Taking the Bible Literally

I saw this posted on a professor's door and got a kick so I thought I'd share. The Bible is supposedly God's word, yet He says to do some outrageous things. If you're religious, how could you not take the Bible literally? Isn't that claiming you're above God? Or was God just being sensationalistic, and He didn't mean to be taken literally?

Dear President Bush,

Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God's Law. I have learned a great deal from you and understand why you would propose and support a constitutional amendment banning same sex marriage. As you said "in the eyes of God marriage is based between a man a woman." I try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind them that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination... End of debate.

I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some other elements of God's Laws and how to follow them.

1. Leviticus 25:44 states that I may possess slaves, both male and female, provided they are purchased from neighboring nations. A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans, but not Canadians. Can you clarify? Why can't I own Canadians?

2. I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her?

3. I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in her period of menstrual uncleanness - Lev.15: 19-24. The problem is how do I tell? I have tried asking, but most women take offense.

4. When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odor for the Lord - Lev.1:9. The problem is, my neighbors. They claim the odor is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them?

5. I have a neighbor who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2. clearly states he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself, or should I ask the police to do it?

6. A friend of mine feels that even though eating shellfish is an abomination - Lev. 11:10, it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality. I don't agree. Can you settle this? Are there 'degrees' of abomination?

7. Lev.21:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have a defect in my sight. I have to admit that I wear reading glasses. Does my vision have to be 20/20, or is there some wiggle- room here?

8. Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed, including the hair around their temples, even though this is expressly forbidden by Lev. 19:27. How should they die?

9. I know from Lev. 11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes me unclean, but may I still play football if I wear gloves?

10. My uncle has a farm. He violates Lev.19:19 by planting two different crops in the same field, as does his wife by wearing garments made of two different kinds of thread (cotton/polyester blend). He also tends to curse and blaspheme a lot. Is it really necessary that we go to all the trouble of getting the whole town together to stone them? Lev.24:10-16. Couldn't we just burn them to death at a private family affair, like we do with people who sleep with their in-laws? (Lev. 20:14)

I know you have studied these things extensively and thus enjoy considerable expertise in such matters, so I am confident you can help.

Thank you again for reminding us that God's word is eternal and unchanging.

The Next Step in Technology: Ubiquitous Electronics and Computing

Ubiquitous electronics and computing.
In our clothes, paper, walls, floors, dresser drawers, coffee cups...
Wait, is this really what we want? Shut up, that's besides the point.

     The point is, graphene is representative of a larger revolution that is going to make our everyday materials electronics. A conducting one-atom thick plane of carbon; looking around my room, I imagine how everything in my room could be covered and with a transparent layer of photovoltaic graphene such that the light being emitted from my overhead lamp is fully absorbed and converted back into electricity again, an eternal fountain. I imagine how the excess thermal energy in my room could be absorbed and stored in an electric form, revolutionizing air conditioning. I imagine how my wall could turn into a screen of any dimension and shape, how the vibrations my voice imparts into the ubiquitous carbon lattice would make the room a microphone, and a speaker for that matter, and how the wall could recognize when a hole is smashed in it, recognize what atoms would be needed to repair the hole, and repair itself.
     These ideas sound like fantasy but if you stop and think about it, the human body itself is so much more fantastical. Stop and think about how our bodies already do self-reparation, and are already embedded with ubiquitous electric networks that enable us to organically store information and analyze sensory input. Stop and think about how chameleons and octopi can already change their skin into vibrant color screens. Evolution has iterated and reiterated for billions of years and has come up with some amazing designs, designs that humans can ponder to inspire their own innovation.

The Psychology of Dumpster Diving

 How do we analyze our food? Well, we use our senses: sight, smell, sound, touch, taste, as well as all the available information about the food: who made it, where the ingredients came from, the potential health implications; which all contributes to our end feeling about the food.

Sometimes our tools of analysis are restricted or deceived, for example in a grocery store: packaging obscures the view of the product and instead has idealized pictures, we cannot smell the product because the packaging is airtight, we cannot sample the food, and it is covered with information that is solely intended to entice the consumer. In such a case, the consumer is led to have a particular feeling about the product that is different from the feeling they would have given the ability to analyze the food using all tools, and given all relevant information.

For example, "0-calorie" diet soda is deceptive information. It is information that is provided to make weight-conscious people think that the soda they are drinking will help them to slim down. As the product is being consumed, the consumer feels better, without guilt or worrying about the amount that they should be consuming, because after all 10 cans of "0-calorie" soda is still a total of 0 calories, right? The "sugar-substitute" page on Wikipedia cites studies which find,

"the release of insulin causes blood sugar to be stored in tissues (including fat). In the case of a response to artificial sweeteners, because blood sugar does not increase there can be increased hypoglycemia and increased food intake the next time there is a meal."

In other words, diet soda actually makes you fatter.
I use that example not as a starting point to now propel into the corruption of food manufacturers, but instead to lead into the psychology of dumpster diving.

Conceptually, food in the trash gross. Trash is dirty and unsanitary, and food with such qualities is deleterious. So no matter how clean and fresh-looking a piece of food may appear, if you're told that it came from the trash the natural instinct is to feel repulsed. But how factually based is this feeling? Can food from a dumpster be clean and sanitary? Isn't this just the converse situation to the person who feels great drinking their 0-calorie soda -- information taints the food instead of making the food more enticing...?

What emerges from this discussion is the idea that we need food that satisfies two conditions: the food is good for our bodies, and we feel good eating it (for eating food that we don't feel good eating is deleterious itself ~holistic argument). 0-calorie soda does not satisfy the first condition, whereas dumpster food does not satisfy the second, but can that be changed? Can we convince our minds to be okay with eating food from a dumpster? Well, a mind can be okay with eating dumspter food if it doesn't know that the food's from a dumspter: a piece of food is offered, and it's dumpster origin is glossed over; but that doesn't count. I'm talking about taking a piece of food out of a dumpster with your own hands, and feeling perfectly comfortable taking a bite. Freegans have accomplished such a feat, and feel great eating dumpster food because they know that they aren't contributing to the wastefulness and corruption of our capitalistic society. But that only works for people of a certain political orientation, how about a way for anyone to become more comfortable eating dumpster food...rational thinking.
The fact is that businesses can't sell day-old bread, dented cans, a bag of onions with one that's gone bad, etc., so they take these goods, place them in clean plastic bags, and put the bags outside in a metal container. There are other, more serious reasons why things get thrown away, and that's the part that can leave a slight unsettled feeling in one's stomach; no store has to put a "do not eat" sign on dangerous food that they're throwing away. But again, think of the likelihood that a batch of Whole Foods bread got thrown away because it was found to have traces of fill in the blank epidemic/toxic chemical, which can assuage the feeling.

Computer Programming Notes

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MySQL notes


MySQL, pronounced My-S-Q-L. It stores tabled data.


Make a backup of all databases:
# mysqldump -u root -p --all-databases  | gzip > FILENAME.sql.gz
It then asks for your mysql password


To restore all databases, unzip then:
# mysql -u root -p < FILENAME.sql


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Mathematica Notes


Load vector analysis package:

<< VectorAnalysis`

Divergence of unit vector rho-hat -> Div[{1,0,0}]