Exploring the infinity of God's universe

Concerns

2007-11-11T20:19:00.000-08:00

This is my one of my bigger concerns with Huckabee. Well, that and the whole fair tax thing. Any reason why I should think he has a chance?

Global Warming Silver Bullet!

2007-11-11T19:23:00.000-08:00

Harvard researchers solve Global Warming!

Disappearing countries

2007-10-15T20:38:00.000-07:00

I hope Belgium doesn't dissapear.

Signs of a truly global economy

2007-10-14T21:30:00.001-07:00

June huh?

So, I was reading in the Wall Street Journal the other day, and I came across a fastinating article. It was about how some people are taking out mortgages from foreign banks. Why would you do this, you ask? Well, your mortgage rate is based on a currencies fed rate, and in general this drives mortgage costs up or down. In the US the average mortage is about 6.3%. But, in Switzerland, for example, the average mortage rate is 4.7%. This is a drastic difference. It could mean hundreds of dollars different per month for the same mortage amount. A fascinating idea, indeed.

Oh, there is one other thing however. Your mortage would necessarily have to be in Swiss frances. Which are not tied to US dollars. Which means, that essentially this is a play in currencies, where the mortgage is a highly leveraged bet that the US dollar will stay steady or increase in relationship to the foreign currency. Judging from the recent lows that the dollar has achieved, this might not be the best time to venture out into those dangerous waters. But if the dollar has bottomed out... That could make for a very profitable loan indeed...Anyway, another product brought to you by your local global economy. It will be on my list of options when we start looking for a house...Whenever that might be...

Product Placement

2007-06-05T01:41:00.000-07:00

I found it curious that a couple weekends ago tens of millions of Americans paid a lot of money to root for a group of persons whose purpose is to seek glory and eternal life while fighting the established government. This government brings order to things, but is corrupted and cruel, mainly for attempting to elliminate certain rouge persons. These persons, if they hope to survive, have no hope but to band together and fight for their freedom against the oppressors. If they succeed, they will be able to continue terrorizing the world while being governed by a strict moral code. If they fail, the world will be ruled by the materialistic, evil western government.

So... how much do you want to bet Al Queda paid Disney for such prominent product placement?

On a sort of serious note, in the US we are used to such...inconsistencies (?) in our entertainment, but the movie is doing very well internationally. One wonders how such messages are taken in, say, Indonesia, or Egypt.

A dislike for networking

2007-05-21T19:04:00.000-07:00

TCP/IP? Naw, those are awesome. I don't know what I would do without them. Network analyzers? Also enjoyable. Having a machine calculate S parameters is fine with me. It's the (ab)use of your relationships to enhance your professional career that I dislike. Perhaps I won't mind it in 5-10 years when I have something to offer back, but at the moment I abhore the fact that I am being upbraided to utilize my friendships for gain.

Perhaps it is just that I have not built many friendships of utility and so I am having to convert other types of relationships to fill the void. Cicero would be disappointed. The job hunt has begun, and everywhere I look the first suggestion that is made is to network. On the one hand, I can absolutely see the benefit to using contacts. It is dreadfully difficult to get a true handle on a person through a 1-2 page document, and a couple of discussions. If there is a previous relationship, there is a much greater guarantee that the person is who s/he claims to be. But, I care about my friends and relationships, and I dislike asking people for things. Perhaps that is fundamentally the issue. My neurosis to be independent strikes again. One would think experience would have quelled that by now, but bad desires die hard.

Sigh...

Anyone have any good optical engineering positions opening in their departments? ;-)

--The Wallaby

Need any advice

2007-05-13T20:32:00.000-07:00

in building a diffractive optical element? I'm your man. Perhap I have some other skills also. I guess it is time to go market them. Ladies and gentlemen, a 19 year chapter of my life has just come to a close. Time to go figure out what I want to do with my life.

Want to learn some math?

2007-02-25T15:38:00.000-08:00

This should keep you busy for a while. The internet is a big place.

Groundbreaking

2007-02-08T11:16:00.000-08:00

Or perhaps Screenbreaking? A friend showed this too me a couple of weeks ago but I forgot the name of the video. This is the most impressive advancement in computer interfaces that I have ever seen. Apparently DARPA is giving him a good amount of money. I'm not surprised.

I love the Economist

2007-02-01T21:24:00.000-08:00

Go and AI. I've got to go play a computer while I can still win!

Looking for a long term investment?

2007-01-30T22:45:00.000-08:00

So I just heard Niel Connan (sp.?) on PRI's "Talk of the Nation" talking to the ceo of this site. It looks very intriquing. It is fairly new, and they aren't profitable, but they have a really good business model going here. Next time I come up with some money to invest, I might just look into getting a >10% return with a 1-2% default rate. Those seem like reasonable odds to me.

Various and sundry

2007-01-29T20:00:00.000-08:00

Things that have been on my mind as of late.

Health care in the US. What is to be done about this? The increase in health care expenses has far outstripped inflation for years now. It is straining the pockets of businesses, individuals, and soon governments with the medicare debacle. The only explaination I've heard for the spiraling costs is that uninsured individuals use emergency care for preventable maladies. Emergency care is the most expensive type of medical care, and thus it not only strains the hospital services, it drives up the costs. I guess before I believe that that is the sole cause, I would like to see cold hard numbers. Assuming that more wide spread health care will drive down the costs, what would be the best way to encourage health coverage while involving the government as little as possible? Prima facie, I like the administration's plan. Encouraging behavior with tax cuts is one of the more hands-off methods of social control. However, Mr. Bob who works at McDonalds probably doesn't pay taxes anyway, so this doesn't really help him at all. Plus, companies will likely start to drop health plans. On one hand this is a boon, because then you can take your health plan with you when you change careers. But, on the other hand, individual health plans are expensive and large group providers tend to get better pricing than indivuals. I can get better and cheaper health care through USC than on my own. Would the health system change and become more like auto insurance, or would we end up with fewer and worse options. Anyone have any thoughts?

Also: this is an awesome website: http://www.econsultant.com/i-want-freeware-utilities/

Also: did you know that our electrical power grid wastes nearly as much energy as all of our oil imports? Some of this is probably necessary waste, but a lot of it is wasted because we live cyclically and the power plants don't. The same amount of energy is produced at midnight as at noon, but that midnight energy is primarily wasted. Here is an interesting article on that: http://www.greencarcongress.com/2007/01/opinion_introdu.html

So with that in mind, perhaps EEstor is the answer, rather than 42. If they can come close to accomplishing what they claim without small complications like large explosions in accidents, this could be the biggest breakthrough since the combustible engine. We are talking about laptops that could run for days on end. Large ones could be used to even out production from wind and solar generators. Cars could be powered entirely off of the grid, which means they could run off of energy produced by nuclear power, tidal power, solar power, etc. If they go public, I want in.

Ok, I will now go back to attempting to come up with a new, innovative, holographic diffractive optical system. yeah...

wow

2006-10-30T12:29:00.000-08:00

just wow.

I am curious

2006-10-13T13:56:00.000-07:00

about what Phil thinks of all this.

A little less than a month

2006-10-07T23:22:00.000-07:00

and we will be having some significant elections. So, I'm going to do something I don't do very frequently. Let's talk politics. I follow politics quite closely, but I rarely find people with a desire to discuss them reasonably and unemotionable, and frankly, most political discussions are of little value. That said, I would be curious if my readers had any thoughts on the subject.

I am not sure if one could say America has been doing very well under the current leadership. I say this as one who has voted those in office. But, the party in office seems to resemble little of what I hold to be republican, or conservative. However, even beyond that, our leaders seem to be lacking...leadership. The republican party has been in control of both congress and the presidency for 6 years, and what exactly does it have to show for it? Well, some good things include significant tax cuts (althought most of them will dissappear because they haven't been strong enough to make them permanent), a strong stance on protecting its citizenry, (although the jury is still out about if it has actually not been counterproductive), a couple of good sensible supreme court justices (for the most part from what we have seen so far)...and? Perhaps the No Child Left Behind act...although wether this is just increasing scores or actually teaching more seems still to be in question.

I've heard numerous positions that have sounded promising, but for all of their power, the Republicans haven't been able to actually make things happen. Social security reform is probably one of the best ideas the Bush administration has had, but what happened to it? They promised to send people to mars, but didn't stop to see what would actually be needed for such an action. Something needs to be done about fuel dependency. Great...But, I don't think this "something" is making some speeches at ethanol plants. Has anything else actually useful been done? Even opening up Alaska for drilling would be something, but we can't even seem to be able to do that.
Something must be done about illegal aliens, although I really don't know what, and the best our great leaders can come up with is to build a huge fence, which ends up being more of a political slap to Mexico than anything...Will it keep people from attempting to come across? maybe... Will it likely cause more deaths from crossings? likely...Will it solve the problem of the millions of illegals currently in the country and our very real need for these members of society? Um, no...As long as there is a better life to be had over here than over there, people will attempt to come across, even if it becomes more dangerous and difficult. So what exactly did they solve with this beautification of the Rio Grande river?

Then there are the things that have outright gone badly. A person would like to think that there is a good deal more going on behind the scenes than what we discover from the media. But there never seems to have been, and seems as if there never will be, a good stratagy for Iraq. How could one plan on how to destroy a nation's strength and infrastructure for the purpose of democratizing it, and not have a plan for democtratizing it? And if there ever was such a plan, it was so poorly implimented that there was never much chance of success. Now we have a blood bath of neighbors against neighbors and anti-speech laws that are verbatim from Sadaam's time. What is to be done with Iraq? Does anyone know? Probably not, but our "leaders" don't seem to be even Asking the question.
Our foreign policy is nutty, if it can even be called a policy. We spend half of our time threating rogue states with destruction of life and limb, which everyone knows we are not going to follow through with, and then split the rest of our time between insulting our allies and trying to get them to cooperate with us on following through on our international consensus which also no one seems able to uphold. Iran is playing with the international community, it reminds me of Hitler in the 1930's, but our leaders, what do they do? It doesn't seem that they do anything...
Then there is the issue of fiscal acountability. Cutting taxes is great; but spending more on special interests, projects, and welfare programs than any regime Ever, while cutting taxes, seems less than great. I am not a fan of racking up more debt for future generations to pay off. If we weren't making 400+ billion dollars in interest payments a year, we might be able to start fixing social security, but instead we will keep paying billions for pork barreling.
Our leadership has accomplished some things. They have raised the ire of the world through the appearance of torture and abuse. (Notice I said appearance. Whether some of the various "scandals" are they are worthwhile and good things for our nation to be doing I am not sure. I am sure they haven't created a "good guy" image for the US.) They have managed to raise the ire of our peoples through spying programs. They have managed to taint themselves with a variety of moral scandals.They have managed to step on a myriad of privacy rights. And, they have kept the US from having another terrorist attack...so far. Was, and is, this the best way to continue that prevention?

