on the northern lights

photo from dave brosha @ flickr

The night sky shimmers with greens and whites and pinks -- the northern lights. Sometimes the northern lights billow up, and they flare and shine across the sky from north to south, from horizon to horizon. The northern lights happen in complete silence. It is as if some wonderful celebration is occurring in a faraway place where you can't hear it or see what's really happening, but you can be happy just knowing about it.

--Richard Preston, The Wild Trees (2007) p. 66-67

I have not experienced the northern lights, but this sure makes an amazing case for them. I hope to see them someday.

On the direction of education

As an alum of Dordt College I remember when a group of students published a manifesto that began to question direction that the college was headed toward. Wendell Berry offers a thought that is very similar to the theme of the manifesto.

Now we seem to have replaced the ideas of responsible community membership, of cultural survival, and even usefulness, with the idea of professionalism. Professional education proceeds according to ideas of professional competence and according to professional standards, and this explains the decline in education from ideals of service and good work, citizenship and membership, to mere "job training" or "career preparation." --Wendell Berry, Life is a Miracle

Having recently watched the movie Into the Wild, I recall a scene where Chris McCandless says to his friend Ron:

"Ron, I think careers are a 20th century invention and I don't want one."

The same idea comes from both of these quotes. Does our work life, family life, community life, and church life have much crossing or blending? It should. We aren't called to live parallel stories. We have a holistic calling. Let's try not to forget that.

Good Friday listening

A song/poem to think about:

Oh God, hold me now
Oh Lord, hold me now
There's no other man who could raise the dead
So do what you can to anoint my head

Oh God, where are you now?
Oh Lord, say somehow
The devil is hard on my face again
The world is a hundred to one again

Would the righteous still remain?
Would my body stay the same?

Oh God, hold me now
Oh God, touch me now
There's no other man who could save the dead
There's no other God to place our head

Would the righteous still remain?
Would my body stay the same?

There's no other man who could raise the dead
So do what you can to anoint my head

Oh God, hold me now
Oh Lord, touch me now

-Sufjan Stevens, "Oh, God Where are You Now?"

Let's not forget his sacrifice on this Good Friday.

Is there truth in this?

Thanks to Luke's Commonplace for this photo. He entitles it "United We Sit."

A Shoutout to Huxley

I have just finished reading Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman and he presents the case that television has dramatically changed our way of communicating since its conception. We are a society very much driven by images. This view on society is really undeniable if you think about it: billboards, quick news clips, magazines, commercials, etc. Our attention spans - as it seems to me - are shorter than ever before. (Think about the sitcom that begins and ends a whole story in about 20 minutes. Or I especially like the example of Fox New's "Around the World in 80 seconds" segment.) Anway, Postman goes on to explain that the Huxleyan (Brave New World) account is more true today than the Orewellian account (1984):

"What Huxley teaches is that in the age of advanced technology, spiritual devastation is more likely to come from an enemy with a smiling face than one from one whose countenance exudes suspicion and hate. In the Huxleyan prophecy, Big Brother does not watch us, by his choice. We watch him, by ours. ... When a population becomes distracted by trivia, when cultural life is redefined as a perpetual round of entertainments, when serious public conversation becomes a form of baby-talk, when, in short, a become an audience and there public business a vaudeville act, then a nation finds itself at risk; culture-death is a clear possibility." (pp. 156-7)

and again:

"For in the end, he [Huxley] was trying to tell us that what afflicted the people in Brave New World was not that they were laughing instead of thinking, but that they did not know what they were laughing about and why they had stopping thinking." (p. 163)

The book is a great book to start your mind turning. Is television similar to the "soma" found in Brave New World? If so, what are the implications for us?

On an old concessions trailer

For all those who enjoy Coca-Cola and who also enjoy Iowa:

Changing the American Way of Life

This past Wednesday evening I attended a lecture/seminar called "The Long Emergency" by James Kunstler. He is a writer and he has published a book called "The Geography of Nowhere" and "The Long Emergency." Both books criticize American suburbia and American consumerism.

Keep in mind that I am attending a secular university and should not expect that all those who come to campus and gives talks are going to be Christian, conservative, well-thought speakers. With that being said, Kunstler had a lot of good things to say as well as a lot of terrible things. The topic was on the declining state of American society... or I guess, the American way of life. Kunstler believes that the oil crisis is now and it will cause major disruptions in the very near future. He says our dependency on being a consumer society is the cause for alarm and that way of life is not sustainable at all.

Since he is a journalist and non-scientific most of what he talks about is his own opinion. Coming from a scientific background I wanted more evidence out of his message. Since he is a "registered democrat" (which isn't bad per se) and very liberal (which is bad when you are extreme about it), he likes to criticize evangelicals and republicans. (I don't want to sound like I am taking sides; there is nothing wrong with registering as "democrat" or "republican" as a Christian.) Kunstler likes to stick his head out there and say things that will provoke and eventually anger. It didn't help that he was quite vulgar and his language was crude. Anyway, most of all, since he is very cynical and pessimistic, I felt very let down and somewhat disheartened with his speech. I think it should be presented without crude jokes and sexual innuendos as that would probably help him be received with more validity.

