Grappling with reality

still alive

2010-11-17T12:35:00.000+10:00

This blog is still alive.
I'm doing my PhD, and i'm still alive.

Following that theme, here's a quick sound byte from a sound track to one of the best games around (IMO)

...
But there's no sense crying
over every mistake.
You just keep on trying
till you run out of cake.
And the science gets done.
And you make a neat gun
for the people who are
still alive.

Now, these points of data
make a beautiful line.
And we're out of beta.
We're releasing on time!
So I'm GLaD I got burned-
Think of all the things we learned-
for the people who are
still alive.
...

Look at me: still talking
when there's science to do!
When I look out there,
it makes me GLaD I'm not you.

I've experiments to run.
There is research to be done.
On the people who are
still alive.
And believe me I am
still alive.
I'm doing science and I'm
still alive.
I feel fantastic and I'm
still alive.
...
Still alive.

Still alive.

from:
http://www.steamgames.com/v/img/whatsnew/StillAlive.pdf

following a blog

2008-11-17T12:43:00.002+10:00

during my random stumbling today I came across http://shaleeonlinefavorites.blogspot.com/ -- and found that there is now a "follow this blog" feature, so i thought i'd test it out.

That blog has a bunch of fun pics, a few of which i hadn't seen anywhere before.

I need to sort out my random pics, but for now they'll continue to sit in my picasa account at http://picasaweb.google.com/andy.t.roo/Stuff#. So many things to do, and not enough time ...

The (almost) death of my blog

2008-11-10T22:36:00.000+10:00

well, more than a year has passed since I've posted anything here, but this site is attached to an email address that is watched, so as the subtext to the title mentions, any questions on *any* topic will be answered.

I'm posting this a few years into the future so it'll be permanently pinned to the top.

you can see what other stuff i'm interested in (mostly science/IT/technology stuff) through my link lists at
http://del.icio.us/andy_t_roo
http://andy-t-roo.stumbleupon.com/

about 1500 links in both.

Does creation matter?

2005-12-05T10:39:00.000+10:00

I've recently had an interesting discussion concerning whether a belief in creation is critical to Christianity. This is not a discussion on creation vs evolution in the scientific sense.

If you disagree with anything, please post a comment and I will respond, and correct what I have written here, if needed.

I do not believe that ‘progressive creation’ and other similar intermediates between creation and evolution make sense. If you acknowledge that god is powerful enough to create everything individually, why would he not create it as listed in genesis 1, in 6 literal days.

One of the importance verses in the bible pertaining to creation of creation is Romans 5:12

‘Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned’ (Romans 5:12).

This would appear to indicate that, as Jesus was a real person, so Adam was also a real person. For there to have been a literal Adam, as outlined in Genesis, then man had to be created, not evolved.

is it possible for there not to have been a literal 'first person' to commit the 'original sin' by which the curse listed in Genesis 3:13-19 . Part of this curse is ‘

… until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken;
for dust you are and to dust you will return’ (3:19).

This would indicate that up until this point, Adam was not going to ‘return to the dust’ – ie, have a physical death. I believe the precludes the possibility of anything other than the instantaneous creation of a complete human, without any non human ancestors.

Along a similar argument, it is hard to picture a world which has been based on millions of years of death being as being 'very good'.

What is meant by 'very good'?
the Hebrew words linked above translate the phrase literally as:
(exceedingly, much) (good, pleasant, agreeable)

I can not see how a picture that involves hundreds of millions of years of death and suffering could possibly produce this ‘very good’ world. As this process is continuing around us, it would also mean that creation is currently uncompleted rather than fallen.

If anyone has any other resources, please let me know.

resources:

creation does matter:
Institute for creation research (ICR)
BibleTruthes.net
AnswersInGenisis (index to creation articles)

creation is optional:
http://www.answersincreation.org/hope.htm

interesting reading:
http://www.icr.org/index.php?module=articles&action=view&ID=80
AnswersInGenisis, mildly supportive of creation, but mostly conserned with theology

Questions

2005-12-01T12:00:00.000+10:00

All questions left here will receive an answer. Ask anything.
Some of the topics that I intend to post on(some time, and in no particular order):

random numbers, generating them, and using them for cryptography.
the generic object renderer that i created (combination ray tracer and polygon shader)
gods' impossible standards (and the amazing gift of grace)
how accurate is the bible?
can evolution overcome irreducible complexity?
The davinci code
interpretations for genesis 1 ( from a Christian perspective)
a brief look at the scientific evidence for and against a young earth creation
(note - although I'm a Christian I'm also a scientist so I can't simply say Christianity is right therefore everyone else is wrong, without some evidence to back up that claim)
graph theory, and storage of a large number of graphs compressed. (1 per byte)
curve fitting, on arbritraty (non planer) surfaces (still working on the last bit)

This list seems to keep growing, but don't let that stop you from contributing your own questions

My thesis is completed

2005-11-21T15:49:00.000+10:00

and as such, I will now have time to start posting here again.

I have not had any time to do anything in the last month and a bit, but now I have free time again.

I have now got a del.icio.us account, and my links can be seen at http://del.icio.us/andy_t_roo over the next few days I'll be uploading most of my bookmarks to the site - the bookmarks are mostly science/it related.

ahh, it is good to have some free time again

The accuracy of the bible

2005-07-31T11:38:00.000+10:00

Edit:
someone has borrowed my main reference - i'll have to put this off a week or 2

Well, this complicated topic should fall into two categories:
New Testament and Old Testament.

