UnSpace

Having been approved by our church's Session, I am now the "Acting Director of Communications" for my church. Seeking to improve my skills, I began searching Amazon.com to see what books are out there to help me keep from re-inventing the wheel. I found the following comment on a review of one of the books:

There has been no Biblical proof yet offered which shows that Jesus was a marketing man, or that marketing is to be part of the growth of Jesus' Kingdom. See my critique in Testing the Claims of Church Growth. This is good marketing, but poor theology.

Our church believes that everything we do should be Biblically based. Our form of church governance is modeled on what little is recorded in the Bible of the early church polity. Our basic worship format is taken directly from Isaiah 6 (with things like hot coals being taken metaphorically, of course). Evangelism, small group Bible study, etc. are all to be based on Biblical models. Even our internal arguments about things like whether practicing homosexuals should be accepted into the ministry are based on the model given us by the early church as it debated whether Gentiles should be accepted into the church.

I flinch every time I use terms like "advertising" and "marketing" in my job. Jesus Christ is not a pack of cigarettes or a politician running for president. If you watch the worst of the television preachers, you'll see them using the same manipulative tricks the cigarette companies and Swift Boat committees — tricks designed to cause the person to act against their "will" and best interest.

In doing the bulletin or newsletter or signs around the church, I know I'm using basic marketing skills. I'm surprisingly good at it. I'd like to think I'm not being manipulative (if it is even possible to communicate without manipulation), but still I wonder.

Is this Rodney Zwonitzer (who is marketing his own book by leaving comments on books he hasn't read) correct? Is "marketing" the church wrong? Or are there examples of "marketing" in the Bible? If not, then what should we be doing?

What do you think?

I've only skimmed the PDF "The Axis of Opportunity: The Large-Scale Correlation of Elliptical Galaxies" by Michael J. Longo (arXiv preprint, found via Slashdot) but I'm already convinced this result is startling:

I have studied a sample of 200,000 elliptical galaxies with redshifts <0.20 from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) to investigate whether they tend to have their ellipticities aligned along a particular axis. The data show a 13 standard deviation signal for such an alignment. The axis is close to the spiral spin axis found previously and to that of the quadrupole and octopole moments in the WMAP microwave sky survey.

According to the standard cosmological model, there should not be any axial alignment. Summing up all the rotations ought to give zero. According to this paper, the axis of rotation is "13 standard deviation[s]." Thirteen standard deviations means there's no way this is an accidental result. This result also appears to match the cosmic ray background mapped by the WMAP sky survey, which showed a spin axis most astronomers were hoping was a chance artifact.

This result begs the question "What is the universe rotating relative to?" If this universe is all there is, then it cannot rotate as the WMAP appears to indicate.

There could be several answers:

• Bigger Than What We Can See: Somewhere beyond the event horizon of the observable universe, the universe has segments rotating in the opposite direction. It all averages out, but it's too far away for us to see it.
• The Antimatter Asymmetry Problem: If Charge Parity Time (CPT) is conserved, there ought to be as much anti-matter as matter. That the universe is predominantly matter and not antimatter means CPT is not conserved and "symmetry breaking" occurred. (Think of asymmetry breaking as putting a marble exactly at the top of a perfectly formed sphere. The marble will fall down the sphere, but in choosing a direction, symmetry was broken). One possible way to account for the asymmetry would be if the rotation of the galaxies is somehow because matter predominates. If the universe were anti-matter, the rotation would be in the opposite direction. Remember — if you were removed from our universe, flipped 180 degrees in the fourth dimension, and then replaced in our universe, you would then be made entirely of anti-matter — with the obvious and messy result antimatter would cause!
• Black Hole Theory: If every time you form a black hole, a new universe is formed, and if the black hole is rotating, then the matter inside would tend to rotate along a preferred axis. Note that there could be similar theories using this same trick: the Multiverse Theory, the Brane Theory, etc. The only requirement is that there is something outside our universe which our universe can rotate with respect to. And yes, one can argue that this is also the "Bigger Than We Can See" theory, as we all know we are inside a Schwartzchild boundary, beyond which light can never get to us nor come to us from outside.
• Weird-Shaped Universe: Some have argued that a different analysis of the WMAP data indicates the universe is shaped something like a cornucopia. The galaxies rotate weird because of where we are — near the moth or tail of the "horn of plenty." It still averages out, but the weird shape means we're not averaging correctly.
• Artificial Universe: This universe was created to have a particular rotation and the anomaly is either an artifact caused by creation or a "signature by the "builder" of the universe. Humans may be close to being able to construct a universe in the lab; the creator of the universe need not be anything we would call "God."

Along with the Billion Light Year Space Void (empty of all matter, even dark matter), it's clear that current astrophysical models are inadequate. Insert "seat belt and bumpy ride" remark here.

