Bloggin' Al

Or should I call this the “Incredible 4”?

This weekend was the Quiz Fest for The Bible Quizing Network in northern Indiana. It started on Friday evening at 7:00 with regular quizing competition (team against team). This lasted for two hours. Then at 9:00 on Sat regular quizing continued followed by double elimination one-on-one (individual quizzer against individual quizzer). After lunch was the double elimination team tournament. Finally we all went home exhausted.

Imagine running around all weekend with a group of 2 six year olds (Reece and AJ), one seven year old (Mark), and one 8 year old(Cardin), all boys. And boy they were tired by then end!

So what is the big deal? These boys are the C team that I coach and on the normal competition they won all four rounds, two of them were with B teams (every month we compete with two C teams and 2 B teams) which consist of 2nd and 3rd graders (8 and 9 year-olds). And this is the fourth month in a row that they have done this! 12-0 for the year. Great job boys!

On to the ono-on-one. Mark, my son, took first place in this advanced competition (top four C team individuals) while Reece took first place in the other! Both AJ and Cardin also did an excellent job! I do not really care for the one-on-one competition when the boys have to compete against each other but they all did really good and had very good team spirit even when competing against each other.

Finally the double elimination tournament. The C teams were grouped with the B teams because of the limited number of C teams. We started competition with the C teams which we won and then moved to B teams in later rounds. You should have heard the groans from the B teams when they found out that they had to compete against the “FBC1” team. Many were beaten by my boys in earlier month’s competitions 🙂 Unfortunately we had a visiting Canadian B team that beat us (“Go Canada, Eh!”) so we moved to the “second chance” bracket and started moving up again to finally compete with the Canadian team again. They won by one question! “Go Canada, Eh”. So we took the C team first place and the B team second place – though they did not give us a trophy for that one 🙁

What a fun way to learn God’s Word and I have been so impress with how these boys are working together and how their parents are so involved in what these guys are doing. Not only is it teamwork between the boys but also with the parents. This is they way parents should be involved with their families! Thank you all for such a fun year so far!

Maybe this should be called “Phenomenal Parents” or “Fantastic Families”.

Interesting article on BBC today on “EU Under Fire Over Human Rights“. Though I am not too interested in EU and claimed human rights abuses, I noticed they referenced US human rights abuses. And this is a concern of mine. So I investigated a little further.

Here is the Human Rights Watch report and I reviewed the US section starting on page 501.

Interesting list of “claims” but very rarely is there any good references. However they do a nice job of quoting people that say there are not policies of torture and refuting “Human Rights Abuses”. Yes, there are probably some problems like detaining “witnesses” and stuff but many those issues are in the process of being resolved.

Another interesting point that this report contradicts itself on is that they complain that those that “abuse human rights” are getting away with minimal sentences (though they do not discuss the actual extent of these individual abuses). A page or two later they complain how “inhumane” the US correctional system is. I am confused here. They are calling for those convicted of any human rights violation to be sent into a correctional system that abuses human rights for an extended amount of time, even longer than some of them already are. Sounds like Human Rights Watch is acting in an inhumane way.

Also, convicted first degree murderers should not have the same rights as a citizen in good standing when in fact, many prisoners in the US have it better off than I do. For example, free magazines and TV that probably developed and encouraged that got them into prison in the first place. Free education. I am not against permitting prisoners to become educated and learn a trade, in fact I encourage that but I think that an education that I paid $18,000/year to receive, they should in some way be required to pay for too. If they could put that much time into community service rather than requiring my tax dollars to pay for their education and also pay for someone else to do the community service (like rebuild sidewalks, reception in public offices, or even design road systems). I have a hard time letting first degree murders go free after a few years but many others could easily be permitted to stuff like this.

Finally, back to the report, on page 509 there is reference to a group that totally voided the validity of the report which probably contributed much to this section of the report. The ACLU makes tons of money and selectively chooses its “human rights” battles, selecting anything anti Christian or anti Family or anti Conservative. I could devote a whole blog site on this group but FoxNews is starting to let “The ACLU Expose Itself..” to the public!

I need to look for more positive material to post.

Have not yet seen objective proof of: “What’s an Intel chip doing in a Mac? A whole lot more than it’s ever done in a PC.”

However this is great because the “Apples” are becoming more like “Oranges” and the so we can compare “Oranges to Oranges”!

Also, it seems Apple terminated because IBM was not keeping up with the performance of the other processor makers (Intel, AMD, etc). However, the interesting thing is that Intel is 5 years behind AMD in performance even with the release of the Duo Core (previous to this I was reading 7 to 11 years behind).

