Old Guys Rule

I used to play pickup basketball weekly.  Sometimes, while picking teams we would say "old guys against the young guys".  The young guys would get smirks on their faces, excited that they had the advantage: young, fast, energetic.  Pretty much every time, the old guys would win.  They weren't as fast.  They couldn't jump as high.  On the other hand, they had experience and played smarter.

We just had two debates:

65 year old Mitt Romney against 51 year old Barack Obama
69 year old Joe Biden against 42 year old Paul Ryan

A majority agree that the 65 year old beat the 51 year old.
It also looks like the 69 year old had a stronger showing than the 42 year old.

It wasn't policy.  It was just that old guys rule.

I'd Rather Live in America, Part 2

Once again, the Pakistanis have shown religious intolerance by putting a young Christian girl in jail for blasphemy.  According to some reports, she suffers from Down Syndrome and is somewhere between 11 and 14 years old.  She is in the same jail as the convicted killer of the local governor (see my post here about that case).

The local Imam "encouraged local people to evict the child’s family from the area" after Friday prayers.  The land mafia also wanted to expel the Christian community from the area.  People don't like to have their religion criticized.

I'm not sure what the girl said that was blasphemous, but if I did know, I wouldn't tell you because then I would be committing blasphemy myself.

http://dawn.com/2012/09/08/christian-girl-facing-blasphemy-charge-gets-bail/

Update October 9, 2012
The Taliban shot a teenage girl who was advocating for girls' rights to an education.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/taliban-says-it-shot-infidel-pakistani-teen-for-advocating-girls-rights/2012/10/09/29715632-1214-11e2-9a39-1f5a7f6fe945_story.html

Drunk Mirror

The Brazilians invented the Drunk Mirror and installed it in bars.  What it does is delays what you see in the mirror by 2 seconds.  The idea is to raise awareness of how alcohol impairs the drinker.  I wonder if it is helping.  About 5 weeks ago, a respected member of our church, 60 year-old father of 5 children and grandfather was killed by a drunk driver on the freeway.  There is an on ramp and off ramp next to each other.  A delayed reaction resulted in the driver turning on the latter, ignoring the "DO NOT ENTER" sign and hitting and killing this innocent man.

I know many people who drink responsibly with no apparent side effects.  I also know of many cases of lives being ruined by drinking.  A review of localcrimenews.com shows that a large number of crimes are related in some way to alcohol consumption.

I'm still trying to sort out my opinion on how to prevent the tragedies without repeating the mistake of Prohibition.  For me personally, I choose not to drink.

You can watch the video and read about the drunk mirror here:

http://www.fastcocreate.com/1681472/drunk-mirror-experiment-gives-bar-goers-something-to-reflect-on

Translations from Portuguese:


Como chamar atencao das pessoas para o risco de beber e dirigir
=How to call attention to the risk of people drinking and driving

Usamos um espelho diferente para alertar as pessoas
=Use a different mirror to alert people

Um espelho com delay
=A mirror with delay

E´ assim que seus reflexos ficam depois de alguns drinks
= This is how your reflexes are after a few drinks

Um conselho: se beber, nao dirija
=Some advice: if you drink, don't drive

Character References

I decided to put together a quick reference to the video testimonials for Mitt Romney's character.




And one that isn't from the RNC:

Links: Neo-neocon

Dark Knight Rising Tragedy

This morning I learned about the tragic shooting in Aurora Colorado.  My heart breaks for the families and community where this happened.

I would like to comment about this event in a larger context, specifically on how we should react to this event.  I don't blame the filmmakers or gun makers.  The truth is that we like to watch violence.  I don't know why, but it's worth some contemplation.

In the previous Batman movie (The Dark Knight), 26 people were killed, according to  http://bodycounters.com/bodycounts.php.  (I couldn't find statistics for Dark Knight Rises).  More than twice as many murders and not a single flag flown at half mast.  Of course, the 26 killed in The Dark Knight were fictional.  The argument against this comparison of course is that those weren't "real" murders.