New Testament

Is what we have today what was originally written?
- translations
- number of manuscripts
- dating of current manuscripts
- dating of original manuscripts

How accurate was what was originally written?
- internal evidence
- external evidence
- archeological evidence

a closer look at Jesus of Nazareth
- was there a Jesus of Nazareth, who lived around 4bc to 30 ad?
- did the bible paint an accurate picture of him?
- what happened to his body?

Old Testament

Is what we have today what was originally written?
- translations
- number of manuscripts
- dating of current manuscripts
- dating of original manuscripts

How accurate was what was originally written?
- internal evidence
- external evidence
- archeological evidence

I'll post on each point over the next few weeks.

While many of the claims in the new testament seem impossible (raising the dead, walking on water) there is no evidence that it did not happen. This is not the same as saying those events did actually happen, as the absence of evidence is not, in itself evidence one way or another.

If it is remotely possible that Jesus of Nazareth was the 'Son of God', then, as the son of god, he would of been capable of doing those things. If he wasn't then those stories are simply made up myths.

If anyone has any evidence concerning The bible, either from a pro or anti christian view, i would like to know about it.

satelite pictures

2005-07-21T11:31:00.000+10:00

post a location, anywhere in the world, i'll post a picture of it :-)

curve fitting

2005-07-19T17:43:00.000+10:00

well, i thought i'd finally get around to posting on something mathematical, considering that the course that i'm doing at uni at the moment is oficially 'BSc with honors in mathematics'. This is a picture of something that i've been working on in my free time.

It creates a polynomial surface that will pass through all the points in the grid. People have been doing this with splines, benzier curves and bi-cubic patches for forever.

What is different about this curve fitting methodology is that this is a peicewise polynomical of only 4th order (the highest power in the individual segments of the surface is x^3 * y or y^3 * x). This leads to an analytic solution to the intercept between the surface and a line(blue) (4th order polynomials can be solved for zero exactly). I also implemented this, calculated the normal to the surface(green), and calculated the direction a ray that hit the surface would go (red).

The joins between the individual segments are second derivative continuous, and each segment is created using only local information (up to 12 points in this scheme).

I created this method to allow ray tracing of dynamic 3d objects, but haven't gotten around to adding it to my renderer (i'll have to add that to my list of things to post on; it's a basic combination polygon shader and ray tracer)

This can be trivially extended so that the interpoltate fits to the surface match any condition (eg. if you wanted the derivative at each of the points to be zero, that could be arranged). They don't even have to be polynomial based surfaces, although the exact intercept would probably not be calculatable without the polynomial fitting.

if anyone knows how to import a 3d mesh into matlab, or could create one (it has to be a grid based object, but the points can be anywhere in space, not just in the regular planer shape that i created the example with) i would be happy to do some trial renderings of the object.

matlab is an interpreted language, so a compleatly unoptermised set of files like what i used to create the above rendering runs much slower than a decent compiler could achive. If there is any requests, and i have some time free i'll see if i can port it over to c++, although that could be messy, due to matlab having one indexed arrays and c++ having 0 indexed arrays.

quote of the day

2005-07-18T14:49:00.000+10:00

Larry Ponemon, a privacy adviser, says research by his Ponemon Institute found Google consistently getting high marks for trust.

By contrast, Microsoft, whose software sometimes crashes and regularly gets violated by hackers, didn't fare as well despite what Ponemon and others acknowledge are improvements in its approach to privacy.

(emphesis mine)

from http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,68235-2,00.html?tw=wn_story_page_next1

scripture, holidays, and chess (on a camp)

2005-07-18T14:00:00.000+10:00

well, it's been a while since i even looked at my blog - and the list of topics that i intend to write on is just getting longer, and as i have a bit of time this week, i should realy write something.

Last week i spent at lake moogerah . This was the yearly 'Mid Year Camp' put on by a christian group around the uni called the 'evangelical students' of which i'm a part. This year the topic of the camp was the doctrine of scripture, although we ended up looking at the trinity allot more than scripture itself. Key passages were 2 peter, 2 tim and psalm 119 (used more in the bible studies not the teaching sessions), although there was allot of other passages used. Once i've got the cd's (probably next week) i'll post them on my website for download.

I've just added the cd's from last years camp, which was on the topic of 'Christ and Culture', or 'how christians should relate to the world around them'. Feel free to copy them.

Two years ago the topic was isiah, but i didn't attend that one.

At all these camps the speaker was the local chaplin. No, that's not the right term. minister and preacher aren't correct either - Keith is just the guy that does the teaching, and he is quite good at it.

back to the teaching:
the individual lectures/sermons/?? were on the topics of...
well i can't remember the titles, but the topics were roughly what does it mean for christ to be the word, god to send the word, the holy spirit interpreting the word, the last lecture was on applications for all this, and i can't remember the topic of the other one (it was a 5 day camp).

it was nice to be able to sit back and relax, without any computers for email, and while there was 'a' tv there (one between about 100 of us) noone used it.

during the free time people played soccer, chess, 500, mao (another card game - if you ask i'll explain), and mafia (ditto).

some of the best chess players that i've had to practice with in a while were there (i lost more than one game in a row in the first time in quite a while) and, everyone being uni students, the average interlecutal level of conversation was a little higher than normal.

