I do not want to cross link my Bible blog too often, but I do feel like Feb 8th post deserves to be shared. God's fashion sense on display!

Next Saturday is game day! As normal, we will start at 2:00pm and go until we kick people out. =)

What little interesting potential the tea party may have had disappeared after the announcement that the candidates they support will be expected to support the platform of the Republican National Committee. (It wasn't much potential in the first place since they never seemed to make reasonable concrete suggestions for achieving change and attracted a lot of crazy people.)

PSA: If you think that Facebook, Google, Twitter, etc., have actual people watching and thwarting you in particular you (a) have a highly inflated sense of importance and (b) are probably wrong.

Unless, of course, you are committing some major crime or something.

(Okay, that was really more snarking than PSA, but a girl's gotta snark sometime.)

Finished The Blythes are Quoted by L.M. Montgomery. Publishers received the typescript of this book April 24, 1942, the day Montgomery died from a drug overdose (possibly suicide). This ninth "Anne" book represents a new experiment for storytelling. The book contains 15 short stories that reference the Blythe family. Poems attributed to Anne and Walter and commentary from the family loosely weave together the stories.

Publishers sat on the book for 30 years. In 1974 an abridged version was published as The Road to Yesterday. This version left out all of the family's commentary, removed one of the stories, removed all but one of the poems, reordered the stories, and removed material from some of the stories. Often, the removed material is darker and more pessimistic than most of Montgomery's material.

This book shows Montgomery's struggle with the two world wars. The book is divided into two parts. The first part is before WWI and the second book occurs after WWI and into to WWII. The second half of the book is decidedly more grim than the first half. Anne's poetry shows more pessimism, and you often see Anne on the verge of breaking down as she reads Walter's poetry.

The two poems bookend the book highlight the struggle. Walter's patriotic poem "The Piper", which became famous around the world in Rilla of Ingleside starts the book. The book ends with "The Aftermath", a grim poem about death and war that Walter wrote just before his death. The later poem sets up the dialog that ends the book. Anne says, "I am thankful now, Jem, that Walter did not come back. He could never have lived with his memories ... and if he had seen the futility of the sacrifice they made then mirrored in this ghastly holocaust ...". Montgomery left this final poem and dialog out of some manuscripts, but truly highlights the ambiguity present throughout The Blythes are Quoted.

For those of you who haven't yet heard through other channels, Professor Moody has passed away.

"To All Members of the Olin Community,

I am deeply saddened to report to you that Dr. Michael Moody, Vice President for Academic Affairs and the Founding Dean of Faculty at Olin, passed away last night at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. As you know, this was not unexpected and was the result of his long illness. His family is currently involved in planning funeral services. Further details will be announced as soon as they are available."

I had so many good professors at Mudd that it's hard to say that any one was my favorite, but he was near the top.

Finished The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives by Leonard Mlodinow. I'm giving this one a 3/5. Short summary: a must read if you are not familiar with the basic ideas of probability and statistics, and still a good read if you are familiar with the math but enjoy "history of mathematics" books (and I do!).

If I had to summarize this book in one sentence, I would quote page 11, "We habitually underestimate the effects of randomness." We assume, for example, that the hugely successful must have some secret or superior knowledge or talent. However, Mlodinow shows how, for example, given two people with the same skill, one may have a string of successes that makes them look like a superstar while another just does okay. This is most clearly demonstrated in sports where it is easier to assess someone's skill level (e.g., batting average), but the concept generalizes.

Each chapter focuses on a differen mathematical concept. We get some history of the concept, amusing stories about the people involved, a high level explanation, and examples. The concepts the book introduces are

• "A and B" is always less likely than "A" or "B" alone.


• Sample spaces. If all outcomes are equally likely, you can figure out the probability of "winning" by comparing the number of outcomes considered wins with the total number of outcomes.


• If the outcomes are not all equally likely, you can still apply the idea of a sample space, but you have to weight the different outcomes.


• A large number of samples is required before what you observe can be expected to match the predicted probability.


• What you know changes what you know about the probability of an event (the gist of Bayesian reasoning without the math).


• Measurements have errors. Difference within the bounds of these errors are meaningless.


• Random variations over large populations tends to have discernible patterns (e.g., life expectancy), and there will always be some members at the extremes.


