HartlessByDesign

So the other morning, my wife let our dogs outside as is the usual routine.  She noticed that they were going crazy and realized that there was a possum trapped in the neighbors short tree but hanging over on our side of the fence.  So she woke me to take care of it.  It appeared that the neighbors dog had ran it up the tree and it had no where to go.  So it probably sat there all night long.  I grabbed the trap I placed in the attic (which didn't catch a thing) and my wooden sword to attempt to capture the thing.  (Our dogs had to do their business but wouldn't with a nice juicy possum to distract them.)  I tried to gently knock it into the trap, but it would have none of that.  So, I ended up grabbing it by its tail and placing it inside manually. 

We took it behind Sam's which is a wooded area and let it go; hopefully to never return to our home.

Cute isn't she?  ;-) 

So here is our miniature schnauzer, Pancho, showing off his football skills.

Edit 08/15/08:  Well, I've submitted the video to America's Funniest Videos who sent me an email saying it may be used on their website and/or show.  Of course in order to do so I had to sign away basically all rights to it and take away any public viewing.   If you are family and/or a friend and want to see it, contact me and I'll give you private access.

So, Google added Gmail Labs which is a play ground for Google's employees to place their 20% projects.  (Google gives their employees 20% of their time to create whatever they want. Pretty cool).  I like this idea and hope some useful things get incorporated into Gmail.  Right now, there are only 13 features which are not very useful. 

 At first, Gmail Labs was not enabled in my Google Apps account even though I have the setting enabled in my Gmail control panel to add new features as they are available to general Gmail users.  I found that Labs appeared when I created a new user.  

Now if Google will only give the option to disable auto add of contacts!!  My contacts are extremely cluttered with email addresses I don't care to keep!

Microsoft is wipping out some crazy technology. I read an article by Bill Gates in a magazine all about robotics at Barnes And Noble (I can't remember the name of the magazine.) Mr. Gates was talking about how great it would be and how close we are to running our household with robots. The Microsoft Home in Redmon, Washington is the play ground for Microsoft's new innovations to making the home advanced with amazing technology.

 I just read an article on CrunchGear and watched a video about Microsoft's new TouchWall which is a touch screen technology. It is pretty cool. It is made up of lasers, cameras, a projector, a flat surface (any flat surface), and software named Plex which runs on standard Vista. You can zoom in, zoom out, watch videos, flip through word documents, flip through pictures, annotate, and more. If you have a red pen in your hand, the camera will pick that up and allow you to annotate with red pixels on the screen. If you have a digital camera on the surface, then it will recognize the camera and begin to download the pictures. Quite amazing. Check it out:

[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPrfqdl55D0]

Back to my title. With Bill Gates' dream regarding the future of robotics and with the obvious financial backing and innovation to make it happen, will Will Smith's sci-fi movie I, Robot become a reality to us in the year 2035? And will Microsoft be the cause of it?  Dum dum dum.

So we have some critter of large build in our attic.  It woke us up in the middle of the night a couple weeks back digging.  My wife asked, "Is it a mouse?"  No way, I mean it was digging.  So probably a possum or a coon.  We noticed that mesh to one of the attic vents had been pushed up revealing how the critter is getting up there.  We have a life trap up there but we haven't caught it yet.  I heard it yesterday and went up into the attic to see what it was, but it was gone by the time I got up there.  Or at least it was hiding.

 I need to patch that vent but really don't want to until I catch it for I fear trapping it inside.

Why is it that when offended, one almost always resort to immature name calling?  I was quite dissapointed with Dawkins' reponse to the film, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed who spends the majority of the article bashing the quality of film, talent of the director, talent of Ben Stein, the annoying voice of Ben Stein,  the "IDiots," how boring the film was, etc.  No where does he even address the challenge presented by the film.  I esteem Dawkins to be a very intelligent man and thus expected more of a scientific response but instead recieved a bunch of character bashing.

 But its not just the Darwinists who are resorting to bashing and name calling, but ID supporters as well.  In the comments of Dawkins' post, there were several posts where they stooped to calling Darwinists all kinds of immature names.  

Come on.  Let's  grow up and let's see some mature, scientific-based discussions!  Are the Darwinists afraid of being proven wrong? And what about those that support ID?  Are they afraid of being proven wrong?  I think both sides would answer no to that question.

He brings up some very valid points. 

1) The first is that freedom is one of the fundamentals of America.  America is America today because of how it has valued freedom.  But, freedom is being stripped away from the American people by means of the powers that be censuring what is taught in schools in regards to the origins of life (Darwinism vs Intelligent Design).  

2) Intelligent Design is not Creationism which is the Biblical account of God creating the world.  It is a scientific theory presented by some of the most talented,  educated and intelligent scientists across the world that all of nature was designed by a supreme being (beings).  

3) Believing in Intelligent Design is not synonymous with  believing in the Judeo/Christian God.