(i intend to update this when i get home - add pictures and the like)

diehard

2005-06-01T15:14:00.000+10:00

well, i finally found it; some way to see how random my random number
generator is.
I've known about this test set for a while, but although everyone
quotes it, it is quite hard to find on the Internet, as one of the
main pages for download is down permanently.

i'll eventually post stuff here concerning it, how it works, and how
random (or not) it turns out to be. I'm quite sure that it will not
pass the tests, however that doesn't mean that it isn't a good
generator.

http://stat.fsu.edu/pub/diehard/

(ps. i tried emailing this to my blog, but for some reason it didn't work. i have no idea why)

re: time management

2005-06-01T09:18:00.000+10:00

i don't know how i did it (well, i do, and there were a few late nights invloved), but everything except one project has been handed in, completed and on time.

The project is due friday, and is well on the way.

so i'll finally be able to see star wars this friday.

lata,
Andrew

x factor

2005-05-31T12:00:00.000+10:00

'navonod; things this site could be more interesting. What do you think i should do?
post ideas here:

Freak storm

2005-05-20T16:52:00.000+10:00

(note, due to me being caught on a bus during the storm, I might be exaggerating a little...)
wow, what a storm!

15 mins, 2 inch of hail!

on my way to uni this morning (~17 hours after the storm) there were still piles of hail around, and the tempterature over night only got down to about 15 degrees C. I would of expected it to all of melted by now.

i don't have an image hosting account at the moment, i'll put them up on my website when i get home (for some reason it is down, so i'll have to sort that out when i get home also :(

heres some pictures, as i was in a bus at the time of the storm w/o a camera, these aren't mine

edit:
it's now more than 24 hours later, and although the minimum temperature has been 15 C, there is still ice on the ground in places! (temperature currently at 18, outside)

time management

2005-05-20T16:36:00.000+10:00

what to do with my time, over the next 1 week i have:

1 large project
~2 tutorials
1/2 assignment
and ~~as much of an~~ nothing to do on my honours thesis (my supervisor realises this is a buisy week for me) ~~as can be done~~
~~and a router to fix~~

well, it's a little less than when i last edited this post, so i think it is doable, it just means i won't get to see starwars this weekend :(
i'll post when i can, but don't expect 2 many long deeply philosphical posts, but feel free to ask any question, i'll probably welcome a 1/2 hour break to answer it.

to help with my time maagement, i've managed to talk the place that i'm doing my honours project with to lend me a copy of matlab, it's only a student edition, but it's more than enough to get the job done, unfortunatally, it's not mine to keep, so i'll have to return it at the end of the year. even if i could keep it, i'ts a student licence, so if you're not a student, then you're not supposed to use it.

please post a comment on something, just to let me know how many people actually read my site (i don't believe the counter i put up about a month ago, i think that most of those could be me)

Andrew
-------------
if you want a gmail account just ask.

Matlab is erratic

2005-05-05T16:45:00.000+10:00

The time is min seconds, as reported by matlab, using clock()
time on a g5 (OS X): 12.0000 26.7438

time on an itanium2 : 12.0000 23.7752 some flavor of Linux
time on itanium2 w/o jvm: 10.0000 29.5311
NOTE: due to heavy usage, I was only using 50% of one processor on the itanium

intel 1.5 GHz, running red hat 6 (not sure on exact specs)
6.0000 41.0150 ?! This is fast!

866 mhz p3? windows - bah - slow! (x86 Family 6 Model 8 Stepping 6)
47.0000 52.4580

a report from someone else:
Matlab 7.0.1 service pack 1 on a G5 via ssh from my laptop =
6mins 28.279 secs

Matlab 6.1 in virtual PC (mac laptop)= 1hr 24mins 53.657 secs

The ~ 5 min run was on a computer @ uni I don't have an account on, so I can't re-run the test.

matlab student edition, 7.0.1.15, P4 2.66 GHz:
8.0000 18.6400
the next day: (stuff open in backgroud, but not doing anything)
10.0000 25.4210
reboot, close everything not needed, no jvm (including background stuff)
7.0000 57.5160

anyway, the test files are here: http://andrewhill.no-ip.org/numerical_algebra.tar.gz
so if you have access to matlab, feel free to run 'assign1', and please report your times here. (read the 'sup' post below for details)

Neglecting my blog

2005-05-05T09:49:00.000+10:00

Well, I seem to have been ignoring my blog for a while, but life has been quite busy here.

Some things that I would of though would be easy have turned out to be harder than I though, so today, allot less has been done than what I would of liked to do.

anyway, I've got some more times, and am updating how quickly matlab runs.

My own hosted page

2005-05-02T14:17:00.000+10:00

Well, I've finally gotten around to putting some stuff of mine on my home page (http://andrewhill.no-ip.org), including various projects that I have done while I've been at university.

Please tell me what you think of it and how I could improve it.

