• you were the most mind-bending surprise of their life
• they had all the answers until you were born
• they’ve learned most of life’s most important lessons from you
• you didn’t come with an assembly manual, so they’ve learned to improvise
• they have traded away a lot of freedom in order to raise you
• they take great pride and delight in all the things you are good at- even if these are not the same talents as theirs
• they brag about you constantly- even when you blow it
• you are the source of their best stories
• you are the source of their strongest emotional experiences: pain, joy, fear, frustration, love, pride, confusion
• they see more than you think, love more than you can imagine and fear more than they let on
• you remind them of themselves and each other (it’s like they see themselves when they look at you)
• they remind themselves of their own parents in all the wrong ways
• there were things about your grandparents that drove them crazy and they have been trying so hard to not make those mistakes in raising you that they’ve made a bunch of entirely different ones
• it scares them to grant you freedom to make your own decisions because they don’t want someone to hurt you somehow along the way…
• they trust you, they just don’t trust others
• they desperately want to somehow save you from having to experience anything they found painful as kids
• more than anything in the world, they want you to be happy free and successful
• it bothers them that the world has changed and they won’t be able to provide for you what their parents provided for them
• they will never stop feeling like a parent- even when you stop feeling like a child
• as you make decisions which reflect both your desire for independence and your limited insight and perspective, they feel in a tiny human way how God feels when we all rebel…

I want to do that.

~Jason

But now it’s awesome— a full-fledged calendar! It shows all of the month’s appointments on one page, and still lets you search, or to display today’s appointments.

Go check it out: http://www.getchurch.org/cgi-bin/read_tabcal.pl

~Jason

http://www.getchurch.org/cgi-bin/search_engine.pl

~Jason

I happened on an article today in which Peter Lynds’ revolutionary and hotly-contested theories of time appear to be quite similar to mine.

Newton described motion as a change in position over time. (In the process of figuring that out, he invented calculus.) That allowed for infinite series of infinitesimal steps, which polishes off Zeno. But for his model to make sense, Newton needed what he described as “absolute, true and mathematical time, which of itself flows equably without relation to anything external.” It’s a God clock, ticking out discrete instants, or, if you prefer, a universal CPU, doling out reality one cycle at a time, a series of static instants giving only the appearance of motion like the successive frames of a movie.

But Einstein didn’t buy it. The heart of relativity is that everything depends on your point of view - if you’re traveling at close to the speed of light (a constant), then time moves differently for you than for your slowpoke friends back home. Einstein died before he had worked out the implications of his own brilliant ideas. Among the problems left unsolved: Time could go faster or slower (or even backward), but was it divisible? And were there irreducible “atoms” of time, quantum flecks now called chronons?

Enter Lynds. In his theory, reality is merely sequences of events that happen relative to one another; time is an illusion. There’s no chronon, no direction for time’s arrow to fly, no “imaginary time” flowing 90 degrees off the axis of normal time…

…And that means a fundamental indeterminacy connects the blurry probabilities of the quantum universe with the seemingly stable macroverse where you and I live. Uniting those two seemingly incompatible worldviews dogged Einstein until his death; Lynds is happy to help the great man out. A further realization: The human perception of time as a sequence of moments is just a neurological artifact, an outgrowth of the chunk-by-chunk way our brains perceive reality. As the famous geneticist J. B. S. Haldane said: The universe is not only stranger than we imagine, it’s stranger than we can imagine.

I’ve been saying something similar for 6 months. Especially with regard to the spiritual, my growing belief is that “God is outside time” means really that he experiences all time as a single moment. In fact, all that occurs is happening in a single moment. We sense time only because we are mortal. We use it to explain the sequence of events around us.

I’ve also noticed that our experiences of stress-free pleasure are when time seems to ‘stop’ for us. We let go of the concept, if you will, and like a freeze-frame in a movie, or a photograph of memories, find ourselves wrapped in joy.

~Jason 

“We are in the process of creating a cultural rupture between a younger generation that uses the technologies that companies and societies have made available, such as the iPod, file download software, peer-to-peer networks, etc.,” Judge Dominique Barella told Wired News…

“It is similar to the sociological consequences of the Prohibition period in the U.S. (during the 1920s). Certain laws can have unexpected consequences on society.”