Mother Theresa said for years to her confessors and superiors that she no longer felt the presence of God. She was in agony and apparently they did nothing. Christopher Hitchens is equally obtuse, saying this proves she had lost faith in God.

Mother Theresa was obviously severely depressed. Duh, folks! While the depression was probably chemically based at some point, you have to admit that the things she saw and experienced would drive anyone to depression.

There's no indication the Roman Catholic Church got her any help. She was their poster girl for Roman Catholicism, and they didn't want to muck things up by helping her with antidepressants and therapy. Oh my! Someone might think she's not a saint if she gets help for depression! So they told her the symptoms were "proof" that she was loved by God and being specially tested.

Hitchens is just a wroter who engages in the very sort of shenanigans he accuses his opponents of using. I can't take him seriously.

Mother Theresa's superiors, on the other hand, had years and years to get it right and they couldn't. Their treatment of her (as their treatment of pedophile priests) shows a consistent and frightening propensity to do evil for the sake of appearing good.

I'm sorry for my Catholic friends like Funky from Ales Rarus. You deserve a better church than the ones your leaders are giving you.

Recently, my church offered me the position of Acting Director of Communications. It's "acting" because we are looking for a new head minister, and the new head minister should have the right to boot me to the curb should he need to. Furthermore, it's not exactly like they went through a hiring process — I just jumped in and volunteered for 3 months and they found out I was excellent at the job.

I told them flat out how depressed I was. I told them that emotionally, I did not feel God, and that the only reason I continued was because of what I have experienced and know logically. I hope none of you ever have to find out what it's like for an ENFP to run entirely on logic — it's not natural and it's not fun.

To help you understand, I also lost faith in Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity. I've done the experiments and have seen both theories proven by my own hand/eyes/really expensive equipment. I've done the photoelectric effect, calculated and measured the spectrum of hydrogen, and found peculiarities in the heat capacity of gases. I've heard the relativistic doppler shift of a radio signal from a satellite, measured the speed of light several different ways, and shown the gravitational redshift with the Mossbauer experiment where you shoot radiation upward and measure how much is reabsorbed at different heights. But I lost the feeling that both theories were right. I lost the intuitive sense that let me work with them on some bizarre unscientific (but really, really good) level. I had to run on logic and not intuition.

Anyway, I told the minister and the business manager everything up-front — and I've not exactly been quiet about the depression. Anyone who cares to know (and many who might not) knows. My depression is not a state secret.

They hired me anyway — and told me they supported me and would pray for and with me.

And, after being hired, and after working with what has to be one of the best office environments possible, I find my depression is gone. I can feel faith again — faith in God, faith in quantum mechanics, and faith in relativity.

And trust me — if you want to find stuff that is irrational, illogical, and just obviously wrong, there's no better place than Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity. As far as mysteries go, religion is a piker at it. If you think you understand either of those theories — you're not paying attention! That's why they're so cool, actually…

And yes, I wonder if it's really the medicine or if having a job with such a great bunch of people is why I'm feeling alive again. I'm doing something I'm incredibly good at, using many of my talents and abilities, I'm being forced to work on the nasty part of the learning curve (my intellectual home) and I'm finding skills I didn't realize I had.

They only hired me for 6 months, with an option to renew, and it all dependent on the status of the search for a new minister.

I'll deal with that problem when I get to it.

With the job, I've not been posting as often as before. Here are some quick takes on some recent science:

1 Billion Light-Year Void

Working with the Cosmic Microwave Background, astronomers have found a 1 billion light-year hunk of emptiness. Light, as it passes through this empty space, would change if there were matter, neutrinos, or even dark matter there. There's nothing there. Zip. Nada. Even worse, all the theories of how the universe evolves say there is no way you wind up with a 1 billion light-year hole in space. The only thing I can think of is that while the universe was smaller than an atom, "sound" waves (if you call waves in the quark-gluon-photon plasma "sound") set up some funky resonance at one spot, chasing away all the matter from that area. Such background anomalies have been predicted, but nothing that winds up as a billion light-year matterless expanse in the universe. Either that or there's some nasty side-effects to testing a faster-than light drive. Oops. If you've ever looked at the WMAP map and thought "What's that blue thing there," well, now you know.

Check out the cool picture that explains how they figured this out.

To give you an idea of scale, the universe appears about 14 billion light years in radius. Now (if you can really define "now") the universe is actually about 78 billion light-years in diameter. Remember what looks 14 billion light-years away was that far away 14 billion years ago, and it's moving at darn near the speed of light away from us — and all that time, space itself has been getting bigger. Add it all up and it works out to about 78 billion light-years.

And yes, we're looking at the giant void as it was about 6 to 10 billion years ago and, as the universe expanded, so did the void — so it's even bigger today. How much bigger is an exercise left to the reader.