So, what do I want? Well, I guess I would like a leadership that appears to be thoughtful, who actions follow their words, and who are willing to listen and change when their actions have clearly not had the best outcome. So, from all I can tell, the democrates certainly won't lead us there. They don't even have a coherent platform! Their "new direction" seems to be "anywhere but there", and there are a lot of worse roads we could be lead down than our current mess. Besides, the last democratic "leader" was an alcibiades who followed two things: his lust, and public opinion. Hence, once more I will go and vote for those who are least morally reprehensible.

I do find myself asking though. How can it be, that in a nation of 300 million souls, we have so much trouble finding good leaders? If nothing else, this is a sign of fast encroaching doom. Once our current YouTube-watching culture reaches maturity (if they ever do), may God have mercy on our souls.

Might be of interest?

2006-10-04T13:48:00.000-07:00

The internet is awesome. Everyday I find a large variety of things that are of genuine interest and a great procrastination tool. Most of them, however, I don't think would be of interest to the few readers that I have managed to keep around. Here, however, is something that might pique the curiosity of some. It is the most comprehensive source of the relationships of math and music that I have ever found. 500 pages of delicious relationships between beauty and logic. It even includes an entire chapter on various intonation systems. Have fun!

300

2006-09-11T22:37:00.000-07:00

That's the number of cherry tomatoes I just picked from our little garden. It makes me feel my Kleinsasser heritage. (Kleinsasser means "little farmer".) Oh, and the other night I BBQ'ed up some steaks that had been marinated with fresh herbs from our garden, and then I served them on a table that was adorned with a variety of newly cut roses from our yard.

Living in a house with a yard has some perks!

Everyone gone yet?

2006-08-12T23:49:00.000-07:00

Well, I figure if that didn't drive away the audience, I don't know what will.
But, that's right, Ladies and Gentlemen, I am back in the blogsphere. Let the rejoicing commence. Let me sum what has happened with our hero since we saw him last...
I have spent the summer teaching math, physics, english, and learning how to teach the GRE's. I have also taken a class on probabilities and random variables, and am preparing to play a role in Oscar Wilde's "An Ideal Husband"... you should come see it, if you dare! It should be pretty good...if we can get our act together... ;-)
In other news, we had just moved into a new house. There is something about a house that just requires you to take more ownership than an apartment. And boy did this place need ownership. So Katie and I have been slowly reshaping a house and yard that looked like it had been neglected for a decade (and probably had!). We have planted more than 50 bushes, vines, flowers, roses, herbs and vegtables. The other day we enjoyed our first tomatoes from our very own vines! Last weekend, with the help of some good friends, we moved a piano from Katie's grandparents. With a little tuning, hopefully we can start annoying our neighbors with the strains of Chopin and Bach. And today, I just finished building a small gate between the landlady's house and our own. It was a practice job in many ways for two large fences that I hope can be built soon. Ouf course, this is dependent on if we can convince the owner that it is to her good to let us upgrade the property with our own money and time...There are times I have trouble dealing with irrational people, and this is beginning to become one of those times. But, we shall save that rant for another time.
We've done a bit of in-state traveling from traversing a section of the 1 up the coast between Hearst' Castle (a very interesting project by the way) to Monteray; dropping by Fresno in epic heat; viewing a pretty little water fall in the Santa Rose mountains; briefly enjoying San Diego; a fun trip to Idylwild with Eric and co., and in a few weeks experiencing the joys of Palm Springs. And, while you were gone, Katie and I have past the one year mark on what promises to be the beginning of a long and enjoyable marriage, and I said good bye to the 23rd year of my life.

Well, that about sums up the facts. I have a week off before we dive into the fall semester, so perhaps, if you are very good, I might write some thoughts that come to me from time to time. If not, I will attempt to stop by and say hello again in a couple months or so. Until then, adeiu!

And all was right once more in the world

2006-05-19T10:23:00.000-07:00

We have internet again!!!!!!!

However, I suppose I should stop surfing the web and start mowing my lawn. Maybe I'll write something more substantial later...maybe...

Depressing

2006-05-07T20:05:00.000-07:00

I've always found Steve Forbes to be a thoughtful, intelligent, reasonable commentator. Which is why this is a bit depressing...

I forgot it required registration. Here it is...

A couple comments: I am surprised he likes Keynes. Most of the rest of what Keynes says is sorta wack... And there are some amazing stats in the second half. If you are skimming, take a look down there...

Disaster Redux
"There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose."--John Maynard Keynes, The Economic Consequences of the Peace (1919)

Inflation is back again, an incredible development considering the hard experiences we and the rest of the world had with this debilitating disease from the late 1960s through the early 1980s. Inflationary symptoms are already rampant in the commodities market. Gold, oil, copper and other items are approaching or exceeding rates of price increase not seen for a quarter of a century. In the months ahead inflation will spread through the rest of the economy here and overseas.

Keynes was right. Even though our previous experience with inflation is still a living memory for tens of millions of people, hardly anyone in a position of authority can fathom what is now hitting him. The rhetoric about evil oil company executives is almost an exact replica of what we heard in the 1970s. Back then petroleum pooh-bahs supposedly kept tankers parked at sea in order to drive up the cost of gasoline and heating fuel. Now both Republicans and Democrats are screaming about price manipulation at the gas pump. As in the 1970s, we are being told today that commodities are scarce. Unlike then, though, no one believes we are running out of the stuff, just that the global economy's expanding demand has pulled us into an era of high commodity costs. It's all nonsense. When this inflation dragon is slain, as it will be eventually, commodity prices will resume their long-term descent.

For 4,000 years gold has been the best barometer of inflation, the Polaris of stable money. In the late 1960s it jumped after decades of stability, and inflation soon followed. The same phenomenon repeated itself in the early 1970s, when gold soared, and again when it roared ahead in the late 1970s. Each rise was followed by a disastrous round of generally rising prices and ever higher interest rates--and each ended in a recession. Today the price of what Keynes called the barbarous relic is the highest it's been since 1980, up 150% from its 2001 lows.

During bubbles and preinflationary run-ups in gold prices, policymakers always assure us that things are "different" this time. Federal Reserve officials today tell us that there is far less of a link between commodities and inflation. Gold is going up because the emerging middle classes in India and China love to buy jewelry. Oil is high because of uncertainty over Iran, disrupted supplies from Nigeria and Venezuela, crazy U.S. regulations prohibiting exploration and production in most of the Outer Continental Shelf and parts of Alaska, and expanding energy appetites in fast-growing India and China. All of this is true. But make no mistake: At least $20 of the price of a barrel of oil today is pure inflation and inflation-induced speculation. And given the outstanding supply of gold today--you can't destroy it, every ounce ever mined still exists--India's and China's alleged impact is minimal.

The Federal Reserve is debasing the dollar, and, in lockstep, the European Central Bank (other-otc: CHPA.PK - news - people ) and the Bank of Japan are doing the same to the euro and the yen, respectively.

The Fed could break this fever easily by soaking up excess liquidity until the gold price falls below $400 an ounce. (The ten-year average is around $350.) Sadly, the Fed's new boss, Ben Bernanke, fully disdains gold as a useful monetary tool, sharing John Maynard Keynes' prejudice against the yellow metal. Like most of his economist peers Bernanke thinks that the traditional gold standard, which governed monetary policy in Great Britain and eventually elsewhere from the early 1700s to the 1930s, caused or at least deepened the Great Depression.

If gold stays at its current levels, expect to see cost-of-living indexes hit increases of 5% or more. Expect long-term interest rates to go above 6%, perhaps reaching 7%. Short-term rates won't be far behind. What will hurt the housing market is not the alleged excess in prices we've been hearing so much about but the plain old higher cost of money.

You must prepare for political repercussions, too. Bad guys like Venezuela's Hugo Chávez will use their windfalls to stir up trouble and finance terrorists. China's economy might become over-heated, which could generate considerable political turmoil there.

Here at home we will be told that rising interest rates have been caused by George Bush's tax cuts, making their survival even more problematic. Repealing the death tax will be tougher.

Thankfully, most of the federal income tax code has been indexed for inflation, thus preventing unlegislated tax increases. By the end of the 1970s, for example, a family that earned $18,000 was less well-off than a family that had earned $7,000 ten years before.

Keynes once made a sage observation about ideas: "Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist." Sadly, Keynes' disdain for gold is accepted as holy writ among most economic policymakers today. We are all about to pay the price for that arrogant, misbegotten idea--yet again.

ax Cuts Work! So Ditch 'Em!
You'd never know it from reading the mainstream media or listening to most economists, pundits, Democrats and even some GOP politicos, but the Bush tax cuts passed in May 2003 have been a fantastic success. Yet because of Washington's idiotic way of estimating the impact of prospective tax changes¹, these prosperity-producing reductions are threatened with extinction. The two principal ones--capital gains and personal dividends--are set to expire in 2008. So far efforts to extend them or make them permanent have faltered. If these do go by the boards, anticipate a slowdown/recession in 2008--09.

That Democrats would badmouth what George Bush wrought in 2003 is predictable. But that so many supposedly objective observers and business journalists badmouth that legislative act is astonishing, a manifestation of both how poisoned our politics have become and, even more alarming, of how economically illiterate or lazy so many seemingly smart people are.

The evidence of the positive impact of these cuts--the capital gains levy was cut 25%; the personal dividend tax was cut 60%; personal tax rates were reduced; and juicy incentives for businesses, especially small ones, to boost capital expenditures were put in place--is overwhelming.

Real GDP has blossomed, expanding more than $1 trillion, or 11% between the first quarter of 2003 and the end of last year. No other advanced economy has done nearly as well.

Some 5 million new jobs have been created since the tax cuts, more than in Europe and Japan put together.

Real personal incomes have mushroomed as well, expanding 5.7% at a real compounded annual growth rate.

For all the gnashing of teeth over U.S. manufacturing jobs, our industrial production has increased by more than $300 billion, or more than 11%, in the past three years.

Between the second quarter of 2003 and the end of 2005 a stunning 3.9 million new businesses have been created.

Equity values have moved up smartly (although they should be up even more given what's happening to corporate balance sheets and bottom lines). The comprehensive Wilshire Index has increased 65% since early 2003; the S&P 500, 55%; and the Dow Jones industrial average, 42%. What's intriguing here is that the biggest stock market rises have been with small-cap stocks. Is it a coincidence that these companies have been invested in far more heavily than their much bigger corporate counterparts?

