009

Click here or on the image to see full size strip.

Neil deGrasse Tyson doubles down

By Dad

On Tuesday, September 30, 2014

In culture

I recently wrote about Neil deGrasse Tyson’s “selective misremembering” of quotes to support some of the pseudo-facts he regularly tries to foist on an oblivious public. He got called out on it in a couple of articles at the Federalist, but instead of acknowledging his error, he decided it was a good idea to double down with additional foolishness. The latest chapter in this continuing saga is chronicled over at the Christian Post in a great little article explaining that he absolutely remembers hearing the quote and even wrote it down at the time, but there is no record anywhere nor does Tyson produce any evidence. Here is a good quote that describes this particular abuse.

Jonathan Alder, Johan Verheij memorial professor of law and director of the Center for Business Law and Regulation at Case Western University School of Law, has been writing about the controversy for The Washington Post blog The Volokh Conspiracy, and described the situation this way: “What is really so ‘mysterious’ is why Tyson finds it so difficult to confess error and pretends that Bush’s 2003 remarks were only just-now discovered. … Yet if this is the source of the quote, then nearly everything else Tyson claimed about it and its significance is false (as is the account of the quote’s provenance he gave last night).”

He has not apologized yet for this particular offense, but is “looking for a good medium & occasion.” If he ever gets around to it, maybe then he can start on some of the other ones described so helpfully in the Federalist article.

Betty Blonde #174 – 03/17/2009

Click here or on the image to see full size strip.

Be wary of Biology professors at University of Washington if the rest of them are anything like this guy

By Dad

On Monday, September 29, 2014

In Christianity, Education

Commie professor alert!* I just sent Kelly (UW graduate student) a note that said, “http://www.thinkingchristian.net/posts/2014/09/david-barash-speaking-with-authority-on-what-he-knows-next-to-nothing-about/ — Don’t take Biology at UW. You might get that guy.”

She wrote back and said, and I quote exactly, “ha ha i won’t” with precisely that punctuation and capitalization.

I fear for the reputation of the graduate schools at UW. While there is a certain amount of hipness associated with IM’ing people with little regard for grammatical convention, I do not get why people like the good Biology professor do not realize how foolish they look (and actually are) in making outdated, absurd, discredited philosophical, historical, and theological statements outside their area of expertise. Tom Gilson over at ThinkingChristian explains in painstaking detail (see the linked article) why this is so ridiculous. It seems like it has reached epidemic levels amongst atheists credentialed in one area (Biology, Physics, Zoology) and an abysmal lack of knowledge and training in the areas on which they are opining (Philosophy, History, Theology). Here is a snippet, but I recommend you read the whole thing. And while you are out it check out the blog; there is always something interesting going on there, too.

In his Talk, [David Barash] also says,

Adding to religion’s current intellectual instability is a third consequence of evolutionary insights: a powerful critique of theodicy, the scholarly effort to reconcile belief in an omnipresent, omni-benevolent God with the fact of unmerited suffering…. The more we know of evolution, the more unavoidable is the conclusion that living things, including human beings, are produced by a natural, totally amoral process, with no indication of a benevolent, controlling creator.

He does not say, “I have observed and reflected on animal pain and death as a biologist, so therefore I am qualified theologically to pronounce every explanation for the goodness of God to be inadequate.”

*Just kidding. I WISH that guy was at UW or ASU. I would have a ton more interesting material if he was. On the other hand, Lawrence Krauss of ASU got his hat handed to him in debate with William Lane Craig at NCSU for much the same reason that David Barash has clowned himself, so maybe there is hope for good material at the kids’ new schools.

Tom Cornsweet

By Dad

On Monday, September 29, 2014

In Science, Technology, Work

The chief scientist at my current job is a really nice guy named Tom Cornsweet who has spent a very long career studying human vision and developing tools to measure and analyze it. You can see his Wikipedia page here and a visual effect named after him called the Cornsweet Illusion here. A couple of days ago he lent me the seminal text book he wrote titled Visual Perception. The copyright date was 1970 and Tom says that, of course, technology and understanding have moved on since then, but it still provides a pretty good description of what we know about how people see. I am really looking forward to reading it. Visual Perception by Tom Cornsweet I work closely with Tom as part of a team that is implementing his “vision” of an instrument to help ophthalmologists and optometrists do their work better. It is a joy to work with him and I am learning a lot about how humans do the things I have spent my career trying to do inside computers.

Betty Blonde #173 – 03/16/2009

Click here or on the image to see full size strip.

Grandma Conchita gets on the plane in Monterrey

By Dad

On Saturday, September 27, 2014

In General

Grandma Conchita goes to North Carolina Tio Lauro checks Grandma Conchita in at the airport in Monterrey. She arrives tonight to stay with us in Raleigh until the end of the year. We are very thankful she can come.

Grad school and homeschool are about learning. Traditional high school and undergraduate degrees are about grades.

