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hsuehf
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Name: Frank
Country: United States
State: California
Metro: San Jose
Gender: Male
Interests: biking, guitar, math, piano, philosophy, physics, poker, psychology, sociology, software.
(BTW, my contact info is all spelled backwards)
Expertise: Software
Occupation: Engineer
Industry: Computers (Software)
Message: message me
AIM:  heushf
MSN: moc.liamtoh@heush.knarf
ICQ:  9874645
Yahoo:  heushcf
Jabber: moc.liamg@heush.knarf
Member Since:
2/9/2005
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SubscriptionsSites I Read
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| Monday
Nothing going on.
- Research: The Calorie Content of Popular Beers [DivineCaroline]. Good to know.
- Research: Divorce 'health scars permanent' [BBC].
- Article: NYC to ship homeless out to destination of choice [ajc.com]. I agree with this program. It does make social and economical sense. And those who say you can't just blah blah blah, do you foot the bill?
- Article: Is it OK to impregnate a 60-year-old woman? [Slate]. From the article: Everywhere you look, moms are older. Over the last three decades, the U.S. birth rate among women aged 35 or older has increased by 140 percent. These women now produce one of every seven American children. In Europe, women over 35 have increased their share of pregnancies from 5 percent to 20 percent. More than 100,000 American women aged 40 or older have babies each year. In the last 15 years, at least a dozen women aged 60 or older have done it. The oldest age at which a woman has given birth is now 70. Is middle-aged motherhood getting out of control? And to the God-fearing, are we playing God now?
- Research: Organic 'has no health benefits' [BBC]. Actually, it does have health benefits, but the difference is negligible. But one might want to make the organic or no-organic decision based on sustainability and chemical use.
- Poem: Mother Teresa's Do It Anyway. Is it really that hard to implement?
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| Wednesday
Nothing going on.
- Article: Couples saying 'I don't' to expensive weddings [USA Today].
- Article: Hot Climates May Create Sluggish Economies [NPR].
- Research: Delinquent Behavior Among Boys 'Contagious,' Study Finds [Science Daily]. Yup; a study confirms the obvious.
- Research: Blinded by Science in the Online Dating Game [NY Times].
- Article: The painful side effects of Obama's healthcare reform [LA Times]. From the article: In looking for a way to fund healthcare, Obama has set his eye on the oldest and sickest. You see, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, about 30% of Medicare spending -- nearly $100 billion annually -- goes to care for patients during their last year of life. What if there were no "last year of life," the president seems to be asking. The Eskimos used to set their elderly and sickly adrift on the ice or otherwise abandon them during times of scarcity, and that, metaphorically speaking, is what Obama would like us all to start doing. Interesting proposition.
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| Sunday
Nothing going on.
- Article: U.S. Births Hint at Bias for Boys in Some Asians [NY Times].
- Article: Too Poor to Make the News [NY Times].
- Article: How Much Student Debt Is Too Much? [NY Times].
- Article: Facebook and Divorce: Airing the Dirty Laundry [Time].
- Article: Have a Purpose in Life? You Might Live Longer [health.com].
- Article: When Young Men Are Scarce, They're More Likely To Play The Field Than To Propose [Science Daily].
3 Choices; Pick 2
Sample problems:
- Good quality, on time, within budget. Context is work project.
- Sleep, work, social. Context is college life.
- Strong christian, nice, socially desirable [1]. Context is a relationship with someone.
- Zerg, Terran, Protoss. Context is your races in a 2 on 2 Brood War multi-player game.
Such is life that you can't have everything. So, for #1, I would rather the project be of good quality and on time and not within budget. For #3, I would rather have a relationship with somebody that is nice and socially desirable but not a strong Christian. Yeah, I'm part of the majority that does not reward strong Christianity and punishes lack of physical attractiveness.
What would you pick? And if you want to answer but don't want to be publicly lynched, email / IM your answer and I will write an anonymous comment (except that it communicates your gender). In case it wasn't obvious, I'm most interested in #3.
[1] Let's define terms.
- How to define "Strong christian" ? Let's use George Barna's fairly technical definition of evangelical as found here [barna], under heading "survey methology", 3rd paragraph.
- How to define "nice" ? Let's say it's stuff like kind, generous, gracious, patient. Notice that the definition of "Christian" does not have any causal relationship to being "nice".
- Finally, how to define "socially desirable" ? Let us say a socially desirable girl is one you find physically attractive and a socially desirable guy is somebody you can emotionally connect with. So, a socially undesirable girl is one you don't find physically attractive and a socially undesirable guy is one who you can't connect emotionally.
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| Tuesday
Nothing going on.
- Article: Why Your Baby’s Name Will Sound Like Everyone Else's [Wired].
- Article: Why the poor pay more: More in money, time, hassle, exhaustion, menace [Seattle Times]. Being poor sucks you into the continuing cycle.
- Article: Going under the knife with open eyes [Globe & Mail]. At what price, beauty? And is beauty worth it?
- Article: The "Bitch" Evolved: Why Girls Are So Cruel to Each Other [Scientific American]. Interesting, this evolutionary psychology.
- Research: The Paradox of declining female happiness [UPenn's Wharton]. An interesting quote from Women are more unhappy despite 40 years of feminism, claims study [Daily Mail UK]: We pushed so hard for equal rights, for having the right to work, for having equal status, we pushed so hard to have choice. But what we hear from many mums is: I have no choice, I have to work, I don't love my career, my childminder is taking half my salary and I'd rather bring up my children myself but I can't afford to. Feminism has traded one set of problems and benefits for another set of problems and benefits. Is it better? The answer depends on which set of problems and benefits you like better. So, better for some and not for others.
My Opinion: The Cost of High Christian Standards in Spiritual Maturity
This is about relationships, again.
Being a pragmatist, I think that for many (most?) folks in the church, the lack is not in spiritual credibility but in dealing with real-world social issues. But we all still focus on Christian standards of spiritual maturity in despite of this.
I honestly think good enough is just that, good enough. It's easy to argue that one can never have too high a standard for spiritual maturity. But consider that people will be bummed when they think they don't meet those overly high standards. Good people get disqualified. One might better solve the problem of quality of spiritual maturity (was there a problem to begin with?) and incidentally create another, and in my opinion, worse problem. Are we better off?
Good enough is good enough.
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| I have to say. Blue Moon's Belgian-style White is a damn good beer. Especially when it's on tap. And don't mind the fact that Blue Moon is owned by Coor's; just get a pint. And if you are in Mountain View CA, I recommend Molly Magee's Irish Pub. Very chill place with good music.
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