Three things to think about.
1. How to reconcile God with climate change.
Encounter, on ABC Radio National, reported from the recent Catholic Earthcare Conference. It was a very interesting program, which you can listen to in Real Player here. It turns out that the question, “How should people of faith tackle the problems of climate change?” is actually quite a tricky one. Surprise… suprise. Here’s an essay on the topic.
2. How to resample your data using R.
The R stats language is basically a hardcore stats program, in which one can do anything - if you know how. The whole package is command line driven; meaning that you have to input all the commands in code. This gets very complicated very quickly. I guess the main problem is that you need to know what you’re doing in order to do anything. I personally prefer the more point and shoot approach to stats, where I can perform every test in 13.2 seconds, only to spend the next 5 weeks working out why it doesn’t make sense. R encourages you to do this the other way around. Bastards!
3. Why people wearing Birkenstocks dance.
A well known fact is that Birkenstocks are super comfy sandals. A lesser known fact is that this isn’t actually true. While I own a pair of these shoes (which have served me well for several years), they are actually quite heavy and flawed, almost fatally. It’s the rim of the footbed that causes the problem. This raised edge is a magnet for small rocks that get between you and your shoe. Who wants that? The result is that people walking around in Birkenstocks end up putting their legs up and shaking their feet quite often, in order to dislodge the rocks. This is now known as the Birkenstock dance, thanks to ZoeStar.
December 8th, 2005 at 2:55 pm
Thanks for the credit Tom but I do believe it was Caroline who actually called this one! Also, I think we need a demonstration photo!
December 8th, 2005 at 5:10 pm
A photo of the reconciling, resampling, or dancing?
December 8th, 2005 at 5:44 pm
I think a demonstration photo of all three at once is called for,
plus tom, whaddaya mean; you prefer the point and shoot approach to stats? you prefer the point and shoot approach to EVERYTHING!
December 8th, 2005 at 5:45 pm
and that’s ZoeBunny in distinction from ZoeStar
December 9th, 2005 at 9:58 am
I prefer the point and shoot approach because it means that things actually get done. I may make a complete balls of it, but at least something happens. And if it goes wrong, at least it’s exciting. For example:
1. running aground at full tilt in the Mulgrave, 50m from a big croc, at night, with YLM and YLD in the bow of the boat - that was exciting;
2. flooding the office with salt water one week and freshwater the next - not so exciting;
3. getting bogged in salt water half way up the doors of my Pathfinder and having climb out the window onto the roof, then jump to the side of the road to go and get help - kinda exciting, then a pain; and
4. handing in all my undergrad essays on time - the most exciting thing ever!
Not to mention that you learn from your mistakes (tenuous) and that you get to use super-nerdy stats programs that make your head hurt!
December 9th, 2005 at 10:31 am
You’ve been the same ever since you first stood up (in your cot on a British Airways flight from London to Sydney-25 years ago yesterday-I remember the date ‘cos John Lennon was shot dead while we were on the flight) and blocked everyones view of the movie that had just started!
December 9th, 2005 at 10:32 am
exciting is getting 2 new dominators singlets for christmas
December 9th, 2005 at 10:35 am
oh and by the way welcome back me, I have some photos from a recent climbing adventure, me dominating kachoong at Mt Arapiles
December 9th, 2005 at 12:33 pm
Is Mt Arapiles anywhere near Bowral?
December 9th, 2005 at 12:37 pm
Go to http://www.chockstone.org/Arapiles/Arapiles.htm
December 9th, 2005 at 1:13 pm
no spineless it is near Phuket
December 9th, 2005 at 1:30 pm
How do you pronouce Phuket?
December 9th, 2005 at 1:34 pm
poo-ket
December 9th, 2005 at 1:35 pm
F*ck-it
or at least that’s how I pronounced a Phuket pizza once when I was drunk.
December 9th, 2005 at 1:36 pm
oer you beat me by one minute, timtim
December 9th, 2005 at 1:58 pm
that is correct. I have an interesting observation to make here, it appears that as we all get busier with the end of the year nigh the number of comments has increased significantly. Is there a statistical correlation here?
December 9th, 2005 at 3:14 pm
It’s the Friday Afternoon syndrome!
December 9th, 2005 at 4:19 pm
it sure is. ugh.
while we’re at it- who the hell are you, spineless?
December 9th, 2005 at 4:24 pm
oh, and by the way:
It’s got to be the funniest “Who’s Line Is It Anyway?” that I have ever seen….
http://www.collegehumor.com/movies/106174/
December 10th, 2005 at 5:47 pm
3 OTHER things to think about:
THREE weeks to Zoe’s Birthday!! (that’s Zoebunny)
Horray! hope you’ve all found some time in your busy schedules to think of exciting surprises, and ps - have we come to any conclusion on location, tallguy/locks/timtim?
Tom is now in the Daintree for the weekend (where I’m sure he’s working on his data analysis chapter at every chance). Maybe he’s shopping for birthday presents up there?