Aftertax corporate profits have exploded from $727 billion in the first quarter of 2003 to almost $1.1 trillion at the end of 2005, an increase of 46%.

Dividends have proliferated, rising from an annual rate of $149 billion in early 2003 to more than $200 billion today. In the S&P 500 companies there have been more than 900 increases, and over 40 companies have initiated dividends.

Business' capital spending zoomed from an annual rate of $730 billion in the first quarter of 2003 to almost $1 trillion by year-end 2005, an increase of more than 30%. Cash flows have grown even faster than corporate capital expenditures. There have been periods in the past when this has happened but not at the magnitude we're seeing today. In short, corporate America has plenty of juice to keep this expansion going.

So does the American consumer. The balance sheets of households in America have never been stronger. Household assets are up more than $15 trillion since the tax cuts versus an increase of only $3 trillion in household liabilities.

Foreigners have taken note of the powerful American economy. Foreign direct investment in the U.S. last year was $128.6 billion, up 90% since 2003. Private portfolio investment inflows are the largest ever, $686 billion last year, up 107% from 2003.

The overall assets of the nation have grown 30% in just three years to $160 trillion.

Yet the mainstream media obsesses about Washington's deficits, giving short shrift to the soaring growth in government receipts both inside the Beltway and out. Last year's tax take by Washington was up almost 15%. The problem on all levels of government is not inadequate revenue but obscene spending.

Housing bubble? Maybe in some local markets around the country, but the median housing price increase since 2003 is eminently reasonable--new home prices are up 21% in the last three years; existing homes, 23%.

Trade deficit? As an indicator of financial health that number is useless; it is not, and never has been, the national equivalent of a company's making or losing money. North America has had trade deficits for 350 out of the last 400 years. Most trade involves transactions between commercial entities. Each party thinks it is getting something good from the deal. FORBES magazine has had a "trade deficit" with its paper suppliers since our inception. Yet we continue to buy paper because we believe we give readers information on it that they need and give advertisers markets they desire to reach. It is all about value-added. To obsess about one number such as the trade deficit and ignore capital inflows, personal incomes, corporate profits, the national balance sheet, etc. is almost pathological.

Our performance since 2003 has been impressive. Now just imagine how much better it would be if we ever overhauled our atrocious tax code and replaced it with a simple flat tax.

¹Washington calculators always assume that tax changes have little or no impact on our behavior, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. The Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation, for instance, said that the capital gains tax reduction from 20% to 15% would cost the government money. Instead, revenues have increased 45%. Why the Republicans didn’t change this anti-tax-cut bias in Congress and the Treasury Department years ago is one of the great mysteries of modern politics.

An interesting article

2006-05-04T21:38:00.000-07:00

A balanced (?) look at the oil situation.

God works in mysterious ways

2006-05-02T11:42:00.000-07:00

A few minutes ago, I was talking to our landlord to find out how much we should pay for this month, since we are moving. Because we run into lots of people looking for places to move, I asked him if was planning on renting it for 1050, ie the exorbant amount that forced us to go out and seek a more reasonable abode. "1050?!? You guys live in a one-bedroom, I didn't raise your rent to $1050..." Doh. However, the letter he sent to us, had $1050 underlined and in bold. Apparantly, he accidentally forgot to change the amount when he printed our version of the letter he sent out to the tenets. How ironic...

There have been so many strange situations to make our move to our new house possible, that it seems God Really wanted us to move here. I am not sure why one of us didn't meantion the rate back when I called to say it was too high. But, in the long run, I am glad I didn't. While it is certainly more of a pain to move now, instead of staying in this wonderful little apartment, God has pushed us into a wonderful opportunity for an affordable house, that will hopefully be our home for the next several years.

Actually, the person who got burned most by this typo was the landlord. I feel sort of bad for him. So, if anyone is looking for a spacious one bedroom, in beautiful uptown Whittier, for an affordable price, let us know. It will be available by mid-May...

Details

2006-03-26T20:38:00.000-08:00

In today's real estate market, it seems almost impossible to buy one's own place. Looking at our future, it looks like it will probably be 5-10 years before we could afford something reasonable, and by that time who knows what the prices will be then. Even more disturbing, is the thought that with rising intrest rates, it will price even more people out of the market and push them into renting. This is bound to make rents go up significantly in the near future. Renting prices have not risen at nearly the same rate as home prices...yet. In considering this, I might have come up with a viable solution.

Multi-family properties have not had the same amount of increase as single-family homes. These properties are cheaper to start with and they must be able to make money for their owners, so the cost has lagged with the renting prices. Since these units are cheaper anyway, I was thinking that it might be feasible to purchase a complex as a group.

There are a couple of different ways we could go about this. If we purchased a complex of 4 or less units, we could use a normal residential housing loan. There are a good numbers of loans that are split into what is called tenancy-in-common. We would all be co-borrowers on a loan. This means we would own a percentage of the property, and all of our combined income, credit scores, and money for a down payment would go into the loan. Later we would split all costs, including the mortgage payment.
If we had a larger group, then we could look into something like a housing co-op. These are quite popular in New York, and were popular in the 60's and 70's with the hippie movement. ;-) In general we would set up a non-profit corperation in which we all own an equal share. This corperation would then buy a complex and as members we would pay it's fees (the loan and other expenses). This would be fairly complex, but it could help cover certain financial lacking that many of us currently have. Also, larger complexes are cheaper in general.

What numbers exactly are we thinking about? I have been looking in the Fullerton/La Habra/Whittier/Buena Park/La Mirada area, and fourplexes comprised of 2bdrm/1bath units cost between 850k-900k, so they would cost around 200-250k a unit. An apartment unit would be more in the 150-200k per unit range.

To give you a general idea, a $180k loan at 6.25% would be $1100 a month. If that was increased to 7% it would be around $1200. Or if the loan was $200k at 6.25% that would be about $1230. Add to this also insurance, possibly loan insurance, maintanence costs, utilities, property tax, etc. But, also we can deduct all points from the loan, property taxes, and all interest from federal taxes so that might help defray costs.

This would not be an easy process. Financially, we would probably need a 10% down payment plus closing costs (which could range between 1000-7000). They also look to see if you have held a job for 2 years, and they want your income to loan ratio to be .3. It might be possible to ease this if we had a co-signer with significant income (but that is a risky process for the co-signer). Also, we should all have fairly decent credt scores, or that could hurt our loan rate.

On top of that, we would have to find a lender that would work with a large number of co-signers. We would need to write up contracts dealing with subletting your unit to someone else, selling your share of the property, maintenence costs and work, etc. We would need to make sure we followed legal procedures for evicting the current tenents of property. We would need to find a decent property in a reasonable area for the people involved.

Is this possible? I don't know. If I could find several other people willing to try with us, we would be interested to pursue this in the near future. Please e-mail me soon if this is an adventure you would be willing to pursue...

Sincerely,
Dustin (and Katie) Guenther

My Scheme

2006-03-19T22:59:00.000-08:00

I would just like to say, the reason why this blog came to a screeching halt was because I gave up using the internet for pleasure during lent. This included reading blogs, etc. Since I can only read on Sundays, I have not had a sufficient time to really post anything...so there...

Anyway, here is my scheme. I want to buy an apartment. Well, actually, I just want to own our own place... This whole paying rent thing is rather a scam, don't you think? I do not like paying money to increase someone else's equity. So, I propose that several like-minded people get together and buy an apartment complex together. We could either get some kind of group ownership thing, or find a way to split up the deed of the building. There are a good number of small apartment complexes available in Whittier/La Habra/Fullerton area. In the little research I have put into it, it looks like if one gets a 8-12 unit, one could get about 150000-190000 per unit. The smaller the complex, the higher per-unit costs it gets. I have seen several four plexes for around $900,000. Just to get a bearing on the cost of this: A 30 year, $170k loan, at 6% runs just about $1000/month (plus taxes and insurance). There would also be up-keep expenses. But, these apartments are almost always 2 bedroom, some of the smaller ones even look like houses and are in residential neighborhoods. When you outgrow it, you can sell it, or keep it and rent it out and make money (in a couple years rent will definitely increase).

Major problems I could see:
finding a location that would make all the buyers happy
getting together a reasonable downpayment(since we would need to be dealing with commercial property)
finding a lender who would do such an unconventional loan at a decent percentage
finding out the legal details
splitting upkeep costs, etc.

However, if I could find 4-5 other people seriously interested, I would be willing to pursue whether these could be over come. If the complex had an extra apartment or two, we could rent them out to Biola students and help cover costs that way as well...Anyone interested? Seriously, let me know if you are. We are going to be in the area for a while, and this looks like one reasonable way to get out of tenentdom sooner rather than later.

Anyway, just a crazy thought I've been having recently...

Speaking of That Hideous Strength

2006-02-20T15:52:00.000-08:00

Well, I guess I was talking about Abolition of Man, but close enough. I give you the Head without a chest...

Patent just waiting for a venture capitalist to gobble it up!!!111

Uh oh...

2006-02-20T09:23:00.000-08:00

According to this paper, quantum teleportation might be able to be used to crack quantum encryption...

(Not that I can actually understand the paper)

The materialist's dilemma

2006-02-18T12:24:00.000-08:00

Two days ago, I attended a lecture by Dr. Alvin Plantica -- the famed Philosopher from Notre Dame. In this lecture he argued that naturalism and evolution were self-referentially incoherent. It is a bold claim, but it seems that it might work.

In a brief nutshell he argued that the ability to come to true beliefs is not developed in evolution. Evolution could perhaps develop physical states of the brain that would help a being to react in an appropriate manner to live longer, but the actual belief has nothing to do with survival. A sort of content epiphenomenalism if you will. Only electro-chemical properties need to develop, not beliefs. Even if beliefs Do develop, they might be entirely wrong. To take the classic tiger example, a man sees a tiger and runs away, thus helping him to survive longer. But, what is the belief that causes him to run away? It could be because he thinks the tiger will eat him, but it could also be that he believes the tiger is playing hide and go seek with him. Both beliefs result in similar behavior and help the person to survive, so evolution would do nothing to encourage the true belief. So, if this is granted, then if we evolved from naturalistic evolution, then we have no good way of coming to true beliefs. This, however, means that our belief in naturalism and evolution are also not true beliefs, and thus the system is a defeater to itself and irrational.

So, there was a reception afterwards, and I got involved with some people with a materialist, or at least a good devil's advocate. He hypothesized that every belief is just an electro-chemical state of the brain--like a good materialist. He then went on to admit that our beliefs then are merely efficient. We have no way of knowing that they are true, but they work well. Once he bit that bullet, it sort of left me scratching my head...What does one do with someone like that?