Instead, criminal proceedings should be geared more toward prosecuting large-scale counterfeiting rings instead of going after “a young person who fills up his or her iPod.”…

…France isn’t alone in creating legal headaches for the entertainment industry’s copyright enforcement efforts. A Canadian appeals court last week upheld a decision from a lower court finding that internet service providers in the country are not required to divulge the identity of accused fileswappers.

I’ve been saying for years that copyright law needs to be redefined, even though I produce unique material which I wish to profit from. I’m curious to see how this will evolve. The conviction and punishment of “grandmas” and “junior high students” because they’re downloading music has always seemed inappropriate to me. How will other countries and judges respond to France?

Exciting!

~Jason

Though many don’t love Enterprise, I’m so sad that it’s ending. I still think it was the most creative, original, exciting, well written Star Trek series since the original series.

Austin sent me this great article which summarizes many of my feelings on the subject of Enterprise.

~Jason

A California company has figured out how to use two simple materials — water and salt — to create a solution that wipes out single-celled organisms, and which appears to speed healing of burns, wounds and diabetic ulcers.

The solution looks, smells and tastes like water, but carries an ion imbalance that makes short work of bacteria, viruses and even hard-to-kill spores.

Developed by Oculus Innovative Sciences in Petaluma, the super-oxygenated water is claimed to be as effective a disinfectant as chlorine bleach, but is harmless to people, animals and plants. If accidentally ingested by a child, the likely impact is a bad case of clean teeth.

Oculus said the solution, called Microcyn, may prove effective in the fight against superbugs, crossover viruses like bird flu and Ebola, and bioterrorism threats such as anthrax.

The company has just been granted approval in the United States to test the solution in the treatment of wounds, and already has government approval in Europe, Canada and Mexico for diverse uses, from disinfectant to wound irrigation.

Doctors conducting trials in Mexico and India are recounting stories at international conferences of their surprise at another feature of the solution: It speeds the healing of severe burns and diabetic ulcers.

According to Hoji Alimi, founder and president of Oculus, the ion-hungry water creates an osmotic potential that ruptures the cell walls of single-celled organisms, and out leaks the cell’s cytoplasm. Because multicellular organisms — people, animals, plants — are tightly bound, the water is prevented from surrounding the cells, and there is no negative impact.

While super-oxygenated water is nothing new — Microcyn has its roots in efforts to decontaminate nuclear reactors’ cooling pipes, according to Alimi — it is typically effective for only a few hours after it is formulated. To keep it handy, hospitals and labs must invest in extremely expensive machines costing $100,000 or more.

Oculus has developed a new formula with a shelf life of at least a year, which opens up an array of potential applications.

And unlike prior formulations of super-oxygenated water, Microcyn is pH-neutral, so it won’t damage healthy tissue. This has prompted successful experiments in the treatment of challenging wounds like diabetic ulcers.

Physicians in Mexico using Microcyn observed rapid healing of burns and ulcers that the body could not repair for a decade or more because of infections, said Dr. Andres Gutierrez, head of the cell-therapy unit at the National Institute of Rehabilitation in Mexico City and an adviser to Oculus.

“Mexico was early to obtain the technology and give regulatory approval,” he said. “Doctors using the product noticed the horrific smell of diabetic wounds was gone.” The smell came from bacteria.

Dr. Amar Pal Singh Suri of the Diabetic Foot Care Clinic in Delhi, India, began experimenting with Microcyn after learning of it last fall in Germany. Trying it on a severe necrotic wound of a patient whose only remaining option was amputation, Suri said he was surprised to see rapid improvement and the growth of healthy skin tissue.

“I shifted my other patients onto Microcyn treatment and we are now treating more than 50, with very good results,” said Suri.

India leads the world in diabetes, with 37 million people affected. “Every year, diabetics in my country suffer a million foot or lower-leg amputations,” said Suri. Personal tragedy aside, “saving a foot is a fourth the cost of amputation and an artificial limb,” he said.

Chronic wound care is a multibillion-dollar market worldwide. The solution will be available to U.S. physicians in June, said Alimi. Trials are being organized for preoperative disinfectant, dental applications and burn and diabetic treatments, he said.

The company is keen to explore other applications, like tools to combat bioterrorism and user-friendly antiseptics and disinfectants to battle superbugs that are resistant to antibiotics and vaccines.