As Christians, we can learn a lot from Mr. Kunstler. We can learn that we must critically think through the behavior our daily life and see the consequences of that behavior. However, we must be more optimistic since our hope is in God. Actually, during the lecture, Kunstler said that we were probably wondering where the hope was. He said that we had to generate our own hope. Well, thankfully Christians know where their hope lies. We can also learn from Mr. Kunstler that seeing the negative in everything (which is really what he is doing) doesn't provide a fruitful path of change.

So I will leave you with a quote I recently found on a great blog, Fire and Knowledge:

The first thing we must begin to teach our children (and learn ourselves) is that we cannot spend and consume endlessly. We have got to learn to save and conserve. We do need a “new economy,” but one that is founded on thrift and care, on saving and conserving, not on excess and waste. An economy based on waste is inherently and hopelessly violent, and war is its inevitable by-product. We need a peaceable economy.
--Wendell Berry, “Thoughts in the Presence of Fear”

Berry can be our Christian version of Mr. Kunstler.

Labor Day Picture

Flowers I saw today. I like them.

Biorenewable Resources and Technology

This week for me was the end of my first class as a graduate student. I took an independent study course in mechanical engineering and my goal was to learn a software package that specializes in modeling chemical and mechanical processes. My graduate research focus is on the economics of biomass-to-biofuels processes. This summer class for me was really an introduction into the work that I will be doing for my master's degree. Specifically, I created a model or simulation where the end product will be a "green" diesel fuel. Instead of calling it biodiesel, which is formed through vegetable oils and animal fats, "green" diesel is formed through the thermal conversion of biomass (plants such as the one in the picture). Biomass is heated and gasified (turning it into hydrogen and carbon monoxide) and then converted to diesel and other products like propane and octane (gasoline).

As I research the area of biorenewable resources, I am beginning learn that there is so much potential. There is a lot of work to be done and it will take years, but if you pay attention to the news, you will see lots of progress. I came across one paper in my research that mentioned that not only will biorenewables potentially be able to curb the United State's dependence on nonrenewable energy, but it has the potential to bring energy to developing countries and regions around the world. Some communities that are self-sufficient and live without electricity could live with electricity and still be self-sufficient by using biomass as a source for their energy. I know, I know, what about the biomass as the source of people's food? Doesn't using biomass take away possible food? It can, but one can use food and crop residues. Even the ash/char that is produced from gasification can be formed into fertilizer to put back on the fields. If used wisely we can balance the usage of plants and biomass to reduce the carbon emission from coal and petroleum. Hopefully as you pass by the next field of corn, swath of switchgrass, forest of trees, or even the next organic waste in your trash, you can begin to think of the potential it has.

Samson versus Goliath? What?

A few weeks ago I heard that Wal-mart decided to market and sell some action figures based on Bible characters. I decided to check it out online. Apparently, someone thinks that the Bible can be learned better if you can have mock battles between Goliath and Samson. (I am pretty sure that they didn't even live in the same time period, but whatever.) So without further ado, we have over in the left corner, wearing red, hailing from Zorah, strongest man in History, 300-pounds-all-muscle, jaw-bone-swinging, "I-eat-philistines-for-breakfast" Samson the Nazirite and in the right corner, wearing silver, hailing from Philistia, tallest man and hairiest chest in the world, "I-make-everyone-cry-when-they-look-at-me-even-Chuck-Norris" Goliath. Let's get ready to rumble!

Is a toy like this even worth buying? Or is it better for a kid to be playing with Bible characters instead of Superman or Batman? I am not really sure. From scripture we believe that the writings of Judges and Samuel are not just stories, but are true events. They contain real people and through them we learn about God. Can we make them out to be "superhero"-like? A few years ago I remember a friend of mine who hadn't been a Christian for a long time and she read the story of Samson for the first time. She was actually appalled at the gruesomeness that Samson was a part of. She wondered why he would be selected to be a judge of Israel since he treated philistines so vengefully. Anyway, as she figured out and we also figure out as we grow older, that the Bible contains a lot of gruesome events and heartless treatment of people, we should probably take those passages seriously and not try and make them marketable. There is no easy answer. If you have an opinion or a comment of some sort please don't be afraid to comment.

From the picture I kinda feel like buying one and putting on my desk at work whereby it would provide a good conversation starter. You can find them online at www.one2believe.com. I guess I will end by saying that I'm glad that the photo at least depicts Samson beating Goliath. Go Samson! Hopefully Goliath doesn't find out Samson's weakness.