The next day I carried on this conversation with my lovely, brilliant wife, and we came to a couple of interesting conclusions. If a materialist is willing to be consistent this far, then they are likely being inconsistent in the way they live. For such a person, reason is merely whatever helps man to progress further in evolution, at least that is how it would have to have developed so far. Now, this brings into question some other issues with regards to morality...Where did that come from and why does man have it? It seems that evolution needed man to live in communities in order to survive, and so ethics is merely an efficient way for humans to keep on living. But, once we realize this, it sort of destroys the power of ethics. Reason has trumped ethics. But if one drops ethics, what is one to do? Either the person must try to develop a better method, based off of this new understanding of reason and the world to further one's progeny, or one is doomed to be left out of the evolutionary gene pool.

It seems there are three options: Those who believe in materialism etc, will die out and the theists will continue to live, those who believe in materialism will win (see Lewis's Abolition of Man) and the human race will kill itself off and evolution will try a different branch other than intellect, or the materialists need to start living longer and having lots of babies...The third option has seemed to be a dismal failure, if it was ever tried. All "enlightened" nations have negative birth rates. It requires a strong purpose of life and ethic that comes from religion to have lots of progeny. And thus, the most reasonable thing for a materialist to do, is to whole-heartedly accept Christianity (since it is the most reasonable of religions).

So, next time I come across a serious materialist, I'll ask him how many children he has had, or why he hasn't become a Christian.

Childish

2006-02-11T13:21:00.000-08:00

This is also interesting, but for entire different reasons. They seem to be calling the West's bluff, and it will be interesting to see how responses are given and taken... Frankly, the whole thing seems like a childish spat, but with entire nationalities pulling out of countries, it's hardly something that can really be laughed at.

What will they think of next?

2006-02-11T13:14:00.000-08:00

Here is an interesting web site, especially if you are interested in your local housing market or housing trends.

Oblivious

2006-02-01T18:15:00.000-08:00

There are some people in the world who are just oblivious. Do you know the type that I am talking about? They just don't seem to realize how their actions affect those around them? Well, our landlord is one of those.

I called him today to tell him that we are starting to look for a place to move. Katie has been wonderful and we had already gathered a couple of applications and called numerous places. Well, our phone call went something like this:

"Hey Steve, we got your letter about the rent increase, and although we really love the place we just can't afford that big of a rent increase...

Steve: Oh really! I didn't realize your finances were so tight!

Dustin: Well yeah... we are both students and working part time and...

Steve: Oh well, I don't want to inconvenience you so much and force you out. Why don't we push off the increase until July, that way you can finish the semester and have time to find a place!

Dustin: uh, yeah, actually that would be great...

So, there you have it. He Is really a nice guy...just seemingly oblivious that a $300 increase might be significant to tenents...odd. Well, thanks for your prayers, this will make life much easier!

Frustrating...

2006-01-31T21:06:00.000-08:00

Well, Katie and I just got a letter from our landlord saying he was going to raise our rent by $300 next month. He's been doing repairs on our garage and just put in a new lawn, and I guess this raised the value of the apartment by more than 30%...curious. So, now in the middle of semester, Katie and I will need to find some place to move, in a 1 month period. Plus it is highly unlikely that we will be able to find a place as affordable or nice. We are still trying to decide if it is worthwhile to quote the law to him and tell him we have 60 days before he can raise rent by more than 10%.

So, the next couple months have suddenly been turned upside down when we were quite happily situated where we were. If you could pray that God would direct our steps, that would be wonderful...

Don't they teach Plato in schools anymore?

2006-01-28T15:11:00.000-08:00

Interesting...

In Response to “Facts” that are being generated on the Internet

2006-01-26T17:30:00.000-08:00

I’ve become aware of particular declarations regarding myself that have begun to appear on the internet. I have seen some of them and have been both amused and bemused by their outlandish claims. I am a student of physics and not psychology, and therefore do not quite understand the purpose certain individuals have found in such activities. However, boys will be boys, or so I have heard through my interactions on the internet, so I am not affronted by these incredulous allegations and will light-heartedly accept their ridiculousness. Perhaps these one-liners will lead people to learn about the true Dustin by reading my poetry and my book that I shall write at some point in the distant future… Perchance, they will even become interested in quantum computing and the great benefits our society might one day reap from such inventions that have yet to be made. I will be very proud if I have something to do with these innovations.
Dustin Guenther

Well Helloooo

2005-12-14T22:33:00.000-08:00

School's over. 1 down, only 9 more semesters to go... The tests seemed to go fairly well actually (unless I did something stoopid, which is likely), all of my grades for TAing are turned in, and I've wished people Merry Christmas in return to happy holidays. >-)

I like Christmas. About a week ago we went out and purchased a real, formerly live Christmas tree. My eyes were perhaps a little bigger than the apartment, and now a large corner of our living room has dissappeared in a mass of pine needles, but after a sprinkling of lights, tinsle, and balls, the place is looking positively festive. One of the great things about finals during Christmas, is studying to the soft glow of colored Christmas lights. As a child I used to enjoy falling asleep as I gazed out my dewey bedroom window at fuzzy patches of color. The outside Christmas lights would defract into unfocused hazy blogs that gently affirmed the festive season we were all enjoying. I enjoy Christmas. This wonderous celebration of the incarnation will always have a special place in my heart.

Hmmm, that was odd. Where did that come from? I now see the need to keep blogging. I have come to the realization that the study of electromagnetic propogation and radation, and light interacting with dielectric mediums is not indusive to interesting or coherent writing. Well, perhaps in the next couple weeks I will attempt to re-energize this aspect of my soul...

Whatever...

See you all in January.

War of the Worlds

2005-10-15T19:54:00.000-07:00

Last night I took my lovely wife out to see War of the Worlds. Yeah for the dollar theater that makes for cheap dates.

Anyway, I just had to say that that movie was horrendous. I can not really think of any redeeming qualities. It was dark, gruesome, cynical, and fairly poorly made. The escapes were improbable, the physics impossible, and the conclusion laughable. What happened to Spielberg?

Now, the book itself is fairly dark. But, there seemed to be a new cynicism that was added to this movie. It was not merely man against alien. Instead, it seemed to be turned into some kind of family against the world. Most action movies have some aspect of men coming together and conquering with man's ingenuity. But, perhaps Sept. 11th has gotten to Spielberg. The entire worldview seemed to be about the survival of the fittest and dependence on lucky happistance. I guess I am curious to know if this an indication of a cultural shift or merely an individual voice joining in the flood contrary and incoherent noise of our pop culture...

Wow...

2005-10-01T13:33:00.000-07:00

I'm an uncle. Crazy.

An answer

2005-08-22T21:29:00.000-07:00

For those of you who puruse my friend Phil, I feel the need to pose a counter example to his continual blasting of all things corporate.

As a poor, but morally upright, college student, I have found the need to use open source software for my main office suite over the past year or so. I had illegal copies of certain expensive softwares at my disposal, but I have been attempting to stay pirate free on my computer. So, I experienced the monstrosity known as Open Office. This free download attempted merely to copy MS and did so very poorly on all accounts. It was very counter intuitive. It was extremely buggy. It was non-compatible to other major software suites. When writing a paper that actually required formatting, I found the system so lacking, that I just wrote the words in Open Office and then transported it to a different computer to do formatting. Even then, it corrupted the formatting when viewed. I have found wordpad to be a better text editor then OO. So, I finally bit the bullet and spent the $100 for a full office suite that not only gives you powerful controls on all the details in how you present your papers, but also allows for powerful computing tools and amazing presenting systems that have revolutionized business presentations.

Sometimes when you pay somebody for their ideas, you get better ideas... ;-)

A new adventure

2005-08-22T21:16:00.000-07:00

And so it begins. I have attended my first class as a student at a secular university.

A few thoughts:
I am happy when I can speak the same language as the person sitting next to me.

I am starting to grasp the importance in secular universities of reputation and rank. Almost every professor who I have heard speak, begins with praises of the new prestige of USC. A 4.05 GPA. A 10% acceptance rate. #4 EE department in the nation. A new $100 million institute... etc, etc. I liked Biola's bragging far better. When it has to do with something a little bigger than a team of 11 guys who can move a ball around better than any other team of guys, it is a little more reasonable to get excited. ;-)

On the other hand, I am surrounded by far more opportunities then I had ever had available to me before. Pray that I use them well and am a good witness for my heritage and my faith.

It will be a lot of fun to take 3 heavy duty engineering courses (Optics, Quantum Mechanics for Engineers, and Quantum Communication), but I think certain parts of my poor soul will soon start feeling neglected. I wish we had a piano...and I hope I will find time for reading of philosophy, theology, etc.

My thoughts on LA's public transportation are still in the polls. For my particular route, it might actually be just about as convenient, and it will likely be far cheaper... But my American individualism is crying out for control... It stresses me out to Have to be at a particular place by a particular time or I will be late for classes...

I am introduced to my other two classes tomorrow. Perhaps you will be blessed with another exciting post in the near future...who knows. ;-)

Hello World

2005-07-30T12:51:00.000-07:00

Once again I contritely creep into the world of blogdom. The experiences of the real world have so overwhelmed me that this digital medium of life-sharing has gone ignored and forgotten. But fear not, I am now posting from our new broad band access at home, and with the extensive computer work I shall be doing in the next few weeks, you are sure to get a few choice morsels dropped on occasion... Man, our connection is at 2.2 mbits. For DSL that is awesome. ;-)I downloaded a 1 Mb file in 3.8 seconds...

Anyway,since last you heard from our hero, he has become a member of a new thing in the universal catalogue of things that exist (should I put quotes around that?), by joining in matrymony with the wonderful, beautiful, and in all otherways amazing Katie Fis...oh wait...Guenther! Woo hoo...I still really like that...

We then spent 10 blissful days in Maui going on 40 mile bike rides and swimming in crystal clear, warm tropical oceans.
In the 4 weeks since we've been back, we have visited friends and relatives in Fresno at a lovely reception; we have set up house, throwing away tons of boxes and hanging pictures on the walls; we have spent 2 weeks at Torrey acadamy as mentors asking annoying questions and introducing high schoolers to the dialectic; I have had a birthday, entering my 23rd year, which means I won't really have an exciting birthday again for like 9 years...

To answer my wonderful, patient readers' questions...
I have offered Katie a blog multiple times, but since I can't even get her to Read my blog, we don't think it would be a good use of web real estate, since it would likely never be used. (Well, she says she doesn't read my blog because it never has anything new on it...but I think that is merely an excuse)
Oh, and now I am in ernest about posting more...really, I am...I can hear your e-scepticism from here, but just you wait and see... it will be amazing! That's my story, and I'm sticking with it.