I would like to see benchmark performance comparisons on the following:
Intel Duo Core Mac with Intel Duo Core PC
and
Intel Duo Core PC with latest AMD dual core technology PC

From this we could possibly extrapolate what a AMD powered Mac could have done. Also remember that hardware between the Mac and the PC would have to be similar since Mac users are limited to their HW selection. Another comparison that would be fun is a Mac with a PC that has optimized hardware.

Some older reviews on dual cores of Intel vs AMD in the PC:
“In the end, AMD’s implementation of x86-64 seems to be more robust than Intel’s, although the results are definitely mixed. We’ll need to revisit the issue as more real 64-bit applications become available. But for now, if you want to move to 64-bit Windows on dual-core processors, AMD may be the better overall solution.” – full review here

“If you still want the fastest in dual-core, AMD does have that locked up, but you’ll pay for it.” – full review here

Looks like AMD is the way to go for gamers and probably other high end graphics work.

Let me know if there are objective comparisons of the Intel Mac and the Intel PC.

Just wanted to let you know that my blog on my Pakistan trip is located HERE

It is hard to believe that my time in Pakistan is almost over. I have totally mixed feelings about this. I have very much enjoyed my time in both Muzaffarabad and Balakot, made many new friends, and learned so much. The countryside is also so beautiful to match the people.

However, I am excited to be able to go home and be with my family, my wife, Joyce, and four children, Mark, Andrea, Audrey and one on the way!

It is with heavy heart that I prepare to leave, yet with excitement I get to see those I love so much. I also wait expectantly for what is around the corner for our lives.

“‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'” – Jeremiah 29:11

This book is still intriguing me a second time around. And hard to put down once started.

The book opens with a snippet of a story of a sea lion who live near a small oasis in the desert. No one knows how he got there. He does not even seem to know. He has always been there? But there is a deep desire for something more, for something better, for his intended purpose, for the sea. But that is just a desire. Will he ever have more to life than small, muddy watering hole, a rock, and a tree?

What an example of most people’s lives. There are desires that they have but they are often suppressed for such things as fear, practicality, “that is impossible”, etc. Where is the joy, the fulfillment?

We have knowledge that often hinders us while God really intended us for life! We have eaten from the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil” and concerned so much with right and wrong, trying to do the “right” thing and criticizing what is wrong (I often like to do that). Spending so much time on that and have forgotten the “Tree of Life”.

I have struggled with many desires that have been placed in my heart that “aren’t practical” or sound quite foolish from my “knowledge”. I have found that often I am depressed and struggle with life when I do not have the attitude of pursuing these. On the other hand when I pursue these desires I have joy.

Even though I did the foolish thing of spending the month of December away from my family with Christmas being the biggest, most important family event of the year, I am having the time of my life. A great adventure. It really hurts to be away from my family but I could also be stuck in a rut at the normal boring get up, go to work, etc day being discouraged and miss the great opportunities that I am having here in Pakistan. Don’t get me wrong, my family is one of the most important things in my life and they also bring much joy.

Eldredge touches on these points and many others as he attempts to light a fire under the desires of his readers and slowly unfolds the story of the sea lion.

We are given “life to the full”. Will we take it?

Link:
To check out the crazy thing I am doing right now, Click Here

The idea of Intelligent Design (ID) is very interesting in itself. I will say that it solves many problems that evolutionary theory of origins (ETO) still has.

Some say, well what about the fossil record? As demonstrated in the previous post, rocks do not take too long to make. I have often read “It is a FACT that the Earth with liquid water, is more than 3.6 billion years old.” But they do not prove it. Can it be proven? Probably by the same way the that 11 year old rock on Mt. St. Helens was shown to be ½ to 3 million years old.

I do not want to say that evolution is not true but I believe that the evolutionary explanation of origins is very much flawed and very theoretical. Unfortunately, that is the only theory our children are often given and usually it is presented as the only possible explanation of origins and thus must be fact (like made in the above statement about the age of the earth. Were you there?). I do recall the traditional textbooks I had that discussed the evolutionary explanation of origins did not disclose alternatives nor did they, in any way, suggest that even portions of it MAY not be true.