I know that it is a bit bland at this stage, but I'll slowly be updating it to be a bit more useful and interesting.

away, I'm going to apply for that PhD at Oxford

information on almost everything

2005-05-01T14:41:00.000+10:00

sumbjects discussed on this site include:

Vectors monthly newsletter of science, technology, and other subjects.
Air Vectors: Writings about military and civil aircraft, including rotorcraft and lighter-than-air machines.
Asimov Project: Writings in physical science and spaceflight, dedicated to and with inspiration from the late Dr. Isaac Asimov.
CyberTechnics: Writings in computing, electronics, and technology.
WorldScapes: Writings in military technology; military and general history; plus artwork, reviews, and some other miscellaneous items.

i found it looking for information on 'AWK', a usefull data file process laguage, more powerfull than using grep, or egrep, and simpler than pearl, or some other simler language.

http://www.vectorsite.net/index.html

Astrology

2005-04-30T00:21:00.000+10:00

Do you think that it is possible to predict the future by looking at the stars?

this guy seems to think so, and seems to have been moderately successful.
http://216.198.243.200/Magi/index.htm

please post your comments

Computers behaving well

2005-04-30T00:15:00.000+10:00

Wow, for the first time in quite a while my home computer is behaving itself: web server, SSH server, firewall, logger, and my favorite 2 online games all appear to be working without any problems at the moment

aargh

2005-04-29T15:01:00.000+10:00

In the process of creating the archive for the previous post, I accidentally overwrote the current version of that script with the older, simpler one. I then went to the sysadmin, and he discovered that the backups are broken (and haven't been happening properly for more than a fortnight).

I guess I'll spend the next hour re-writing what I overwrote. . . Stupid secure copy not asking before overwriting an entire directory . . .

sup?

2005-04-29T14:10:00.000+10:00

assignments at uni, although life is a little better because one of them was due earlier this week.

I realy don't like it when computers do exactly what you tell them to, rather than what you want

I've just found the solution to some problems that i've been having with one of the computer programs that i have writen.

As usual, it was a (very) minor mistake, and that resulted in me interpreting the rsults of the program incorrectly (yes, it was even doing the simulation right, just not of what i thought it was).

i've also been running some speed tests recently using matlab on different machines. if you have matlab, the .m files that i used are available for download (off my own web server (yay, this has taken so long to set up)), so please run the test (~15 min,although you could stop sooner) and post the results here.

the test is simply to solve the matrix equatin Ax=b for x, using 1 method, and looks at how it performs under different conditions (different stifnesses of the system, different size matrix, etc)

the time is min seconds, as reported by matlab, using clock()
time on a g5: 17.0000 26.7438

time on an itanium2 : 12.0000 23.7752
time on itanium2 w/o jvm: 10.0000 29.5311

(1 processor used on the itanium 2, only 50% usage due to other people on the machine)

i think that linux ran this in~5 min, and windows was taking a long time (i'll have a better idea later, when i actually run it, not just start it going on someone elses machine)

i'll also have the time it took on the vertual machine on a mac, as someone else in the class has a mac with a vm with matlab installed on it.

I also recieved this email earlier this week, and i'm thinking of applying.
(geoff is my honours supervisor here at the university of Queensland, in Australia)

Hi Andrew,

Would you be interested in doing a doctorate at Oxford?

Cheers,
Geoff

------ Forwarded Message
From:
Date: Mon, 25 Apr 2005
To: ,
Subject: Parallel Matlab DPhil at Oxford

Kevin, Geoff, Richard -

At this late and unusual time of the year, MathWorks has
suddenly given us money to support a DPhil student
working on Parallel Matlab under joint supervision
(probably) by Anne Trefethen and either Mike Giles or
Andy Wathen. This is a great opportunity for a really
good student... but late April is no time to be advertising,
hence my contacting you Down Under!

If you have a moment, click on the pointer at the top of my
homepage and tell any outstanding young person you may happen
to know! Deadline for applics: May 27. Thanks a lot

Nick

------------------------------
----------------------------
L. N. Trefethen
Professor of Numerical Analysis and
Fellow of Balliol College
Oxford University Computing Laboratory
Wolfson Building, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3QD, UK
tel. +44 (0)1865 273886, fax +44 (0)1865 273839
LNT@
http://www.comlab.ox.ac.uk/nick.trefethen/
----------------------------------------------------------

------ End of Forwarded Message

what do you think of this?

edit: added p4 time

Weather

2005-04-25T10:32:00.000+10:00

I recently discovered this site, so from now on, people can see what the weather is like in my corner of the world.

creation or evolution?

2005-04-25T09:59:00.000+10:00

i've been doing research on this for a while now, and while i still believe in creation, i have discovered that both sides use arguments that are not backed by evidence or interptret results in ways that they probably shouldn't.

arguments against creation
http://www.talkorigins.org/origins/faqs-creationists.html
http://www.geocities.com/evolvedthinking/Age.htm
http://www.pandasthumb.org/

arguments against evolution
http://www.pathlights.com/ce_encyclopedia/
http://www.creationscience.com/onlinebook/IntheBeginningTOC.html

there are also many sites that do not present there arguments in an organised way, or are extremly biased in how they present it - eg claming that evolution has to be true because there is no god, or claming creation has to be true simply because god is right, and present no scientific arguments for discussion

if anyone knows any good resourses, please post a comment, and i will endevor to read the source and comment on it.

please also say what your views on the origin of the universe is, and why you believe it.

todays triva:

2005-04-24T11:47:00.000+10:00

how do you get from Madams' Gardens to the Mended Drum, and where are these places to begin with?

edit:
lol - this is not as hard as i thought it would be.