Story developing...

So...

2005-06-21T01:01:00.000-07:00

Dear Non-existant readership,
I would like to make a formal appology to all of those who faithfully check my blog for a wonderful new, inspiring, and insightful entry. Because, as of late, they have been found to be lacking. The posts I mean...not the faithful readers...well, maybe those too...But now I'm insulting those who do check semi-frequently. If you are one of those, please believe me when I say I hold you in the higheset regard. Your faith in the lack of evidence, must be exceedingly great. You will make it far in this world, as long as you attach that faith onto appropriate things. Approriate things meaning of course, things that will not let down this wonderful, trusting faith, and things which are worth resting such faith upon. Of course, this blog does not fall within that catagory of things, but let's just forget about that for the moment... trust me...it will be fine...

So, last time we left our hero, he was neck deep in a mass of quantum goo that was slowly sucking all imaginative discourse from his neurons with it's interference waves. (How exactly do interference waves "suck"? )In the intervening time that we have had a word from our sponsor (otherwise known as Life, a very broad company that includes magazines, games, and breakfast cereals), our hero has graduated from school with much stress and little sleep. He has gotten an interesting summer job that keeps him occupied when he is bored (which actually is not often enough...). He has gotten to within 400,000 seconds of a massive shift in domestic life (commonly called marriage -- a contract that he is very eager to blissfully enter). He has moved to a wonderful, little apartment in uptown Whittier. He has started working on details about his Phd program in electrophysics at USC. And finally, he has started to talk about himself in third person on a blog that no one reads. He also promises to be more consistent about his blogging. At least once a month! ;-) Just don't expect anything in the next couple weeks. I'm going to be on a little trip with some girl I know.

So, for those of you who are still reading this unactive piece of the web, keep typing in the address...hope springs eternal. For the rest of you...you don't know what you are missing!!!

Your humble servant in Christ,
Dustin Guenther

What I might be doing

2005-05-05T15:40:00.000-07:00

Well, people might wonder why I seem to have this fixation with quantum phenomena... Part of the reason is because it is what I think I might be doing when I get to grad school at USC. If you are interested (and I won't blame you if you are not), here is a paper I wrote on quantum computation. If you are Really interested, you can come here me give a talk about it on May 18. There are a couple of equations and circuits that are missing because their formats didn't transfer. But, this will give you an idea... Enjoy. :-)

If Moore's law is to continue, within the next few decades there will have to be some major computer architectural modifications. For the last half century, Moore's law stating that computers will double in speed ever two years has held true. However, transistors can only be made so small before they start running into difficult issues in their structure. One possible alternative is the quantum computer. A quantum computer would not be different merely because it was built out of electrons or ions as registers and circuits. While such minute parts could dramatically speed up interactions and reduce heat, there are multiple quantum phenomena that conflict with such classical engineering. However, starting primarily in 1984, Dr. Richard Feynman of California Institute of Technologyi began a discussion about how quantum mechanical computers could actually use quantum affects, suggesting that one possible use of this would be to simulate the complex quantum effects that make classical computers choke. However, as it turns out, there are even more exciting possibilities in this new technology.
All classical computers are built off of the Turing machine model. Alan Turing, in 1936ii, while attempting to answer a mathematical problem put forth by Hilbert, created a universal computation model before computers were even invented. This machine has a finite number of states and under certain conditions it can move from state to state. The states could be changed by ones and zeros that were read in by a tape and then read through a read-write head. With these elements and the instructions to know when to change states, any classical computer built on this model can do the same problem any other classical computer can accomplish, making the model universal.
In 1973, a man named Charles Bennett from IBM, created a model of the universal Turing machine (UTM) that was reversible. This was significant at the time because that meant that an ideal computer could calculate without the loss of any information, and thus, energy. This is actually used today for certain circuits in laptop cpu's in order to save energy. It was then realized in 1980iii, that Schroedinger's equation, the foundational wave equation that can represent all fundamental particles, was completely reversible, and Benioff showed that this meant any quantum system is reversible. Within 5 years, David Deutsch of Oxford Universityiv had developed a quantum Turing machine (QTM): one that was reversible and far more powerful than the original UTM. One fundamental change is that the storage tape is made from qubits. Qubits, instead of holding either 0 or 1, can actually be a superposition between 0 and 1. For example, if a qubit is the measure of the spin of an electron, then certain operations can be done to put that electron into a superstate. As long as the electron is not observed, it will remain in this superstate and be able to represent both 1 and 0 simultaneously. The other, and most important, change from the UTM, is that calculations can be done on all of the qubits simultaneously, creating a phenomena called quantum parallelism. Through this paper Deutsch argued that the physical universe is information rich. Computation and information is built into the foundational structure of our universe.
Before approaching quantum computing in more detail, it might be beneficial to have a more rigorous understanding of superpositions. This paper will use Dirac notation to represent quantum states. The spin of a fermion (any particle with a spin of ½: a proton, electron, etc.) can be represented as being in the state 0> or 1>, corresponding to a spin of -1/2 or +1/2. However, unless we have observed that particular fermion, we cannot say that it is in a particular state. Instead we have to say that our particle is in the general state of (A0> + B1>), where the probability of finding the particle in either state is dependent on the square of the coefficient A or B. This is often thought of as being the coordinates of a vector on a circle. 90 degrees is 1> and 0 degrees is 0>, and a superposition is any spot in between the two. Operators are applied to these kets (the x>'s) to change their state and manipulate the probabilities of where they could be found. 2 classical bits can represent four different numbers, either 0, 1, 2, or 3. However, 2 qubits can be a superposition of (A00>+B01>+C10>+D11>) if the two bits are entangled, and this way they can represent all four numbers simultaneously. By looking at the system, there is a random chance that any of the numbers will be found. This obviously scales very rapidly. A qubit register of 64 bits can represent 1.8 x 10^20 numbers simultaneously. If calculations can be done on the entire register without disturbing the superstate, then a massively parallel calculation could be performed. Multiple questions are then raised: how can a qubit be put into a superstate, how are they entangled, and how can a calculation be done on the system?
A qubit has numerous physical instantiations. It can, as has already been mentioned, fall under the realm of spintronics and use the spin of electrons. One promising way this is being done is through the use of quantum dots. A single electron can be trapped in a very thin substrate on a very pure silicon chip. This technology is being explored by UCSB along with several other institutes. The electron's spin can then be manipulated through superconductors on the chip. A qubit can also be the energy state of a single, trapped ion controlled by lasers. The NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) has been working on this method. Qubits can also be the spin state of the nuclei of a molecule that is manipulated by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). This is actually the same basic technology that medical MRI's are built from. The most progress has been made using this method because a great deal of the technology already exists. A very strong magnetic force is applied to a liquid to manipulate the spins on some of the molecules in the liquid. Then, through sending radio signals particular spins can be affected.
Let's approach the idea of a quantum superposition through the example of a trapped ion. A 0 for this qubit is when the valence electron for this ion is in the ground state. It moves to a 1 when it is pushed to an excited state. This excitation happens because an energy source is applied to the ion for a particular length of time. If it is applied for half the time, the ion's state can be placed into a superstate between ground and excited. This can be viewed mathematically through the Walsh-Hadamard gate, a fundamental one-qubit gate. If you apply a qubit 0> to this gate it will create a state 1/√2*(0>+1>), which in effect is a √not gate. If it is applied twice, it becomes 1> or a complete not gate.
Quantum entanglement, while difficult to understand, and perhaps even troubling to the theory of special relativity, is a well-proved phenomena. The EPR paradox, which suggested there were hidden variables, was disproved experimentally in 1982v, when Bell's inequalities were shown to be false, and thus quantum teleportation is a real phenomena. As long as a system of qubits can be setup and not disturbed, then the qubits are entangled and all of the qubits act as a system where calculations can be done in parallel. One way Qubits can be entangled is using a controlled-Not gate. A controlled-Not gate has the logic table:
00 00 Which sets up a matrix that looks like: 1 0 0 0
01 01 0 1 0 0
10 11 0 0 0 1
11 10 0 0 1 0
This is because the unity statement of bracket notation is <1> = 1, and we can make all other states to be equal to zero. So, if we analyze this logic table, <0> = 1, <0> = 0...<0> = 0...Down to the more interesting <2> state, which, when acted on by the controlled-Not gate, becomes <2> = 1, and the same for <3>, which turns into <3> = 1. The first input thus controls whether the gate acts like a not gate. But, more importantly, this gate sets up an entanglement between the two inputs. This gate, along with individual gates like the Walsh-Hadamard gate, are all that are necessary to do quantum calculations.
Inverse fourier transforms are used very frequently in various applications to create constructive and deconstructive interference. One of the fundamental aspects of quantum mechanics is that everything can be expressed as a wave, hence the Schroedinger equation. However, if things can be expressed as waves, then they can be interfered with, and constructive and deconstructive interference becomes a powerful tool. It can be used to amplify or destroy parts of the wave packet and thus pick out states to be more probable then other states. A Quantum Fourier Transform (QFT) can be implemented by considering the estimations made for the fast fourier transform. This way our QFT looks something like the following:
Now, examine the following circuit:
If the H stands for a Hadamard operator, and the R is a unitary operator such that Rd = 1 0
0 eiπ/2^d
where d is the distance between the lines, then this circuit could then be analyzed to be
Which, if looked at carefully, is seen to be the QFT.
We have now accrued a number of circuits in our repertoire. With various unitary operators such as the Hadamard operator to manipulate individual qubits into superpositions, the controlled-Not gate to entangle qubits, and the QFT to help manipulate the entire wave function, there are at least a few very powerful algorithms that can be built. A few things must be remembered though when dealing with quantum algorithms. In order for a quantum calculation to not decohere, the wave-function must not be disturbed. This means that the state cannot be passed off to another register, and it also means that there can be no input or output except for setting up the initial problem and receiving an answer. Therefore, a quantum algorithm is usually in the form of an oracle. The user sets up a question, and the computer responds with one particular answer. The few algorithms that have been developed so far have been set up in this form.
The first “killer application” was Shor's algorithm which was discovered in 1994vi. This algorithm makes it possible to calculate the factors of a number in exponential time. If this algorithm was implemented, then all RSA encryption could be broken in polynomial time. Since, outside of one-time pads, RSA encryption is one of the most secure methods of encryption, quantum computing suddenly became a very powerful tool. Without going into great mathematical detail, which is not possible in this paper, the periodic algorithm uses a quantum register that is big enough to hold the number that it is factoring. By the use of Hadamard operators, the circuit sets up a superstate that represents all the numbers from 1 to n. Also, using controlled-Not gates, it entangles all of the qubits. If the controllers for the not gates are allowed to decohere, they can give some number, x. The algorithm is used to find the period of the function such that x + r, and x + 2r, are also equal to the decohered not gates. This function is applied to the lines with the Hadamard operators, and then they are put into a QFT. For all the solutions that are based on r, or an integer multiple of r, the circuit will interfere constructively and every other solution will deconstructively interfere. By setting up the function to be: fn(s) = xs mod n s becomes a period function of n. Shor's algorithm will give us this period, and with a little manipulation, a common factor can be deduced from this period.
The second major algorithm that has been demonstrated is centered on unordered database searching. For example, if someone is looking for a particular phone number in a phone book, the only classical means of searching is to start at the beginning of the phone book and check every answer. The solution will be found on the order of O(n). However, in a quantum computer, this can be computed in a √n time. The main work is in constructing a unitary gate such that when the input, x, is equal to some number, w, then it will output a 1, otherwise it will output a 0. The control for this gate is then given to all the possible inputs, a qubit register spanning all the possible choices. Part of the circuit could look like this:

