2009 — 3 August: Monday
Just out of curiosity, Christa, when exactly did those little nieces of ours become such grownup women? I think I must have missed the memo:
Michelle and Claire, at Shuttleworth
It's just gone midnight, but I'm too tired to process any more pictures yet. I was up until 03:20 (21 hours ago, that is) talking to Claire and (for a change) providing an absorbent shoulder rather than requiring one. Then we had a full day out at the Shuttleworth collection, up in the Old Warden aerodrome, followed by a delicious BBQ back in London before pootling straight back down to Chandler's Ford. Knackered doesn't even come close. G'night.
Catching up
It was fascinating to read this account of life over in North America from a BBC chap. Ourselves as others see us, heh? Well, that saw me through my first cuppa. What's next? Well, this piece was equally interesting, if vastly different. Source and snippet:
How do we use the methodological naturalism of science to say something about the possible existence of supernatural entities? The same way we use it to detect the existence of neutrinos,
which also can not be perceived directly with our senses. We look for their effects on the natural world. We may not be able to control supernatural entities, but we can certainly search
for their effects on the natural objects we do control (or at least understand). We can search for things in the natural world that can only be plausibly explained by recourse to supernatural
entities. That we consistently fail to find them is surely relevant in assessing the likelihood of God's existence.
Can we prove that God does not exist by such means? Of course not, which is why none of the New Atheists claim that we can. We also can not prove that ghosts do not exist, but everyone thinks
we are justified in describing their existence as unlikely. That the only sort of God consistent with science is the kind that does not intervene in nature in any detectable way is an important
and contingent finding. It is also devastating to the religious views of a great many people.
If you were God, wouldn't you leave the universe? The man who gives us "Dilbert" certainly thinks so... Time for a spot of breakfast.
I realise one should always try to believe some impossible things before breakfast, but is this ACE or what?
Exams for an Evangelical Christian curriculum in which pupils have been taught that the Loch Ness monster disproves evolution and racial segregation is beneficial have been ruled equivalent to
international A-levels by a UK government agency...
Hundreds of teenagers at around 50 private Christian schools in Britain study for the certificates, as well as several home-educated students. The courses are based around the Accelerated
Christian Education (ACE) programme, which originated in Texas in the 1970s.
Bank profits are just being announced. They are, as usual, obscenely large. But somehow less upsetting than the arrant nonsense that is ACE. Meanwhile, "Woman's Hour" is wittering on about toplessness. (I'm just keeping abreast of the times.)
Is that a faint smile, Mr Mounce?
The snapper snapped, heh? I had no idea those pesky camera-equipped phones were so sneaky. Let alone those pesky phone camera-equipped nieces!
Me, taken unawares, at Shuttleworth
My camera-case strap conceals the expertly sewed-back-on top button. (My attempt failed, but I was rescued by niece #3. At least I'd managed to save the original button.) It's now 10:37 and young Mr Postie has just delivered a Blu-ray of Edward Scissor(into my)hands. Wonder what's in this extended edition?
Decline and fall?
It's not just me!
Graduating computer-illiterate students who had to do a project in computer science was more of a headache. The solution was to give them some anodyne title that they could woffle or crib off other sources. It was best not to look too closely at these Frankensteinian efforts because otherwise you would see stitches where they lifted it off some text which you were never likely to find short of wiring them to the mains to get the truth. It was of course, a lie, but the cost of exposing that lie was likely to have ramifications beyond the individual case. Very few lecturers would want to stir such a hornets' nest or have the necessary adamantine quality to inflict shame upon a student whose principal failure was to be allowed to study for a degree for which he had little ability.
Lunch...
... would have been better had I had my sun hat,1 though there are now more clouds at 15:25. Bro claims to be all packed; I'll be sending him on his way with Simon Garfield's book on obsessive stamp collecting. I've also been sent this link to an amusing comic strip. And, for some reason not very clear to me, Amazon suggest I'd enjoy this weird-looking film. I can't say I'm convinced.
Guess which Big Bro...
... is getting hungry again already? It's only 18:25 for goodness sake. Bacon and eggs, I guess, whether he likes it or not! Same with Across the Universe for the evening entertainment, methinks. He says he likes the Beatles' music.