Thinking too much

2005-04-23T09:30:00.000+10:00

I'm not too sure, but I know it is possible to do, as I'm often told that I do so. It could just be that everyone else doesn't think enough.

I've never done any philosophy, so i have no idea why we think at all, nevermind that some people think that 2 much thinking can be done.

I know that i have a tendency to over analyize the situation, and this can be a handicap, especialy at social functions, where noone realy cares (somtimes i have people point that out to me), but at other times, like when i'm working at uni, it can be quite usefull.

Why does this happen?
well, some people have a hard time understanding some things, so they think about it. If people don't have enough understanding of what is going on then they can reach conclutions that are wrong if they 'think about it too much'.

well, i'm sure that i've almost thought about this too much already. If i have any other flashes of briliance, then i'll append this post, till then

goodnight

still thinking

2005-04-23T00:28:00.000+10:00

thinking

2005-04-22T21:06:00.000+10:00

. . . .

fafblog

2005-04-22T20:51:00.000+10:00

Well, I've found fafblog, it is nolonger under fafblog.blogger.com: it can now be found under fafblog.blogspot.com/ according to the site it is

"This is a good blog. This is the best blog. It is about god and the universe and those horrible screaming monkeys and that time I made a pizza out of an old tire and a can of whip cream. It is the Fafblog."

- Fafnir on Fafblog

fkm, i seem to have misplaced the link you your site, on tuesday i'll be on a different computer, so i think it might be in the history there. if not, i hope you stop by here again to see this.

now to work out a question from cappucinno : why do we think too much?

the cat int the hat

2005-04-21T12:06:00.000+10:00

http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node=The%20Cat%20in%20the%20Hat

does anyone kow how to get more recent posts in the side bar? you can easly change how many are on the main page, but i don't want to do that as it is more than long enough already

Tips for travelers

2005-04-21T11:00:00.000+10:00

How to say 'Oh my god! There's an axe in my head.' in over 100 different languages, so you can be prepared wherever in the world you go.

http://www.yamara.com/axe/

even Egyptian, Ancient (Middle Kingdom): in Amun! iw minb m tp-i! (there's a picture on the site of the hieroglyphics, because I doubt that that has the correct accents on it.)

rsa

2005-04-20T21:51:00.000+10:00

in one of my uni courses i've recently covered rsa encyption, it's an interesting idea, that you can somehow encrypt a message without knowing how to do the reverse

an online applet to do rsa encryption.
http://islab.oregonstate.edu/koc/ece575/02Project/Mor/

general info on rsa
http://www.di-mgt.com.au/rsa_alg.html

also it depends on 2 things that have been known for thousands of years: the chinese remainder theorum, and the extended euclidian algorithm.

it's late (11:30 pm here), i'll probably edit this post tomorrow

Free radicals

2005-04-20T20:33:00.000+10:00

Free radicals?
you mean the members of greepeace that aren't in prison? or chemistry?

a free radical is an atom or a molecule that normally exists in one form, but isn't in it. Atomic oxygen is a good example, as you know that oxygen normally exists as O2.

do you know about atomic orbitals?

A radical is any atom or molecule with a non-paired electron. These are very reactive.

A radical forms after certain types of bonds are broken via non-chemical means (usually), or when the bond is unusually weak. Normally when bonds are broken,both atoms retain an even number of electrons, often resulting in one being positive and one being negative. When a radical forms the atoms are not charged. This leaves them with nothing to hold them to each other, but these states are highly unstable, so they will form a bond with the first molecule they bump into. In some cases, this can result in a radical being released from a different part of the molecule.

One example of this is some polymers are set by a brief exposure to a gamma ray source, then you wait. In these types of plastic, the monomer is a long chain, but when it is split by a gamma ray hitting it, it leaves 2 radicals at the split. These ends can extremely easily react with the middle of the first chain that they run into.

When this happens, the entire molecule still has an odd number of electrons, and the radical will end up at the end of one of the chains, which will then go and react with something else.

This will go on until 2 radicals bump into each other and neutralize each other.

In the body there you really don't want these radicals around, as the exact structure of everything that they can bump into is important (DNA is one thing that seems to be sensitive to radicals). There are a special class of compounds in the body that are responsible for soaking up radicals, as they can absorb a radical, and the resulting state is a low energy one so it can't react with anything else. These compounds are 'anti oxidants'.

the most commonly recognized antioxidants are vitamin E, beta-carotene (a pre-cursor to vitamin A), and vitamin C. Most of these vitamins also contain an atom a metal (selenium I think), which is responsible for the low energy state after absorbing the radical.

interesting links:
free radicals are good in some situations
what is a free radical
Free Radicals: the band

how far should love go?

2005-04-14T16:53:00.000+10:00

John 15:12-13
My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.
¹³ Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.

Mat 5:44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;

Galatians 5:22
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, ...

1 Corinthians 13:2
If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

well, the bible is quite clear - if you act from a christen perspective, it can only be from love, so no matter what other people do, you should respond with love.

Where does this meet pragmatism? I believe that just because you are acting in love doesn't mean that you have to act in a way that other people would like, as every parent, and most children realise that being disciplined doesn’t mean that your parents don’t love you any less.