But what if you found out that more than 26 "real" murders happened yesterday.  And the day before.  And the day before...all adding up to about 10,000 violent deaths over the last year.  Innocent people murdered here in the United States.  The cause?  Drunk Driving.  Drunk drivers have killed over 250,000 people over the last 2 decades.  No call for another Prohibition (we learned our lesson there).  But also, no call to fly flags at half mast and no 24 hour-a-day news media blitz.  Why aren't there more news stories about this bigger story?  We obviously are morbidly interested in violent death.  This is a fact that filmmakers have discovered and exploit to sell more tickets.  (I think it works since they allow us to feel fear without actually having anything to be afraid of).  I think we need to ask ourselves, "Do I really need the emotional arousal of watching violent death to be entertained?"  I wrote about this before here.

In conclusion:

Don't point the finger.  Don't make any new gun laws.  Don't blame the Tea Party, Hollywood or any other group.

Do ponder your feelings about the suffering of others.  Consider how you want to react to the visual depiction of violence to others, even if it is fictional.  Human suffering is real, widespread and is not going away.  Decide what you can do each day to reduce the suffering of a fellow being.  Smile.  Say a kind word.  Perform an act of charity.  Maybe if Jim Holmes hadn't felt so isolated and desperate.  Maybe if he had more people reaching out to him.  Maybe he wouldn't have resulted to this horrific act of desperation.

Maybe if by connecting on a human level with someone you know, they would feel less inclined to drink themselves senseless and then get behind the wheel of a car.  Maybe you could save someone's life.

Update 7/25/2012
Positive:
Someone posted the story of a mother's advice to her child upset by some past horror: "Look for the helpers".  I am inspired by the men who used their bodies to protect their girl friends.  A reminder for each of us to be a "helper".
Negative:
I just found out this disturbing information.  The following trailer played in the theater before the shooting.  It shows men shooting into a crowded theater.  Maybe we should blame Hollywood after all.  Go to 2:03.

Washing Feet

I heard an inspiring news story this morning.  There's a charitable organization called Samaritan's Feet that was providing new shoes and socks for the homeless in San Diego.  The part of the story that touched me is that they have volunteers wash the feet of the people before they put on their new footwear.  You can read the story here.  Here's the original story that inspired this event 

He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel, and girded himself. After that he poureth water into a bason, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded...


So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was set down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you? Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him. If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.  John 13:4-17

24 is the new 18 and 49 is really 31

Apparently 24 is the new 18.  It has something to do with the brain not being fully developed until the age of 24, or kid's living with their parents longer, or just irresponsible behavior of the under 24 crowd.  You might think it is related to the "40 is the new 30" or "50 is the new 40" etc. movements, but I think I have a better explanation.

The reason for all of this age confusion has to do with the "Internet Generation".  Our lives are now fully immersed in computer technology: we work on computers, get entertainment from computers, shop on computers, bank on computers, even our phones are computers.  And guess what?  Computers count different then we do.  People use their ten fingers for counting (decimal) while computers use 1's and 0's.  As a compromise, programmers use "hex" numbers to talk to computers.

So:

• "Dec" means "old way to count"
• "Hex" means "new way to count" 

Using you Windows calculator, we can see how this works.  

 Enter "24" in the Calculator (in programmer mode on Windows 7 or scientific mode on Windows XP)

Select "Hex" and the new number is 18.

A more interesting case for me is 49.  Converting to Hex, we get "49 is the new 31".

On the other end, "16 is the new 10".  This can be confirmed by driving by your local high school.  The kid's look like they're 10 years old.  This new counting system is obviously more appealing to anyone in their mid 30's or older.  Try your age, but be prepared to see numbers like "1E" and "2A".  This is explained below.

(WARNING: math is involved after this point)

"Hex" is short for "Hexidecimal", which is a counting system based on the number 16.  This works for computers since using four digits of 1's and 0's gives you 16 digits, and the brilliant people who invented all this stuff decided 16 was easier for us humans.  Since there are only ten digits (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9), we need 6 more numbers.  For these, A, B, C, D, E, and F are used.  See the table below for equivalent numbers from 0 to 16.

Decimal	Hexidecimal	Binary (1's and 0's)
0	0	0
1	1	1
2	2	10
3	3	11
4	4	100
5	5	101
6	6	110
7	7	111
8	8	1000
9	9	1001
10	A	1010
11	B	1011
12	C	1100
13	D	1101
14	E	1110
15	F	1111
16	10	10000