• People are really bad at telling whether or not data is random. They will perceive random data as non-random and non-random data as random.

The level of mathematical detail decreases as the book progresses, but the chapters build upon each other. Although explained in the least mathematical detail, the last two concepts are the most important. I think that understanding these concepts is required for a basic level of mathematical literacy. I think pseudoscience would do less well if we made sure that our education system achieved this level of mathematical literacy.

Actually, on that note, I think that given the importance of probabilistic and statistical literacy, we should be teaching that in high school, maybe instead of calculus. (And, of course, I am influenced by Prof Benjamin from Mudd. (Watch the talk. It's only 3 minutes!))

From Contemporist. I am not big on "floating" staircases, but this one does look awesome.

Have people forgotten the election campaign already? Unless the (admittedly all of 2) articles I have been squeamish about fully quoting Harry Reid's statements, they sound no different than what many people were saying, openly and regularly, during the election campaign: being black, but not too black, would work to Obama's advantage.

I wonder what the reaction would have been if the statement had been a gender based equivalent statement about Hilary Clinton or Sarah Palin.

Finished Why I became an Atheist: A Former Preacher Rejects Christianity by John Loftus. An interesting book that tends toward high density, abstract arguments. Norman Geisler, author of A General Introduction to the Bible and The Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics says it "is a thoughtful and intellectually challenging work, presenting arguments that every honest theist and Christian should face." "Thoughtful and intellectually challenging" are simultaneously this book's strengths and the things that make it sometimes rather dull.

When reading this book, one should not forget that this is an explanation of why the author rejected Christianity. The book contains philosophical arguments, but they are the ones that convinced the author that Christianity is false. It is not meant to be an exhaustive catalog. The arguments generally focus on Christianity. Some of them may generalize to other religions, but arguing the implausibility of other religions was not the author's main goal.

In my opinion, the most interesting part of the book is the "Outsider Test For Faith". In general, what is convincing to an insider is not necessarily convincing to an outsider. Many arguments that seem flawless from the insider are laughable from the outside. This is true for any division of the world into "inside" and "outside".

The outsider test for faith asks you to "[t]est your beliefs as if you were an outsider to your faith." How would an outsider's view be different from an insider's view? First, it would take into account that there are many religions in the world, all of them faithfully believed. Does the sincere belief of those believers convince you that the religion they follow is true? If not, than the mere existence of your own faith cannot be expected to make a convincing argument. In an similar vein, an outsider viewpoint would take into account that for the vast majority of believers, the religion they follow is determined by their cultural, temporal, and geographic context.

Another feature of the outsider's viewpoint is that purely internal evidence is not convincing. For example, if one claims, without other arguments, that the Bible is true because it is authenticated by the Holy Spirit and that the feeling that you call the Holy Spirit is true and trustworthy because the Bible says it is, your claim will not pass the outsider test. Similarly, if you say that one should give their life over to Jesus because he is the son of God who died for our sins (according to the Bible), your claim also does not pass the outsider test. In both of these cases, the statement has nothing to stand on if one does not already accept the premises that would make them an insider.

The outsider test may sound like a harsh stance to take, but it is the stance you take toward every religion where you are an outsider. If you follow a certain faith, you are just applying the same standards to your own beliefs that you are applying to the beliefs of others.

Of course, no one can truly take on an outsider's perspective. Human beings are almost completely incapable of completely abandoning their own beliefs. Even so, the exercise can still lead to insights. And even if you are not willing to try the outsider's test for faith, acknowledging the difference between an insider's perspective and an outsider's perspective can, hopefully, help you understand why something that is so convincing to you is completely unconvincing to someone else.

Finished Domain-Driven Design: Tackling Complexity in the Heart of Software by Eric Evans. As is usual with technical books, I have a more detailed summary.

The short summary is that Domain-Driven Design is a great book for any programmer or software designer who wants to deepen their ability to model application domains. Evans describes why domain modelling is important and sets out a number of patterns for achieving better models. He has a good grasp of real world complexities and, because of that, insists that a model must be implementable if it is to be successful. Any overlap between the model and the implementation should be identical or the model will become obsolete.

