From: The Hutch: I Seek Imbalance

"This world wants us to believe a lie: that giving of ourselves creates a void that worldly pleasures can refill. Are you buying it?"

Here is a really funny video from some Fox comedy show which plays off of Steve Job's tendency to dramatize his products, the Apple "i" line of stuff, and the rhetoric around the current Gulf War. Given the state of copyright online it's bound to be taken down quickly.

I'm at the American Association for Artificial Intelligence Spring Symposium 2007. It's a low-key conference. I overheard the following funny quote in the hall as someone was looking for their workshop.

"Excuse me, are you looking for common sense?"

I just read a really powerful two-page essay on two competing ways of looking at repentance. It can be found here (by Tim Keller). Repentance can be either a self-centered, self-righteous atoning for your own sin, or it can be the process of more deeply understanding what Jesus has done for you.

The liturgy for repentance from George Whitefield (circa 1738) is summarized toward the end:

"Have I spoken or thought unkindly of anyone? Am I justifying myself by caricaturing (in my mind) someone else? Have I been impatient and irritable? Have I been self-absorbed and indifferent and inattentive to people?"

"Have I avoided people or tasks that I know that I should face? Have I been anxious or worried? Have I failed to be circumspect or have I been rash and impulsive"

"Am I doing what I am doing for God's glory and the good of others or am I being driven by fears, need for approval, love of comfort and ease, need for control, hunger for acclaim and power or the 'fear of man'?"

It's hard to stand in God's presence and answer those questions

This company has a totally cool vision, trying to power ocean going vessels with enormous kites: KiteShip - Innovation in Tethered Flight

It seems totally cool. It would be environmentally friendly to a huge degree. Enormous sails could be made, the size of which sails could never match, but there do seem to be some drawbacks:

• Sailboats don't use wind the same way kites do. While they are some times pushed along by the wind, they also use wind the way an airplane wing does - especially when trying to make headway into the wind. So the kite could only take a ship in a direction that the current wind supported.
• What happens during a storm? Old-school sailors have perfected lots of methods for dealing with that sort of scenario
• Would a new hull design be required that maximizes efficiency when being pulled rather than pushed?

Only in Seattle does one hour of espresso machine maintenance require an email to the entire academic community. I feel their pain.

I would have gotten in so much trouble if I had worn these on my uniform. I did get in so much trouble for far less than these.