U is the special operator. 1> when applied to H becomes 1/√2*(0>-1>) and when U is true, the solution becomes -1 x> *1/√2*(0>-1>) because the 0> and 1> are switched, making it x> *1/√2*(1>-0>). When x ≠ w the solution is instead 1* x> *1/√2*(0>-1>). Just looking at the first part, If all x ≠ w, then the solution would just be x>. On the other hand, if x = w is the only case, then -w> is our only state. All of these cases can be summed up with (1-2w> . This operator, (1-2w> component that is equal to w> and all the other solutions remain in the same orientation. When this operator is multiplied by another reflection: (2|s>G = (2|s> is a basis state, perpendicular to all the other states, = 1/√N = cos Θ, where N is the number of elements. With the proper number of iterations, on the order of O(√N), Θ = 180 and the solution is rotated completely. When this solution is flipped and applied to itself, all the other options have deconstructive interference and disappear, leaving the proper solution as the only remaining probability.
The other general category of algorithm that has great promise is the one originally suggested by Feynman in 1984. Today's supercomputers have trouble even representing small quantum systems. The exact phenomenon that make quantum computers so different from their classical counterparts, their entanglement and parallelism, also make them extremely difficult to model in a classical, serial model. However, reasoned Feynman, a quantum computer should be able to model a quantum system with ease. This seems clearly true, and yet, surprisingly little progress has been made. Perhaps actual computers must be made before we can develop a working set of algorithms.
Why has so little progress been made in any of these fields? If a quantum computer could break the most used, and most powerful encryption currently available, it seems every major government and spy organization would want a quantum computer delivered immediately. Actually, DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) has invested millions of dollars into various quantum computing projects, and many other research organizations are also investing heavily. But, there are some major challenges that must be overcome before a quantum computer comes to a store near you. The two biggest problems are scalability and error correction.
Quantum computers are analogue machines fundamentally, and because of this, the errors can grow significantly faster than on a digital machine. In a digital machine, a bit is either 1 or 0, and if there is an error, the error stops at that bit. However, in an analogue machine, the errors can creep into the entire algorithm and drag down the entire system. On top of this crucial issue, the quantum methodologies being pursued are greatly prone to errors. Most of the practical systems that have been created end up decohering in a matter of milliseconds. When the system must be brought to cryogenic temperatures and every stray photon can disrupt the superstate, the system is fairly unstable. The sources of error become almost innumerable. However, significant progress has been made on developing good error correction techniques. Most of them involve using from 5 to 9 qubits for every qubit that carries actual information. This then, leads to the second major problem of scalability.
The current, most promising methods of creating qubits are NMR and isolating ions. Quantum dots seem like they could be very promising since they rely on solid state devices, however, not a great deal has been accomplished yet in that field. NMR techniques use long molecules to create entangled spins, but they have only managed to do so with up to around 7-10 qubits. If there is any hope in this method of moving beyond around 100 qubits, then they will have to make some designer molecules that can be strings of thousands of atoms long. Isolating ions has also had limited success but decoherence starts to strike on the order of 1x10^-6 seconds. With each ion requiring it's own set of controlling lasers, it seems to require a little too much micromanaging to create a stable lengthy qubit register. In order to accomplish worthwhile calculations, there need to be qubit registers in the hundreds. Along with each of these qubits comes a party of at least 5 or more error correcting members. A working system, then, must be in the range of thousands. No current method seems to be promising that level of scalability anytime in the near future. However, research presses onward. Within the last few months, there have been news reports from places like Oxford and Los Alamos of large artificial atoms being used as qubits. If technology rates continue, the first usable quantum computers might be seen in a decade or two. Thus, they would arrive just in time to save Moore's law.
Bibliography
Brown, Julian, The Quest for the Quantum Computer, 2000, Simon and Schuster, New York
Gasiorowicz, Stephen, Quantum Physics, 3rd Edition, 2003, John Wiley and Sons, Inc.,
Hobeken, NJ
Johnson, George, A Shortcut Through Time, 1st Edition, 2003, Alfred A. Knoph, New York
Williams and Clearwater, Colin and Scott, Ultimate Zero and One, 1st Edition, 2000,
Copernicus, New York
http://beige.ucs.indiana.edu/M743/
http://www.cs.iastate.edu/~patterbj/cs/quantum/fp/index.htm
http://www-ee.stanford.edu/~osgood/Sophomore%20College/Quantum%20Computing.pdf
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/turing-machine/
http://www.theory.caltech.edu/people/preskill/ph229/#lecture
iRichard Feynman, “Quantum Mechanical Computers”, IQEC-CLEO Meeting, 1984
ii Alan Turing, ``On Computable Numbers with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem'', Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society, vol. 42, 1937, pp. 230-265, erratum in 43, 1937
iii Benioff, Journal of Statistical Physics, Vol. 22, 1980
iv Deutsch, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Vol. A400, 1985
v A. Aspect, J. Dalibard, G. Roger, ``Experimental Test of Bell's Inequalities Using Time-Varying Analyzers'', Physical Review Letters, Vol. 49, 1982
vi Peter Shor, ``Algorithms for Quantum Computation, Discrete Logarithms and Factoring'', Proceedings of the 35th Annual Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science, 1994

Tactics

2005-04-20T01:12:00.000-07:00

Ok, here seems to be the real question... How does one talk to a scientist about metaphysics, and how does one convince a scientist of differing metaphysics? Because, the whole evolution/ID comes down to an understanding of the metaphysics behind the two theories. In order to switch theories, it would have to be a major paradigm shift which requires a change in the philosophy behind the theories. Until ID can either A) be so convincing that a self-respecting scientist can't deny it (not likely to happen do to the strong, unwaivering support Darwinism has, even when completely illogical and unsupported) or B) talk to scientists about metaphysics and have it be understood and debated fairly, it seems that they will never win the battle. If ID could have the explanitory power of say the Big Bang, then it might be able to accomplish A, but since that seems unlikely to happen, the discussion needs to tend towards B. So, how does one turn the discussion away from "science" qua naturalism, to a seperation of worldviews from the data? This seems an almost impossible task in the current state of things... I guess Dr. Johnson has attempted this, but it has been met with limited success in the strong scientific realm.

Sigh...if only they had recieved actual, good liberal arts education, I don't think this would be such a problem...

Society

2005-04-19T01:21:00.000-07:00

Well, I was cleaning my bathroom, and was thinking again about another of those issues that haunt me all the time. I thought I might as well put that down as well....who needs to sleep. ;-)

How is the church to affect society? Society and the church has never seemed to be happy bedmates. When they are too much intertwined, the society seems to flurish morally, but the church tends to weaken dramatically and get so mixed up in politics that it loses its focus of being the bride of Christ... Yet, morally corrupt societies without a strong church voice tend towards dictatorships and communism and nazism and other such rot...

Our own history has had it's own interesting twists... Around the turn of this century, there seems to have been an abandonment of the realms of higher learning for a more grass roots, revival evangelism Christianity. It almost appeared to a conscious effort to forget about trying to make a Christian culture to reaching out to the individual. I am still not clear on how we got so quickly removed from the echelons of higher education, but the removal was affective, and Christians have struggled to have a voice because of that for close to a half-century. That is why Biola was begun. It was started to help the average Christian get Biblical training so that they could be better equipped to evangelise and encourage their communities and mission fields. This does not seem to be the central focus anymore. Actually, along with such cultural movements as ID, and the philisophical in-roads on post-modernism, etc. there seems to have been a shift once again towards trying to change culture from the top down.

So...which way works the best, and why? There is Tons more to be said about that, but I think I will only become in coherent if I continue much longer... Here's a question: If you had $100 million and were going to donate it somewhere, how do you think it would be best spent and why?
A) Helping build a Christian Tier 1 University (along with a research science school)
B) Build a Christian movie production coorperation
C) Fund missionaries, Gideon Bibles, and Wicliff translators
D) Build a beautiful Church in a huge suburbia
E) ?
If you would do some combination, why that particular combination? What do you think would be most affective?

The state of ID

2005-04-19T00:28:00.000-07:00

So, I had the pleasure of listening to William Dembski today in a context lecture. He is a very educated and bright man, if only Biola could snag him, we would have the corner on the ID movement... :-) Anyway, there seems to be a one major flaw in the ID movement that doesn't look like it will be going away soon...

Almost all major paradigm shifting theories must have a "killer" experiment to prove it's explanitory power. Without this major break through in how to understand the universe, an experiment that could not be explained with any other currently known mechanism, then the theory will likely not hold enough clout to pull people away from a convincing theory. We've seen this many times in science... The photo-electric affect, wave nature of light, relativity, even the heliocentric model of the solar system, all were able to explain a major phenomena that the current model could not explain. The problem seems to be, ID has not yet generated any major experiments, nor has it convinced the scientific world that it's model is insufficient to operate under. On one level, it does seem to be almost strictly a philosophical debate based on scientific data. That certainly does not marginalize the movement. On the contrary, any debate that helps people understand Truth better, especially if it can use the powerful scientific structure that dominates society, it a powerful tool. But, there needs to be some theoretical models that can be built off of this natural philosophy that better explain the world. If this is the case, then the rest of science will have to follow, even if they do so shuffling their feet and calling us names (ie. Christians ;-). We can see how this works with the big bang. It seems today most astrophysicists are at least deists, because the major substantiated theory points towards a beginning and a creator. Well ID, now is our chance! We have the world's attention, we have scared the institution, and we have the truth. Let's start to do real science...