4) Despite the credentials of those presenting Intelligent Design and despite the vast amount of evidence itself, ID is not allowed to be presented as theory.  In fact, any who support it, teach it, or even mention it are  ostrizied by their peers, faculty, institutions and even our government.  

5) Ben Stein draws an excellent analogy between the Wall that separated East from West Germany and the Wall that separates ID from mainstream science.  It is okay to teach anything you want as long as it's on "this side of the wall." 

6) In other countries, the evidence presented in debates and discussions determines what is scientific.  In the states, court systems decide.  And we all know that the constitution is interpreted by the opinions of the men and women who serve as Supreme Court Justices.  That is why it is such a fight when one political party gets to fill the majority of the Supreme Court seats.  Because if one party rules the supreme court, they control how the constitution gets interpreted.  In the US, when those that make it their life goal to keep ID out of schools hear of a situation where ID is being presented, they sue.  It is taken to the courts where the biased judges decide that ID is religion and religion should not be taught in schools.  No one of the Darwinian movement is even interested in looking at the evidence of ID.  Those of the ID theory would LOVE to just even have the opportunity to present and discuss the evidence but rather they are simply shut down, no questions asked.  

 7) He explores that Darwinism lead Hitler to believe that they were the chosen race and that he needed to destroy the weak (as natural selected teaches).   Thus concentration camps came about and millions were exterminated. 

He brought up many, many more points.  I loved how he didn't bring about a full on assault on the darwinists but simply interviewed them, asked the right questions, and allowed them to bring themselves down.  At the end of the video, he interviews Richard Dawkins.  Dawkins said earlier in the film that evolution as how life came about  is fact.  No ifs, ands, or buts. But then at the end of the interview, he states and I paraphrase, "The only way that intelligent design could be possible is if a more advanced life form out in the universe with a much more advanced technology designed and created life on earth as we know it.  But they themselves had to evolve as evolution teaches."  What the heck?  He himself believes in the possibility of ID??? 

 It seems to me that Richard Dawkins and all the Darwinists who have a grudge against God refused to even to look at the evidence of ID simply because they are afraid that it might be true.  They fear that there might just be a God.  Stein asked Dawkins if when he dies and finds himself in front of God and God asks, "Dude what have you been doing," what would he say?  And he replied with "Why have you made yourself so hard to find?"  Well, if Dawkins and the all the rest actually allowed themselves to look at the very powerful evidence of a Creator, they may find that God has not hidden himself at all.

[video:http://youtube.com/watch?v=xGCxbhGaVfE] 

I read this excellent quote today which was taken from Hilary Brand and Adrienne Chaplin's book,  Art and Soul. 

Dualism is a word that can be applied to any split-vision worldview. It separates God's creation into distinct and opposing realms, one representing good, the other representing evil: holy versus profane, sacred versus secular, material versus spiritual....

[A] truly biblical worldview will not let us get away with such simplistic divides. The Bible frequently speaks in paradox, explaining truths not in terms of either/or by both/and: creation is both gloriously beautiful and tainted by sin; humanity is both made in God's image and fallen; Jesus is both fully human and fully divine; Christians are both redeemed from the curse and still suffering its consequences.

The problem comes when the line is drawn compartmentally rather than spiritually, putting certain aspects of culture inside the Kingdom of God and others outside. Rather we need to understand that the battle lines between good and evil run across all aspects of culture and every facet of life. (67-68)

Here is a post by John Piper on Desiring God's Blog that I thought was interesting:

Every Christian should want to be a “fountain of life” for others.

How does that happen? Here is a group of passages that answer this question. The answer is in the order.

Psalm 36:9, For with You is the fountain of life; In Your light we see light.

Proverbs 16:22, Understanding is a fountain of life to one who has it, But the discipline of fools is folly.

Proverbs 14:27, The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, That one may avoid the snares of death.

Proverbs 10:11, The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life, But the mouth of the wicked conceals violence.

Proverbs 13:14, The teaching of the wise is a fountain of life, To turn aside from the snares of death.

What a tragic movie. I've seen it once before but remembered nothing except the bear.  I thought it was a really good movie but very sad.

I couldn't imagine how it would feel to lose so many I loved so dearly. I fear losing them, especially my wife. Just thinking about it stabs my heart and fills my eyes with tears. A couple years ago, I read A Severe Mercy by Sheldon Vanauken. I was overwhelmed with sadness just thinking about what it would be like if the Lord took my wife home. (I had finished the book during a slow time at work and I had to leave the front and go to back I was sobbing so much.) And The Notebook. What if I had her but didn't have her. What if she forgot who I was, the life we shared together, the love we had for one another. What if...oh how my heart aches with the thoughts!

But why is it that I will ignore her for hours while programming, messing with Linux or whatever? Why is it that I have a strong tendency to have my mind captured by projects while she is trying desperately to get my attention? I love her so very much; I cannot imagine life without her. When is my mind going to consistently agree with my heart and allow me to make much of our time together not knowing when the Lord will require the souls of either of us? Lord, please let it be so before it is too late.