On the other hand, in my eyes, ID might actually be provable as true. Let us try my Truth Senario:

If I were to take some bricks and build a house and you moved into it a few years later then I stopped by and told you that I built the house, would you believe me? If you knew me to be honest you would. If I was still a stranger you may still doubt. What if I started showing building supply receipts and paint color charts and start describing different features of the home to you? And what about if you got to know me well enough to start seeing that the house I build matches the type of person. Kinda like the game “Match the Owner with the Pet”. You would see that I would probably put a Japanese tub in the master bedroom and overlooking a beautiful back yard. That there would be a small apartment attached to the house and there would be room for lots of kids. etc. You get the point. I built the house, you believe it is true because you know who I am and I have given several different methods of proving it. (Keep this word picture in mind as I discuss)

Now this is where I have issue with many ID proponents. ID is only a theory when presented in light of what is created by the intelligent being. This puts it only on par with the evolutionary theory of origins (ETO). However, basing origins on the idea that there was a intelligence behind it, many holes found in the ETO can be explained.

ID can be a theory but it will not be accepted because ID requires TRUTH and truth can not come from man because, to man, truth is relative. This brings up philosophy, something which I enjoy reading at times but despise debating because my opponents tend to get aggressive (maybe because I ask to many questions). To be brief (this is hard but I will let another expound on these ideas if they want to and I will link to them), Truth requires a standard and the ultimate truth is set up by the ultimate being, the one who creates truth (BTW with some fun you can prove that the Intelligent Designer is Truth making truth absolute! – I’ll let someone else write on that too)

Truth has to come from the Intelligent Designer and so the Intelligent Designer has to be the center of the idea, not the design or else the design would just be a theory (and construed to be religion). This is what I do not like about many who are pushing ID. They are promoting Intelligent DESIGN and not The Intelligent DESIGNER. Because of this, truth becomes relative because man is making up what is truth not the Designer.

The Intelligent Designer told us that He was the one who “designed”. He gave us written documentation. We see His likeness in what He made, just like you would see me in the house I built. You believe I built the house, now the Intelligent Designer has done the exact same thing concerning His design will you believe Him?

This is a huge topic with many ideas (and I tried to make it simple). Sorry if it causes confusion but feel free to comment and ask questions.

ID will only be accepted when the Designer Himself is accepted and I would much rather call the origin of life and this world:
God – The Intelligent Designer

Interesting decision by a federal judge on the issue of Intelligent Design (ID) in Dover, PA. From what I have been able to read, I really believe that this is not being approached properly. See the BBC Report for some background.

What is Intelligent Design? It is claimed, by many, to be a theory of origins that requires an intelligent being to have put the universe and all that is in it together because the what is here is way to complex to have happened (bang!).

Before I go too much further let us look at the “alternative” theory, Evolution. This too is a theory. What is a theory? To sum it up in a brief statement: “An assumption based on limited information or knowledge usually supported by fact”. Interesting. What is evolution? It is the “theory” that the universe had a beginning and things evolved from nothing to what we have today, stars, planets, water, land, creatures, INTELLIGENT humans… The list goes on. It just happened. Most believe it came from a “Big Bang” (theory).

Here is a little test to prove Evolution and it is really easy in light of how complex life is. Note: Scientifically, theories need tests that demonstrate that the theory is possible so here goes. This is a simpler version of one of my favorites, The Clock Test. I will call this one The Paper Test:

Take a piece of paper and for simplicity sake rip it into ten peices and put it in a paper bag. Now shake it for say an hour. When you open the bag, you should have at least some of the peices of paper starting to bond together. In fact, with the conditions, paper is already paper, already a part of a larger peice of paper, etc. It should have formed into a sheet of paper by that time if evolution can make complex living structures from nothing within a couple billion years. Here we had something that already “knew” what is should be and the bonding process is very simple.

Other thoughts:

• Explain to me the human and dinosaur tracks in the Upper Taylor Platform (UTP) in the bed of the Paluxy River, near Glen Rose, Texas in light of evolution (I hear another theory coming, no proven fact from the evolutionists.)?
• Explain the almost perfect human tracks found in the mountains of New Mexico in the Permian (supposedly before the dinosaurs).
• Explain why it takes typical sedimentary rock to form at 1 cm/1000 years in evolution (Officer, Charles; The Great Dinosaur Extinction Mystery, 1996, p.56) when there are trees that extend from one coal seam to another through several layers of rock in Cookville, TN in the Kettles coal mines (Very fast evolution).
• Explain why, in 1997, samples from eleven year old rock at Mt. St. Helens was dated as being 1/2 to 3 million years old?
• etc

This whole evolution thing sounds like a belief system or religion (“cause, principle, or activity pursued with zeal or conscientious devotion”) to me.

Coming soon: Intelligent Design Controversy – Intelligent Design
Interesting Discussion Starting Here: A blow against science