Alimi says he’s giving serious thought to a misting device that could sterilize the air of hospital wards in the grip of epidemics. The solution also might be used as a hospital hand wash — a user-friendly, non-caustic disinfectant would benefit patients if it enabled medical workers to wash their hands more often, he said.

Seth took a farm truck, and we left a rubber Tony Hawk figure along with a “Smokey the Bear Travel Bug.”

Going home was better than the trip in. We chose instead to follow the Bruce Trail. What a beautiful day! We had a perfect time.

~Jason

The cool thing here is that I ran a cable from my computer in the basement to the TV and surround sound in the living room upstairs. Then I initiated a remote control session from Joanne’s PC in the living room to my PC downstairs. With this system, we were able to initiate episodes, watch them on our television, and pause using the remote control session as needed. This is so cool.

These Enterprise episodes are so intense. I love them! I really can’t believe why it hasn’t caught on. . I think maybe reality TV has been distracting people from good television.

~Jason

Scientists have shown in multiple studies that monkeys can manipulate robotic devices with their thoughts. Turns out the thoughts run deep.

A new study finds a monkey’s brain structure adapts to treat a robotic arm as if it was a natural appendage.

How cool is that? And it turns out they can move a computer’s cursor around a screen by thinking it too!

Eventually, they were taught to move the cursor without using the joystick, instead just thinking about the task.

Here’s the link.

TEN CHILDHOOD THINGS ABOUT ME

First best friend: Grade 2: Rusty Woodcock. We lived backyard-corner to sideyard-corner. He was a thinker— taped glasses, forever slipping down the nose.

Playing with Rusty was such fun. Rusty, Scotty, Johnny. Together the four of us explored the frozen arctic, went deep sea diving, searched a haunted house, discovered archeological remains of other-worldly creatures, fought in the second world war, joined the stunt-bike olypmics, and each married a Charlie’s Angel.

Earliest memory: Crawling through the tunnels under our basement-less house and getting covered with hundreds of ants. Screaming brought mom on the run. Poor ants drowned in the lake that day.

First award: Well see, I was failing school. Didn’t much like to learn, but dad turned that around. He said I could choose between death and a shiny new ten-speed. Easy decision, and my ten-speed came with grade eight’s “Most Improved Student” award.

Favourite Food as a Kid: As in SINGULAR food? Yeah right. How about foodS, like Kraft dinner— CEREAL— Chili, spaghetti, pizza. Did I mention cereal?

First Embarrassing Moment: Idunno. Dad was good at pointing out pretty girls to me— girls I was trying hard to look nonchalant around. That was always embarrassing.

First Pet: Helga! She was a Norwegian Elkhound (we called her Ellie), and we all loved to pillow her belly. She just laid there while us kids watched TV, perfectly reclined on the green indoor-outdoor carpeting to catch our favourite “Forest Rangers,” “The Price is Right,” “Little Rascals,” “Swiss Family Robinson,” or “Hogan’s Heros.”

Birth Order: Me first. Me first! Me FIRST!!! After ME, then Stacy who’s 1.5 years younger than ME. After that, Melanie who is MY little baby sister. She’s seven years younger than ME.

First Movie seen in a Theatre: Mom and dad didn’t go in for that kind of lewd activity… we saw some boring old Billy Graham movie with them once, but then we were supposed to duck out quickly. I felt so riske!

But the first movie I saw without mom and dad there— the first movie I saw with a peer, taking the bus in, never letting go of the two dollars in my pocket, was Robin William’s “Popeye.” Ug ug ug ug!

First Big Scare: Dad used to stop on bridges, then hold me out over the water. It might not have been as bad as it sounds… but in my recollection, it was the potential end of life. And it was more than once.

Background Music: Spinning Wheel by Blood, Sweat and Tears. I can still see mom shaking her booty to that one. And dad’s Tom T. Hall on eight track in our old AMC Ambassador. And Engelbert Humperdink, poor guy.

~Jason

Ok. It’s your turn. Consider this your tag. Ping me or comment your responses and URLs.

~Jason

~Jason

It cost a little more than we can afford right now, but it should help to keep the garage neat and tidy, and my tools more accessable.

What provoked this was getting our garage back… all winter the garage was full of someone else’s stuff.

~Jason

I have to say I guessed the right suspect and scenario within the first few chapters, but nonetheless a great read.

~Jason