Luke 6:29
If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic.

At first glance this passage would seem to suggest that any action (like self defense) other than submission is wrong, and even that you should go out of your way to make life hard for yourself.

I believe that this passage is not talking about self defense, but about not taking revenge because in this account in matthew the passage begins:

Matthew 5:38-42
³⁸“You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ ³⁹But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.

Indeed the bible does mention carrying a sword in many places, the modern eqivalent is asking what the bible says about gun control.

Luke 22:36
He said to them, “But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one."

hmm - i might be taking that verse out of context, if you think i am, let me know.

in short, i have no idea realy, you can take most points of view and find verses in the bible to back you up. but i am sure of:

all christians are commanded to treat everyone with love, no matter who they are
love meets pragmatism somewhere

unity

2005-04-14T16:13:00.000+10:00

There have been some problems at the church that I attend recently, with several people making accusations, and then not being specific and not attending members meetings, or even speaking with the church leaders about it, as some of the allegations concern members of the church leadership.

This has now been going on for a while, and is going to be resolved soon, either with the complaint being dropped, various people getting together around the chuch and actually using some of the love that all christians are supposed to act with, or some people simply leaving the church.

The only option that will leave people satisfied is the second one, but I think that that one is the least likely to happen, unfortunatally.

i only recently found out just how long this problem has been going on, but now i know, i realise that it has been a major cause of tension in the church.

what can i do? I don't think i can do anything.

it's sad when christians can't get along with each other, there are bigger things in the world to worry about.

i've got a post 1/2 written on love and caring, it'll be up soon.

programing related resources

2005-04-12T16:45:00.000+10:00

http://www.mathtools.net/C_C__/Memory_management/
this is a list of memory managment libraries, replacements for new and malloc, and other stack and heap managing libraries (runtime error checking and others)

random

2005-04-09T22:19:00.000+10:00

does anyone actually look at these sites?

how jedi are you?
http://www.gaijindesign.com/lawriemalen/jedi/

emotions

2005-04-09T15:39:00.000+10:00

i came accross this:- choose your emotion

it also has a java script version, but you can't use <script> tags in a blog post

my other blog

2005-04-02T12:03:00.000+10:00

well, my other blog wasn't working out, so i've deleted it. I'm now hosting a new webpage on http://andrewhill.no-ip.org, as i can easly use xhtml on a page on my computer, but not in these blogs.

if anyone knows an easy way to set up blogging software like what these blogs are done in please let me know

wow, yet another random site

2005-04-01T21:48:00.000+10:00

http://www.emotioneric.com/
see if you can think of an emotion that isn't there

alcohol troubleshooting

2005-04-01T21:21:00.000+10:00

a random site

2005-03-31T16:29:00.000+10:00

http://www.invisiblelibrary.com/index.html

the invisible library
"The Invisible Library is a collection of books that only appear in other books. Within the library's catalog you will find imaginary books, pseudobiblia, artifictions, fabled tomes, libris phantastica, and all manner of books unwritten, unread, unpublished, and unfound."

creation 'science'

2005-03-31T11:36:00.000+10:00

qestions that the last post raised:

1. is the bible infalable?
2. can you, as a scientist, believe in creation?
3. can you, as a cristian, no believe in creation?
4. as a christian scientist, where does that leave me?

1. i believe you have to say 'yes' once you start throwing out parts of the bible because you don't like them, then there is little grounds to believe in anything christian, as 95% of what we believe is from the bible. (the other 5% is extra baggage that any 'religion' collects and probably should not be taught.)

2. yes - the ample evidence to support whatever belief you have (yes, evolution is a belief also)
evolution: the belief that life came about through random chance
creation: the belief that it didn't (there was some outside force involved, directing or responsable for what went on)

3. i don't know. This is were i have problems, because i have quite a few chrisitan freinds that believe in evolution, of some form, and to get to this situation, you have to answer 'no' to the first question, or not understand what the bible is trying to say.

4. I believe in a literal 6 day creation, ~10,000 years ago, and i can defend my ideas from a scientific point of view.

the belief-o-matic (how does what you believe match with other religons):
http://www.beliefnet.com/story/76/story_7665_1.html

As always, if you read this please post a comment, even just one saying 'hmm' or 'you are wrong' or 'i agree', or even what belief the Belief-O-Matic said you were

creation 'science'

2005-03-31T11:29:00.000+10:00

i recently recieved this email:
(re http://www.creationscience.com/onlinebook/IntheBeginningTOC.html )

Hi Andrew,

I spent a lot of time in my early and mid-twenties thinking about this issue. The conclusion that I eventually reached was that Genesis 1 and 2 serve to tell us that God created and that trying to read more into the text than that is fraught with difficulties. Also are you aware of the two
separate creation stories in Genesis? It is hard to pick up in the English translations but any decent commentary will point them out to you. These two stories are actually contradictory in parts. Biblical scholars have told me that one of the stories came from the Northern tribes and the other story came from the Southern tribes. When it came time to write the scrolls the priests, quite sensibly, wrote both. Hence I logically get to the point that God created, the details were revealed to humans in visions, got mangled, and then made it into writing.