I've heard Dembski has a paper on some research areas that could be explored. If anyone knows where I might get ahold of that, I would be beholden to them.

G'night

Information

2005-04-12T23:11:00.000-07:00

So it seems that the physical world can be summed up as a combination of mass, energy, and information. But, actually mass and energy are really the same thing as well (see Einstien), so the physical world really comprises of energy and information. The information determines how that energy interacts and is structured. This is the fundamental idea behind entropy, etc. Actually, it is the fundamental idea behind a lot of things... This seems to be why the laws of nature work. Energy is structured in particular information rich ways. Laws are really a strict way of transfering information. I guess I had never thought of information theory as being so fundamental before. This is one reason why computers are so good at representing reality and why they have been so useful so quickly. The universe is structured to help make computers work. It seems that the study of information, including such ideas as Dembski's arguments for intelligence, are extremely useful for science in general, and theoretical physics in particular. We just take such ideas for granted so often... We were modeling the entire hydrogen atom in an equation in class! That just seems unfathomable... And nature is so much better at storing, computing, and utilizing information than anything man has created, it is amazing. So a couple questions come to mind to ponder...

What is the relationships between energy and information really? How tightly are they bound? How do they relate to each other? Are they both fundamentally the same thing too, somehow? Is energy like Plato's plastic or space from Timaeus, with information forming and molding it? Are there laws for the conservation of information? How does information lead to more complex information? (In an open system it seems to be from more energy...how about a closed system?) What really Is the law of entropy? Is there a maximum limit to the amount, or ability of information? And most interestingly of all, what does this type of structure of the universe suggest about God?

It is certainly an amazing world...

On life and news and whatnot

2005-04-06T01:18:00.000-07:00

So, I've been informed by multiple people that I have let a month go by without update. I suppose something has happened in that time worthy of note? ;-) Well, if nothing else, my acceptance to the PhD program in electrophysics at USC is worth a post... But, I am not of course really looking for a news blog. If people think that that would be a worth while thing, please post, and perhaps I will move towards that system.
What are some interesting issues that have been currently happening?

Terri Schivo of course was a rather major issue that I never fully sided on. On one hand, we do live in a culture of death (a coined phrased by the late pope), and anything that can encourage life is probably a good thing. On the other hand, we should not put too high a value on extending life here on earth for as long as possible. Our culture is also afraid of death, and seems to use any means possible to avoid it. This too seems improper. But, on top of all of that, it seems that the courts were making the proper decisions based on current laws regarding spousal authority, and it seems that politicians should not be trying to over power the law for "special" cases. So...I don't know, seems a rather complicated solution. Anyone who gives a simple answer probably is not thinking carefully about the issue.

The pope has died. He was a very good man and the world was blessed by his work. It will be interesting to see who the church chooses to walk in his very large shadow.

The economy is not doing so hot. Oil is at all time highs, hurting many people financially. The stock market has dropped by 5-10% this year already. Social security is a big mess, but with our short sighted and self-centered society, I do not know if we have the back bone to fix it. It will hurt, but for the good of our nation and our children something major needs to be done. It is instances like this that make me happy Bush is so dogmatic. ;-) And on top of all of this, the housing market in LA looks like it is finally cooling. Whether this will lead to an actual Drop in prices has yet to be seen, but if interest rates continue to rise, I would not be surprised to see that happen. And, I wouldn't be too sad if it did. Maybe I could afford one then... ;-)

The DNC is having some pretty major internal fights. I will be interested to see what is the outcome.

Google has come out with yet another amazingly cool feature. Go to their www.maps.google.com page, and type in an address. Now, go up to the right corner and press satillite. Now ooh and ahh over their great genius and awesomeness. Repeat at will.

How does one encourage rational thought about an issue while at the same time not minimizing emotional responses? It seems a tough line to walk. I often find myself putting too much of an emphasis on a rational argument for an action. But, I know people are irrational and we should value emotions and often it is more loving to support those desires... I seem to do badly at choosing between those responses... I guess just another example of how badly I love people.

Ok. More later...sometime. Go under the mercy.

Hamburgers!

2005-02-19T00:52:00.000-08:00

Late night conversations are wonderful, even if it does mean you only get 5 hours of sleep for the next day... So we were having one of those last night with my argumentative roommates, and one of the more substantial conversations was wether one can know that something tastes good. As Jon has taken this to the blogs and requested a reply, I feel the need to respond. This seems, however, to me a very inefficient method of having an argument...

One can have the sensation of good taste when eating a particular food. And, being a realist, I believe that this taste is also attached to that actual, real food. However, I do not believe that this is actually knowledge. Knowledge, philisophically speaking, is justified true belief (well, that is actually debated, but we will work from that for now). How can one be justified that a food tastes good? The idea of taste seems to be particularly subjective. In order to have knowledge of a thing, it must be something that is true. Therefore, unless the taste of the food is objectively good, one can only have knowledge that one thinks a food tastes good to him. This is different from saying that a food tastes good. In order to make this claim, the person must have access to compare the taste to an objective standard. Unless taste then can be connected to something objective, (the only standard that comes to mind is beauty), we cannot know that a food tastes good. As per our discussion last night, beauty does not seem to apply to particular one-dimensional senses...To say a food tastes beautiful, or something smells beautiful, or something feels beautiful (feeling meaning using the sense of touch), does not seem to be a proper use of that term. Perhaps that is because beauty is at least partially an intellectual thing, and since these senses do not partake in the realm of ideas, they cannot be beautiful...Now, for a blind person, does touch take on beauty? This I don't know...

Anyway, perhaps that seems a bit picky, but I think it is an important distinction. One can know that a food tastes good to you. One cannot know that a food tastes good. A person is not evil if he does not like the taste of chocolate, for instance. ;-)

Oh, and this conversation started with the hypotheses that a person says McDonalds hamburgers are better than Burger King's burgers. Some times it doesn't take much, eh? ;-)

G'night

Happy 2005!

2005-02-06T01:24:00.000-08:00

Um, so it's a new year...well, not really, since it's like February, but I thought since my last post was about Christmas, I really should say something about the new year.

School has started with a vengence. Four more months. Now that the end is in sight, I am ready to be there.

I just finished a book on Quantum Computing. It is a fascinating field that offers lots of promise and lots of questions, very few of which are answered. Perhaps that is part of what draws me to that field. It is an area where relatively little progress has been made. Of course, it has had some of the most brilliant minds in Physics working on it, so I am not sure what good I could do, but I think I would like to at least understand more of the field. The last chapter of the book was full of bizzare and far fetched theories on multiverses and universal computation. I am amazed on one hand at the brilliancy of some of these theories, and yet, I am also amazed at how little they grasp because of a poor worldview and a total rejection of God. People would prefer to believe that the world was created from a quantum element than God... Ockham's razor seems like it should take affect sometime around here... ;-) I hope that I can come to a fuller understanding of Quantum mechanics so that I can understand our world better, our culture better, and our relationship towards God better, and perhaps I can make some useful contribution to the area at the same time. ;-) We shall see...

Anyway, this is an attempt to restart this dead piece of cyber-flesh. Perhaps if I posted something that didn't reference quantum in it, it might get read... Good night my friends!

Merry Christmas

2004-12-25T13:33:00.000-08:00

2004 years ago God gave us the greatest gift possible. I hope that you are all celebrating appropriately for such a joyeous occasion. God bless you, my friends!

Heh

2004-12-23T01:13:00.000-08:00

So... Blogs, eh? I warned that I wasn't ready to get into them! Can't say I didn't warn ya...

I guess that isn't the greatest excuse. Blogs are good, and I see their good, and now that I am not dying through slow means of torture (known as finals), I will attempt to partake in that goodness.

A couple of little things. I have changed the template. I like it better than the previous one, and now I am not copying my roommate. ;-) I was also granted my real name for the blog. So, if you can find it, I am here at secretwallaby@blogspot.com (though, I guess if you are reading this, you have already found me...) I have also included a couple more friends and relations to my links...

So, school is over, I am alive, and Christmas is in full gear. Not a bad situation to find myself. The last month has been fairly rough stresswise and living wise. I cannot say I came through living as well as I would have liked. I certainly did not give my finacee the attention she deserved. That is something I will have to work on before I get into grad school. Oh, yeah, that's the other thing that has been consuming my life. Grad school applications are pretty nasty overall. I really hope that I only have to go through all of this once. But, we shall see.

Anyway, I guess I don't have any profound thoughts. Just thought I would start writing again, and thoughts will come in the future. Merry Christmas everyone. Be merry, and enjoy what this season is truly about.

Go under the mercy.

Big News

2004-11-21T15:55:00.000-08:00

So, it has been forever since I wrote on here. But, I just had a big enough change in my life that I could not refrain from posting something for my non-existant readership.

I am engaged! The most wonderful girl in the world has agreed to marry me and put up with me for the rest of her life. I'm not sure why she has agreed to such a thing, but it has made me more happy than I could ever consider being. Katie Fisher is my fiancee.

How did it happen, you ask? Well, here is the story in all of it's gory detail. Read at your own risk... ;-)

At 11:30, Saturday, November 20th, I whent to her apartment, and we went out for lunch to Benihana. That is one of those Japanese restaurants that cooks at your table and is very entertaining in their cooking. I was able to pass off such a meal because we were celebrating our first year anniversary (actually a little early... we starting dating on 11-25). That was enjoyable and fun. After that we went to a park. Over the course of our relationship we have been to litterally a couple dozen of different parks, enjoying nature and the various styles of different parks. This park was a beautiful one next to UCI. It took us a while to find it (I always seem to get lost when taking Katie new places ;-), but we finally found it. We walked over bridges, and through a dry creek bed, and then settled by the lake to read the last of "The Voyage of the Dawn Tredder".
Now here is where things started to go a little awry. The weather was not behaving as it was supposed too. I knew I should not have trusted weather.com! It was significantly overcast, fairly windy, and getting colder rapidly. Katie was already borrowing my jacket, and I was wondering if she was even going to enjoy my future plans for the day. See, I had planned to go to the beach, which was about 10 minutes away, to watch the sunset. But, if there was no sunset, and if it was too cold to enjoy it, then how was I suppose to get us to the beach??? On top of that, the book was taking longer than I had anticipated. I was starting to worry if we were going to be able to finish it after all. It is a beautiful ending, and I Really wanted to get to the end, but at what expense? So, I kept checking my watch, counting pages, and reading faster...This was Katie's first major clue. ;-P We finished about 10 minutes later than I had wanted, but still in time, and I hurriedly suggested that since we didn't have a good view of the sunset here, we should go to the beach. This seemed plausible and reasonable "spontaneus" thing to do, and since it had stopped getting colder, she agreed to go.
We reached the beach quickly thanks to good lights and traffic, and we walked down to a beautiful spot at little Corona Del Mar. Katie had grown up on that beach, we had shared some special time there ourselves, and it is a beautiful spot to watch the sunset. Phil, Jon and Libby had gone ahead of time and set up a picnic dinner. The idea was a romantic, bountiful, candle lite picnic set out on glass platters, with Martinelli in a champaign bucket, 52 roses (it is our 52nd week of dating), rose petals, and Chopin's nocturns playing in the background. Well, the wind kept the candles from lighting, and the seagulls made them put a crate over the food, but other than that it was perfect. They had even written "Amo Te" in the sand near by. Katie had not even connected the setup with us until I stopped next to it and told her happy first year anniversary. ;-) We then "saw" a bottle "washed up" on shore with a message in it. The message was a sonnet I had written for her. This was a surprise, because I had told her never to expect a poem from me since the last sonnet I had written was on campaign finance reform...
After reading that to her, I then read 1 Corinthians 13. Then, as the sun was setting, at 4:45, I asked her to marry me. It is a moment that I will cherish forever. I thank God for how amazingly He has blessed me. If you think of it, please pray for us as we begin a new, exciting period of our lives.