Evans provides a number of patterns to help determine the best domain model for an application. These patterns range from the abstract to the concrete, from the brilliant to the pedantic. Overall, I highly enjoyed the book although, at just over 500 pages, I am glad that I had a reading group to work through it with.

Game day next weekend! Don't forget, Saturday, Jan 9th at 2:00pm.

I have a new project! I'm doing that one year Bible thing again because I forgot to take notes when I did it a couple year ago. Since I am taking notes, I figured I might as well blog them. (Note that once I am back at work, I can pretty much guarantee that the notes will not be as detailed as they were today and yesterday.)

Words have meaning. That meaning is not static and is generally not exact, but words do have meaning. Thus, I get extremely annoyed when I encounter people who say that an enemy combatant is anyone who commits a crime against a person or the US or when I encounter people who say that they are at war with the US because they dislike the policies of the current administration. Yes, you can broaden those terms those way and people will probably understand your meaning, but at some point, broadening definitions make a term meaningless.

ETA: Also annoying is when people do not understand that one is, for the sake of argument, conceding t redefined terms to show that they are inconsistent. For example, in response to the above person who redefined "enemy combatant", I asked if, in his opinion, people who stole cars or committed perjury were enemy combatants. A third person (the one who was redefining war, incidentally) then told me that I was asking questions outside of the scope of the conversation.

We are switching Jasper, kitty number 2, to a new feeding schedule so that both cats are fed on the same schedule. Because of this, Jasper is (a) a little whiny and (b) desperately trying to figure out how to get into his automatic feeder. On the other hand, Kage is just sitting there looking at him thinking "come on, it's not that bad; I've been doing it this way forever".

Still catching up...

Finished 10 Steps to Fashion Freedom by Malcolm Levene and Kate Mayfield. The authors help you discover your personal style, and they teach you how to implement that style in your wardrobe. The book provides decent exercises for discovering your style, but I prefer the exercises in LaPorte and McCarthy's Style Statement.

Levene and Mayfield's book excels in teaching you to implement your style. Exercises to assist with this include non-critical assessments of your body type and your current wardrobe, "aesthetic field trips" to discover what you like generally and what you like for clothing, and shopping tips.

Throughout the book, the authors scatter tips about fit and quality. No matter what your style, these factors make the difference between a style that looks good and one that does not. Fit has the largest impact. The highest quality piece of clothing will look no better than something pulled off of a Walmart discount rack if it fits badly. The authors give concrete advice on finding a good fit including particular features to look for and ways to move (for example, sit down, stand up, and walk around, especially when trying on pants).

The other key aspect is quality. This does not necessarily mean getting high end clothing (although as owners of a high end clothing shop, the authors would clearly like it to). In any piece, whatever the price, you should make sure it is well constructed (good hems, even lengths, lining where there should be, no loose threads, etc.) and made of quality materials (non-itchy wool, substantial buttons, fabric that drapes nicely, etc.). Quality clothing need not break the bank, but it will cost more than something cheap. The authors encourage you to save up and buy something good. Better one $200 pair of pants you love to wear and will last for years than five $40 pairs that you hate and that fall apart quickly.

My main criticism of the book is that the authors focus on traditional business dress to the exclusion of everything else. They are disdainful of the idea of casual Friday, and as someone who works in an industry where traditional casual Friday garb is considered dressed up, that attitude is annoying. That said, if you take their opinions about the proper level of formality with the grain of salt you can learn a lot from Levene and Mayfield.

Finished Tales of the Jazz Age by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I recognized several of the short stories in this collection, I assume from high school lit classes. As is often the case with Fitzgerald, these stories were hit and miss for me. I enjoyed some of the stories, such as "The Lees of Happiness" and "The Camel's Back". Others, such as "Porcelain and Pink", I just did not get. However, it was worth the read, and it was a fine first book for my Kindle.

Finished The Twelve Kingdoms: The Vast Spread of the Seas by Fuyumi Ono. This is the third of the novels in the series. Like the first two, this volume overlaps with the anime. In The Vast Spread of the Sea we get to see a story of the early days Shoryu's reign. A very entertaining addition to the series.

There is going to be a puzzle hunt for teenage girls at the University of Washington on Saturday, February 27th. Pass the info on to any teenage girls you know or volunteer if you work in or are studying a STEM field.