Science, on the other hand, gives an incomplete picture. Furthermore, the picture is still changing as we grow to understand more. However, each refinement of the picture is usually just that -- a refinement. When Einstein wrote down his field equations for gravity it didn't mean that Newton was wrong, simply that Newton's equations are only suitable for a
certain regime. Any self respecting general relativist will also tell you that it is only a matter of time before we learn the parameter boundaries of the Einstein field equations (probably somewhere at very high energies and very small distances) and then another theory will have to be invented to more accurately explain this new regime.

In my field of expertise (General Relativity) I can say with confidence that science has a better explanation for the data we observe than creationism.

I would also like to point out one major difference between a scientist and a creationist. By definition, the scientist will fit a theory to the observable facts. When more facts present themselves which disprove the theory then the scientist will abandon the original theory and find a new theory to fit the facts. The creationist however already has a theory and
must always fit the facts to that theory. Hence, by definition, a creationist cannot properly do science. And the term creation scientist is an oxymoron.

As an aside, at home I have a page of things I found in the bible which show that it is incorrect to have a literal interpretation of every single word written in it. For example, certain measurements of objects imply that pi is 3. I'll show you my list some time if you are interested.

You asked if I can see anything wrong on that page. Here's one point I quickly found under the thermodynamics section.

[snip]
A further consequence of the second law is that when the universe began, it was more organized and complex than it is today?not in a highly disorganized and random state as assumed by evolutionists and proponents of the big bang theory
[/snip]

Most people would find the above argument hard to refute. What the author doesn't understand though is that gravity itself contributes to entropy. Loosely speaking, the state in which matter is "unclumped" or "randomly ordered" has a low gravitational entropy and the state in which matter is "clumped" has a high gravitational entropy.

I should point out though that the gravitational entropy is an area that modern science _does not_ fully understand yet, and we probably wont understand it properly until we have a good theory of quantum gravity (note that there are already a few "bad" theories).

Every time I come across a "creation scientist" it usually turns out that their understanding of science is inadequate and if you spend enough time you will discover the holes in their argument. Of the ones who do have an adequate understanding of science I have found them to be hypocrites. For example, there is a geologist who publishes one set of theories/data in
creation science magazines and then contradicts himself in the scientific literature he writes ( I have the articles at home if you wish to see proof ).

As for biological evolution, you know that I do not know enough biology to adequately present a case for it. On this point I simply have to trust other people. I have professional biologist friends (some Christian, some not) who _all_ assure me that biology cannot be adequately understood unless you accept evolution.

I think I should stop now. I hope and pray that one day you may understand all that I am trying to convey. I do not expect that you will believe all that I have written as it took me many years and much thought and prayer to reach my current understanding and it will probably take you many years as well.

Best wishes on your journey,
xxxxxxxxxx

questions that this raises in the next post.

taboo topics again: sexuality

2005-03-28T20:38:00.000+10:00

i've been thinking about this over the last few days, and i'm not sure why i think what i think:

sex outside of marrage: No

As a christian i've always been told that sex is something that is supposed to only be between married couples. I can see the sense in this, as a large portion of the worlds problems are either caused by money (greed for/lack of) or sex (having a kid outside of marrage is one of the larger areas here).

When i go looking at the bible for guidence, sexual immorality is mentioned in many places but the only sexual relations that are forbiden are those with close relatives.......
while looking thriough deuteronomy i found that sex outside of marrage is forbiden, punashable by death by stoning. From this i can only conclude that the immorality talked about in the new testament is sex outside of marrage of any kind.

Homosexuality: NO!

if you are involved in a same sex relationship, please read what i have to say, and post a comment.

The begining of romans is the best place to look for this:
Rom 1:27
the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.

Please don't take the next paragraph the wrong way, i'm simply stating what my position, as dicated by my christian faith should be. The part of this issue that i struggle with is with the paragraph after that, which is from the begining of the next chapter; this is refering to me as a christian.

I'm sorry to all those who are involved in a same sex relationship, but as a christian, I have to say that the bible says that it is a perversion of natuaral acts.

Rom 2:1
You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. ²Now we know that God's judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. ³So when you, a mere man, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God's judgment? ⁴Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God's kindness leads you toward repentance?

So what does this mean?

Since God has chosen not to pass judgment and forgive my sins, i must not pass judgement on the actions of others. (and yes, being a christian does not mean that i'm without sin, just that God has forgiven me, but that is another discussion topic). As with most things, it comes down to a matter of attitude. I have to somehow find a ballence where i can disaprove of a persons actions, but do so in a loving way.

I can see that this is going to lead to a discussion of what a christians atitude should be (i think i'll title it: 'sin, sacrifice and love'

John 13:34
³⁴“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. ³⁵By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Busy, busy, busy

2005-03-23T16:47:00.000+10:00

How to keep an idiot busy:
http://www.pagetutor.com/idiot/idiot.html

i havn't forgotten about my blog here, just havn't had time to post anything significant.

i have been attempting to get my other blog going ( http://mathamagic.blogspot.com/, sorry for the broken link if anyone tried to follow it)

if you know anthing about mathml, please let me know if there is an easy way to integrate it into blogspot

thans fot your interest,
Andrew

what i think

2005-03-17T16:24:00.000+10:00

this is what i believe about these topics and why:

Right to life/Right to choose.

