Category: Of Random Interest

I just redesigned the site header–if I did it correctly it should allow the page to load faster even though the header is larger and more complex.

Please let me know if you have any problems, because I’ve been doing some experimentation in Flash and I’m definitely at the beginning of the learning curve.

UPDATE: I’m getting some weird results from the individual entries–I’m hoping it’s just a cache problem. I’ll take a look at it again in the morning. Even if it’s doing what it seems to be doing it doesn’t make the site unuseable (just ugly).

I found this quote on Andrew Careaga’s blog, and I had to repeat it:

You know the world is going crazy when the best rapper is a white guy, the best golfer is a black guy, The Swiss hold the America’s Cup, France is accusing the US of arrogance, and Germany doesn’t want to go to war.

We live in interesting times…

There’s a neat multimedia presentation called “The Interview With God” out there. Check it out.

Disclaimer: yes, I think it crosses the line into cheese a few times. I like it nonetheless.

A friend of mine (Jimmy Tate) just emailed me an article that offers a very unique perspective on the housing prices in Palo Alto. It’s by Thomas Sowell and it’s called “Diversity” for Thee, Not Me. Here’s an excerpt:

Because housing prices are so high in Palo Alto — and up and down the whole San Francisco peninsula.

This is not due to supply and demand in a free market. It is largely due to rich busybodies who have promoted severe restrictions on the building of housing under a variety of high-sounding names like “open space” or “environmental protection.” I don’t begrudge such people the inheritances that have allowed them to live their whole lives without ever having to lift a finger to support themselves. But it is galling that they are imposing huge costs on hundreds of thousands of other people who have to work for a living.

Anyway, I found it interesting. I do think he overstates the case somewhat (there is a huge demand), but he’s correct that the supply has been artificially supressed. Food for thought.

This is pretty cool: the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary (where I got my M. Div.) was just named one of the ‘Best Christian Places to Work In America.’

Paula worked there while I was in seminary and shortly after, and I assure you that the claim is well-founded. AGTS ain’t perfect, but it sure beats most of the alternatives out there.

Congratulations, alma mater!

Scientists at the Stanford Linear Accelerator recently transmitted the equivalent of a 4 hour movie to Amsterdam in less than one minute.

Now THAT’S what I call bandwidth!

The team transferred uncompressed data at 923 megabytes per second for 58 seconds from Sunnyvale, Calif., to Amsterdam — a distance of almost 6,800 miles, or about one-quarter of the way around the world. This transfer speed is more than 3,500 times faster than a typical home Internet broadband connection.

Read all about it.

It’s fun to hang around a place where records are being set and the world is being changed…

Side note: legendary prognosticator Punxsutawney Phil has weighed in: we face six more weeks of winter.

Fortunately, I live in California. I’ve forgotten exactly what winter is like…

Here’s a seasonal joke for your amusement:

Over breakfast one morning, a woman said to her husband, “Ill bet you don’t know what day this is.”

“Of course I do,” he answered as if he was offended, and left for the office.

At 10:00 a.m., the doorbell rang and when the woman opened the door, she was handed a box of a dozen long stemmed red roses. At 1:00 p.m., a foil-wrapped, two-pound box of her favorite chocolates was delivered. Later, a boutique delivered a designer dress.

The woman couldn’t wait for her husband to come home.

“First the flowers, then the chocolates and then the dress!” she exclaimed.

“I’ve never had a more wonderful Groundhog Day in my life! (source)

I woke up this morning to the news that the Space Shuttle blew up on re-entry.

I had two thoughts rush through my mind immediately:

1) Wow–I vividly remember the last time this happened. It shocked me deeply–the idea that our science wasn’t perfect and that America could make a mistake and that heroes could die.

2) The first Israeli astronaut was on the shuttle, and it’s such a high-profile American symbol: it sure would be an attractive target to terrorists… Accidents happen, and I hope that’s all it was. If it was terrorists, it would have to be some sort of sabotage before the shuttle took off (that, or someone on the shuttle would have had to turn traitor–something I consider extremely unlikely).

I have intense sympathy for the families of the astronauts: may God comfort their hearts with His peace.

[update: my wife mentioned that it looked as though I actually suspect terrorist activity. Not so! I’m reporting the first two thoughts that flashed through my mind, not giving my current opinion. For the record, I think it’s improbable that terrorist activity caused the Space Shuttle to disintegrate.]

I just thought I should mention that Stanford rocked Arizona in basketball this weekend. They may outrank us, but we beat ’em!

For the record, we’re not ranked in basketball. We do, however, dominate the aquatic sports (along with women’s tennis and men’s cross-country).

Lawrence Lessig, a Stanford law professor, just lost his case in Supreme Court.

He was arguing that the Congress has overstepped its Constitutional authority through its abuse of the copyright system.

As an editorial aside, I’d like to say that I’m pretty disappointed by the defeat. I’m no expert in the law, but ministers are considered to have some expertise when it comes to morality (which ought to undergird the law).

The laws governing copyright in our society are excessive. First and most importantly, we are losing a public domain. Lessig’s (non-legal) arguments about the hypocrisy of Disney are very compelling–Disney keeps its copyright on Mickey Mouse despite making most of its money off reinventing characters that have passed into the public domain (Beauty & the Beast, Cinderella, Snow White, etc).

But that just deals with the longevity of copyright in America. I also consider that my fair-use rights are being infringed upon by rigid copyright schemes. To my knowledge, every empirical study has shown that electronic redistribution of products increases sales. You can read more about it.

For the record, I urge everyone to obey the law as it is written and to agitate for change in the meantime.

Lessig will probably never read this, but I think he’s fighting a good fight.