By Dad

On Saturday, September 27, 2014

In Education

The kids made the transition from homeschool to community college four years ago, then on to big state university two years after that. We are now engaged in an on-going conversation about the differences between their undergraduate work and the work they have been given in their first year of graduate school. We are slowly arriving at the conclusion that the types of focus and goals of their graduate school work is much more similar to their homeschool experience than to their undergraduate school experience.

It seems like the goal of the community college and big state U is to give a common set of instructions and work requirements to all the students with grades as a way to determine whether any of it stuck. It is easy to understand why it is done that way. Almost everyone who gets an undergraduate degree has a common core of material they have to learn, then within disciplines there is another big chunk of classes all the students have to take, so it would be nigh unto impossible to deliver those classes in any other way in a traditional college/university setting.

The difference between that and homeschool/grad school is that there are usually one or two individuals ready, willing, and even desirous to tailor the materials for each individual student to a specific end. In the case of the grad students it is his major professor. For the homeschool student it is the parents. Both of the kids were given difficult preliminary research tasks and a handful of classes for their first semester. Their classes are more focused on getting concepts and materials to them so they can perform their research tasks. Grades are a part of it, but really, the thing on which everyone is focused is to achieve a level of understanding that will allow them to perform their research; i.e., learning.

Just like grad school, learning rather than grades is the primary goal almost all homeschool programs. That is the way it should be. Technology is changing the way undergraduate education is delivered. In virtually every case, the most effective tools are the ones that promote learning and close the feedback loop for error correction rather than just prepare a student to regurgitate facts or memorize processes for solving chemistry and math problems.

Betty Blonde #172 – 03/13/2009

Click here or on the image to see full size strip.

Is Information the Fundamental Substance?

By Dad

On Thursday, September 25, 2014

In Christianity, culture, Science

Several years ago, I described a theory to the kids that makes the proposition that the smaller the things we are able to see the more it looks like that matter is really just thought. That is, the closer we look into what makes up electrons, neutrons, protons, and other subatomic particles the more that it looks like there is not substance to the substance of matter. I am not really sure whether that is something I just read in the cheesy science fiction novels that I voraciously read starting back in the late sixties and running into the nineties.

Now, it turns out that there might have been some truth to the speculative stories I told to the kids. In William Dembski’s third scholarly monograph, Being as Communion, he makes a strong case for the idea that the information and not matter is the fundamental substance of reality from which everything is made. Dembski is highly qualified to make this case. He has earned PhD’s in Mathematics from the University of Chicago and Philosophy from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and has spent his life investigating the role of information and design in God’s creation from the perspectives of both science and philosophy.

His first two books, The Design Inference, and No Free Lunch laid the ground work for this third very important work that makes the case that information that must have come from an intelligent designer is required for all things material and life in particular to exist. From the pre-release reviews, it appears that some of the mathematics in the book are not for the faint of heart, but the book as a whole is tractable in the sense that a layman can get the big picture. That being said, the laymen might be best served to just skim the deep math that gives the minutiae that makes the technical case.

I have ordered the book and plan to review it here after I have taken the time to read through it.

Betty Blonde #171 – 03/12/2009

Click here or on the image to see full size strip.

Heading to work on my birthday

By Dad

On Wednesday, September 24, 2014

In General

The down side is that all I got to do in terms of celebration was to have a breakfast croissant at the Sheetz by the airport in Raleigh. The upside as that we will do a better job when I get back home in a week and a half. It is really not so bad. I might be in Prescott and Lorena at home in North Carolina soon to be with her mom, but I will be able to do a preliminary birthday dinner with Christian in Tempe before we go to meeting tonight.

Betty Blonde #170 – 03/11/2009

Click here or on the image to see full size strip.

Is America thinking about God again?

By Dad

On Tuesday, September 23, 2014

In Christianity

I ran into an article the other day titled It Turns Out Colleges Aren’t Actually Atheist Factories. The article basically says that a long time ago, if you went to college, there was a greater likelihood that you would “disaffiliate” with whatever religious institution with which you participated. It appears that is no longer true. The quote I liked the best in the article was from the last paragraph:

There are a lot of sociological factors at work here, but all of them puncture the stereotype of perniciously secular higher education. Clearly, those God-defying philosophy professors need to work a little harder if they want to build their armies of atheist young people.

It is implied that while fewer people are going to church, that does not mean they do not, at least nominally, believe in God. This is not one of those articles that talks about increased spirituality. This article is about the more specific and much more hopeful subject of the belief in God. There is a good argument to be made for the idea that the mainline denominations have turned into pop-culture clubs that are more interested in “spirituality” than the more specific and hopeful idea that there is a God and he is worthy of worship. I am not a big fan of the organized church or mushy, new-age spirituality so this is quite a positive development.

Betty Blonde #169 – 03/10/2009

Click here or on the image to see full size strip.