In this catagory if fall in the right to life catagory.

euthanasia:

no.
Lets be real, euthanasia is simply suicide, with someone helping in some cases. Someone (for whatever reason) simply decides that they don't want to live in this world any more. I'm sure that in some circumstances, then people may feel that they have a legitamate reason, but once you allow some situations, where do you draw the line. If it had to be allowed, i would definatly only allow it to occure in the case of someone who was in intollerable pain, and in the final stages of a terminal illness.

Unfortunatly, we are all going to die, and we are all in pain at different times in our life, so who can define any situation in which to allow euthenasia?

I'll leave looking at wheter or no the person who is assising is commiting murder to a later essay, as this is looking at an individuals right to choose.

http://www.religioustolerance.org/euthanas.htm

abortion:

practically no.

The only exception is where the baby (yes i do consider a fetus to be alive before it is born) is not going to survive, and the mothers life is threatened. in that situation i would have to say yes it is allowed, but that is purely for medical reasons.
In all other circumstances then I believe that it is equivalent to murder. Because i believe that the fetus is it's own seperate life, even though it is one dependent on the mother, killing it would be wrong. I believe this because babies, even before they are born, are capable of interactign with the world around them.

I think that most people would agree with me that any abortion on a late term fetus (one that has a resonable chance of survival outside the mother) is wrong.

What i'm not so sure about is why i believe that abortion, even before this stage is wrong. Prehaps it is that even destroying a 'potential' life feels wrong to me. The problem is where do you draw the line? 1 month? 5 months? 8 months? Most people would believe that the first was too short, and the last was too long.

Then there is the reasons for abortion:
to let the baby survive would be dangerous to the mother
there is some other type of problem with the pregnancy, non-life theatening to the mother
the baby doesn't (or won't when it is born) match certain criteria - this debaate is seperate to wheter people should be able to choose the charachtersistics of their child before it is born.
the pregnency simply isn't wanted.

can anyone think of other situations?

under which of these would you allow abortion?

i'll post on the other issues soon

taboo topics

2005-03-17T15:30:00.000+10:00

Every society has taboo topics, and at the moment i'm questing what, as a christian, my oppinions on these topics should be; here is a list of the topics that i have noticed are quite contovercial, or taboo:

The right to life, and the right to choose:

euthanasia
abortion

Sexuality:

sex outside of marrage
homosexuality

http://www.philosophersmag.com/games/taboo.htm

i believe that mankind does not hold the ultimate yardstick for right and wrong, and as a christian, i need to look to the bible to see what is accepatble in different situations.

mathamagic

2005-03-17T13:31:00.000+10:00

i'm haveing problems with one of the maths courses that i'm doing this semestar at uni, it's a course called 'advanced numerical linear algebra'
despite this name, what we are doing in lectures is writing out proofs for many different things, and not actually using any of the methods that we derive. For the totorials we have been asked to prove a few other things, then write them up as MathML (see my other blog at http://mathamagic.blogspot.com)

this isn't what i signed on for; pure maths, and writing a webpage? prehaps i missed something, but either way it isn't what i expected.

from the course profile 'State of the art techniques in the application of numerical linear algebra in advanced scientific computation.'

do you think this is a fair thing to do?

Andrew

roger, if you read this, this is nothing personal, just that your course isn't what i expected it to be.

disapearing posts :(

2005-03-17T13:27:00.000+10:00

well isn't this grand, i had another post written, but when i tried to add a link, it deleted what i had written, so i guess i'll have to start over

a random site that i came accross

2005-03-13T20:32:00.000+10:00

can anyone make sense of blather?

http://blather.newdream.net/

is Bjork is a genious or a twit

2005-03-13T19:45:00.000+10:00

well, Bjork isn't someone who i've thought much about, as i don't own any for her music and i havn't seen dancer in the dark.

so i went and did some research:

A general biography of Bjork:
http://www.vh1.com/artists/az/bjork/bio.jhtml
http://www.nndb.com/people/194/000026116/

Dancer in the Dark:
http://www.geocities.com/smvgrey/dancer_dark.html

i've also listened to a few of her tracks sampled from her album 'Medulla'.

While the music isn't the type that i tend to enjoy that much, i can see why people would like her music, as the slow paced vocal work leads to a track that is quite relaxing.

is she a genius?

the wikipedia defines genius as:

A genius is a person imbued with distinguished mental prowess. This can manifest either as a foremost intellect, or as an outstanding creative talent. (the definition goes on) ....

I belive that Bjork probably falls into this catagory, because her music definatly shows her creative tallent, which was recognised with her being invited to perform for the olympic opening ceramony last year, on top of that in 2000 she also was nominated for an acadamy award for best song, and won best actor at the Cannes International Film Festival.

Achiving one of the above in a lifetime would be a good achivement, but all 3 in 4 years shows that she definatly has a creative gift, although i don't know how good that gift has to be to be recognised as a genuis

(for a full list of awards that Dancer in the dark was nominated for or recieved, see http://movies.yahoo.com/shop?d=hv&id=1800421049&cf=awards)

writing a blog

2005-03-05T14:15:00.000+10:00

well i keep starting to write something and then deleate it and change my mind

why is it so hard jsut to put some thoughts into words?

i'll get around to posting something on the other topics i'm thinking about soon

if you have any questions that you would like me to attempt to answer, about anything at all, just leave a comment