Claim that (Claim of (Martian Life) is Bogus) is Bogus

Back in 1976, two Viking Landers landed on Mars with 4 experiments. At launch, if any experiment gave a positive result, scientists agreed that it would be unequivocal evidence that there was life on Mars. Depending upon who you listen to, 3 or 4 experiments gave positive results — and almost everyone said that it wasn't caused by life. Personally, I think it says more about the scientists lack of imagination than it does whether there was life on Mars or not. The experiments were designed to look for typical Earth life: they heated the soil, fed it nutrients, gave it lots of water, etc. Those are exactly the sorts of things that would pretty much kill life adapted to living on a cold, fairly arid planet with weird soil chemistry.

Well, looking at the Gas Exchange experiment, Houtkooper pointed out that the amount of carbon in the soil about matches that of Antarctica's bacteria. Martian life might use hydrogen peroxide as an antifreeze, and the experiments performed would give you the exact results seen if you subjected such hydrogen peroxide-based Martian life to the conditions of the experiments — as the life died.

Pace says, in response ""Hydrogen peroxide inside cells is deadly in terrestrial kinds of cells." Yeah, it is — well, if you ignore the Bombardier beetle. But I can't help but also marvel that Pace would expect to find terrestrial kinds of cells on Mars. Wouldn't one expect Martian cells on Mars — adapted for conditions on Mars?

Lunar Eclipse

By the time you read this, you probably missed it. Oops. If you do happen to be reading this Monday night to Tuesday morning, the Moon enters the umbra at 4:51 am and totality starts at 5:32 am.

Anyone have any recommendations for photo cataloging software? I've got well over 10,000 pictures on my computer. Finding stuff is getting to be difficult.

This is how people reporting fraud by U.S. companies in Iraq are treated:

Also held was colleague Nathan Ertel, who helped Vance gather evidence documenting the sales, according to a federal lawsuit both have filed in Chicago, alleging they were illegally imprisoned and subjected to physical and mental interrogation tactics “reserved for terrorists and so-called enemy combatants.”

How can this go on?

How can we allow it?

Why is the government supporting this abuse of the whistleblowers?

Why aren't the conservative blogs talking about this abuse and demanding it be stopped?

Why aren't the liberal blogs talking about this abuse and demanding it be stopped?

What if this isn't the end to the depression, but rather a respite?

I've had medications work and then fail. How do I know this one won't?

I don't, I guess. There might be some good reasons to suspect this is long-term.

• I've been on the drug four months. Previous antidepressants failed after a couple months — this one started working after a couple months.
• August is one of my worst months, with Advent and tax time being the other two. Not being depressed in August is impressive.
• Some family things have come up that should have made me crash. I'm concerned, but not depressed.

Declaring an end to the depression might have been premature. But this is different from how I've felt in decades. I guess I'm a little excited about it.

When did I stop being depressed?

I was at church yesterday, and it hit me: I'm not depressed. I haven't been for a while. Even stranger, this is toward the end of August, which has been a terrible time for decades. Wouldn't having a crippling, suffocating weight lifted from you stand out? I guess not. I'm pretty sure the antidepressant is responsible. Still, purchasing a backup radio-controlled helicopter might be a good idea. Just in case.

But I'm not depressed any more.

Oh wow. This is so cool.

I'm not depressed any more.

You're Les Miserables!

Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

I only saw one meteor all night. Big surprise, since I tried watching from my backyard. So, instead, I started screwing around with the camera.

For example, I couldn't focus on these flowers because there wasn't enough light for the autofocus. I decided to use my little blue LED light to give me a shot at focusing, and this is the photo I got:

If you notice, there are small bits of yellow that show through when the flower petals are shadowed from the blue light. So I tried another photograph, this time using the blue light for only part of the 30 second exposure:

Pretty cool. Apparently there's a UV component to the light — notice how the blue and yellow of the flowers separate.

Never did succeed in photographing a meteor, though.

Pleasant Hills has National Night Out a week early so we can get all sorts of emergency vehicles to show up for the National Night Out parade. Our street gets together to have fun together. My idea of fun this year was to take my camera and photograph the fun:

During dinner (great as always), I spotted the perfect opportunity to get a wonderful father and son photo. The child, however, was quicker than my camera:

There was a State Trooper helicopter flying low and rapidly overhead:

The helicopter did not crash, despite my expectations. Soon after the flyover, the polite motorcycle gang came rumbling up the street:

The cyclists gave out candy to the kids:

And no, the kids aren't stupid. They understand that ordinarily, one does not take candy from strange people who drive up on motorcycles.

Next came the public safety procession:

I played around, trying to get a photograph while panning. Here are the best shots I came up with:

We all had a great time.

No, I didn't find out anything more about why Chief Floyd Nevling was fired last night by the council.