I love you, Katie.

That is all.

Music of the Spheres

2004-10-17T01:47:00.000-07:00

Few things in this world have the power of music. Everytime I contemplate the amazingness of music, I am struck by it's complexity, it's affects on humans, and it's all-encompassing nature.
This evening, my wonderful, beautiful, Good, and in-most-other-ways perfect girlfriend took me to the Disney Concert Hall. If you have never been to this piece of art, it is worth your time and money. The building itself is a $100 million + statement of music. It captures your eye and intrigues your senses. A good amount of time was spent wandering the various corners of that creation. But, the gem of the struture, as is fitting, is the concert hall itself. Only fitting a couple thousand people, it actually feels quite small. The building is built in such a way that makes every member of the audience have a good seat and a good aucustical experience. However, what is fairly unique about this hall, is that they allow members of the audience to experience the performance from the chior loft. Thus, we sat two rows behind the actual orchestra itself. I have never been so enthralled by a performance (that I was not producing). I felt that I was literally a member of the Los Angeles Philarmonic, but instead of concentrating on my part I could focus on various members, or the conductor, or the entire orchestra. It was like what those filmed recordings of performances try to do with snap shots of various performers, except that it was live, and I could chose anyone and everyone I desired to see. The ability to see the nuances of the musicians, the facial expressions of the conductor, the fingers of a cellist on his strings was astounding. I could not believe that an hour had passed when they concluded Shostacovich's 11th. It was a beautiful evening.
The experience left me with a myriad of thoughts. I will not attempt to convey them all. But, consider for a moment, the depth of music. Before us lay a conglomeration of very talented individuals. For thousands of hours, these persons had learned to understand, feel, move, and otherwise tease out beautiful tones from a myriad of manmade instruments that produce various noises. Every type of physical means for making noise was represented. Vibrating strings, wood, metal, glass, stretched plastic or fabric were all represented in multiple forms. Every object creates their own individual set of overtones, which when added together establishes a veritable plethera of tonal variations. Through one man creating a mathimatical beat with a stick, this group of 80 individuals are able to establish order to the chaos. A man from Russia, who likely never spoke English, then created with a few scratch marks on paper, a historical, artistic, and compelling view of a dark moment in his country's past (1905's Bloody Sunday). A member of the audience needed to know nothing about this event, or Russia, or Russian, or even music, to be able to experience the horror, despair, and renewed hope that the Russian people experienced. Nothing else in this world has such cross-cultural, language, or experiential power. Music is a universal language. So, if America wants to be remembered, and if America desires to be great, then we really do need to get some good composers. Anyway, I am glad God created us with the ability to create and appreciate music. It is a marvelous gift!

Conspiracy theories

2004-10-10T01:18:00.000-07:00

When is a conspiracy worth believing? I suppose a lot of it depends on your source. If I told you I had a very good source would you believe that the Aids pandemic was mostly a big hoax/scam? I have been informed of some interesting arguments for it, and they come from a very informed, wise christian, who is a Doctor from Berkeley with a multitude of connections. ;-) I don't know... He said he would get us more information if we are interested. If I can get ahold of it, maybe I'll post some of the links up here. It is possible that they are actually killing babies that need not die. If this is true, we must some how make it known. Perhaps blogs would be the best way to accomplish this...we shall see.

Doh!

2004-10-10T01:07:00.000-07:00

Ya, so it's been a while since I posted on here. I blame it on my roommates. See, they forced me to get a blog before I was mentally ready to mantain one, and that is the reason I am having trouble keeping one up...ya, that's a good excuse. ;-)

Oh, appologies to the typo in my previous post...My good friend, Luke pointed it out. It should read "Therefore, I will now start..." Although, that might have been some type of fruedian slip...

God is truly Beautiful and worthy of our total devotion, love, and energies. Recently I have been reminded frequently how we should looking to Him for our hope and salvation, our inspiration and our joy. In church last sunday, through a sermon on worship, I cought a miniscule, fleeting glimpse of what true God-focus is. For a brief moment, I was focused entirely on God's glory and the worship that is due Him. I was not thinking about how I was worshipping Him, or my problems, or what I was offering to Him. I was not part of the equation. Instead of looking at God's very dim reflection on my own soul, I glimpsed briefly out towards the truth. My weakness quickly drew me back into myself, but it was an exillerating and enlightening moment that gave me a glimpse of what the Christian life can truly be like!

Go under the mercy, my friend.

The Good Life

2004-09-27T01:16:00.000-07:00

How does one live the Good life? This is, and will be, my primer question for this coming year. Too long have I lived a life to get by, a life that makes things easy, a life that is based off of pragmatism rather than good and best. With the Knights help, and the help of my friends, this will change. I believe that it starts with discipline. Any man that one reads or hears about that has made anything of himself is a disciplined man. Discipline helps man accomplish what he truly wants to accomplish. I have a vague idea of where I would like my life to go, but at this point in time, I have not the ability to transverse the distance to that point. Discipline is the road I must travel. Therefore, I will now start on the mighty challenge of living a disciplined life. I have never failed so often in something in my life, and now or never is the time that that must change. Please pray for me if you think of it. I relish challenges, and this is certainly a struggle, but I fear failure. With my house's help, with God's help, and with prayer I believe I shall accomplish it. We serve an amazing God. It really is true.

Go in peace, my friend.

Off we go

2004-09-24T18:10:00.000-07:00

I'm off to go camping. I love the mountains. I miss being in nature and experiencing God's creation in it's natural state. It should be a wonderful time of communing with annoying roommates and coming closer to God. It will be fun! :-) Look for more posting excitement in a couple of days!

Go under the Mercy

Impostures

2004-09-23T10:49:00.000-07:00

Some people think that my friends are stoopid. However, I believe, that anyone who spends a miniscule amount of thought on the style and content of these two blogs could discover the truth. I will give a prize to anyone who can correctly name the true authors of the different posts in my fan site: http://secretwallaby.blogspot.com/ . And none of the holders of the password can answer. >-) Pay a little attention to the blogs that I have linked to and see if you can find similar styles. It's a fun little game!

Your Servant in Christ

Life

2004-09-23T02:39:00.000-07:00

What is it I live for? I shall probably post thoughts and comments on those things that I view as most important. Here is a list of them:

God:
To Glorify God and enjoy Him. This is what life is truly about. Am I doing this? Not as much as I would like. Will I continue to pursue this? With all of my being. I am at the stage of desiring to desire to love God. I do not have the huberis to presume that I truly love Him. I barely understand what that means. But, through good leadership, friends, community, and classes, I am coming to have a fuller understand and appreciation for what life is Truly about.

Katie:
The ode to Katie on the other blog lacks something...oh yeah, that's it, authenticity and Truth...Well, I can hardly attempt a proper proclimation of her virtues at this time, but I will say the following. As little as I understand love, I will say, wholeheartedly, that I love Katie. Her beauty, goodness, and virtue is great and wonderful. I am blessed to even know her, and to be able to call her friend is an exceedingly great joy. Yet, she even deems to allow me a higher place than meer friend. She has granted me the greatest gift possible by women, by allowing me to love and pursue her and loving me back. I eagerly look forwards to being granted the opportunity to know her better and to pursue God alongside her.

Community:
Community is amazingly important and pursuing it during college has been one of the best choices I could have made. I will definitely say more of this in the future.

Politics:
Our world is in turmoil, and this is one of the hotspots. We should all be aware and active in what is going on in the world today. What we do Does make a difference. Let us not take our many political blessings and freedoms for granted!

Topics of interest:
School is what consumes much of my time. I have a great vested interest in the topics I study. So look in the future for valuable, and fascinating discussions on physics, computer science, philosophy, music and other assorted subjects that I am currently spending time studying.

Life lessons:
Man experiences this funny thing called life very differently from even his neighbor. If we can help each other see it as we see it, this will benefit our community significantly. Plus, sometimes, funny things just happen.

This is in general what I will spend my time on this blog talking about...at least, that is the idea. We will see what actually unfolds. I have actually been meaning to attempt this for quite sometime, but I have been waiting to actually write my own script for a blog. I guess this will suffice until that time. Stop by often my friends. I don't promise much, but perhaps it will be of enough interest to keep you coming back!

Go under the mercy

On Blogs

2004-09-23T02:00:00.000-07:00

The blog. What is it? The blog seems to have become a ubiquitious part of our modern society. It is a place where people write endlessly about their skewed, miniscule view the world in angst ridden tomes. They can be a powerful tool of societal conversation, but they are often abused and misused. This is one reason I have refrained from creating a blog until now. However, there are times when peer pressure can force your hand, and my friends can be quite good at aforementioned situations. So, I have created the true blog of Dustin Scott Guenther, originally from Fresno, California, currently a resident of La Mirada, California. here http://secretwallaby.blogspot.com/ is the pathetic attempt of my copatriates to copy my style and post my life. If you know me even a little, I shall leave it up to you to discover the real blog of this person who answers to the monicker of Dustin Guenther.

This blog will contain thoughts that I have of the world. I do not claim to have anything to add to the true discussion, but perhaps if I join it, I shall learn through experience what is truly worth saying. It is a project worth attempting. Therefore, journey on my friends. Let us get swept up in the information age and continue to spew words into the ever present, bottomless well of verbiage known in the common vernacular as the web. Perhaps we can yet be a light in this dark world. I am finally willing to attempt it. "Once more into the breach..."

Your Servant in Christ,
Dustin Guenther