A bizarre thought experiment

A truly bizarre question just entered my mind…

First off, what follows probably won’t make much sense at all unless you’re familiar with Seventh-day Adventist eschatology and such.

Anyway, my question is based on the following presuppositions:

• That there are other inhabited planets in the universe,
• That after the Second Advent the saved can visit said planets,
• That such travel occurs at the speed of thought,
• That the speed of light in a vacuum is a constant,
• That currently known physical properties of the universe do not change following the Second Advent.

Let’s suppose I am able to instantly go to a planet that is 200 million light years away from planet Earth. If I could see Earth from that planet, what will I see? Will sight itself be able to transcend space-time and thus I’ll see everything in NOW time? Will I have a choice to view things based on more restricted physical properties? If I choose the latter, what will I see back on Earth? The Earth as it was 200 million years ago?

Okay, so maybe it’s time to stop thinking and go to bed.

Adventist affiliation in the news in a bad way

In today's Anchorage Daily News (http://www.and.com/) the front page, above the fold, headliner is about a splinter group from Florida that took out a 2-page ad spread in an Alaskan paper. You can read about it at the ADN site and look for "Religious ad fires up debate in Talkeetna."
Sent wirelessly via BlackBerry from T-Mobile.

Credit card fraud

It looks like someone, somewhere in our travels swiped the card information because a couple of unrecognized charges appeared on our account. The first one appeared about a week ago, but because pending charges often show names that are different from the final merchant names, I thought maybe it was something that I forgot about. But when I saw another charge this morning from an online site that I know I didn't make, it was time to call the card customer service. They were nice and quick about terminating the account number and reversing the charges, though Elise is now without a credit card.

I don't know how and where someone got our account. It could have been sometime when we handed our card to a wait staff at a restaurant. Or someone has really good visual memory.

Whatever the case, the incident reinforces the necessity of checking financial accounts frequently -- if not daily, then every few days -- to make sure nothing is amiss. It also shows the value of credit cards vs. debit because with credit cards, the account holder isn't responsible for any of the charges and isn't out the money.

This was not intentional

We were advertising our smoking-cessation program. Last Sabbath, we were housing a volleyball player from Wrangell and she noticed the odd placement and the unintended result/message. She had first thought perhaps that someone hostile to the church had tacked on the sign.

It's probably a good thing that we don't get everything we pray for answered in the way we desire. Because if that was the case, the above picture would become quite apropos.

Are you like Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore, Owl, or someone else?

While doing my daily blog browsing, I came across a blog that referred to a site with a intriguing personality test: The Deep and Meaningful Winnie-The-Pooh Character Test. To get your results, you will have to register at the site. (It's a matchmaking type site, so you must be over 18.)

Here's my result:

"Correct me if I am wrong," he said, "but am I right in supposing that it is a very Blusterous day outside?"

"Very," said Piglet, who was quietly thawing his ears, and wishing that he was safely back in his own house.

"I thought so," said O-wl. "It was on just such a blusterous day as this that my Uncle Robert, a portrait of whom you see upon the wall on your right, Piglet, while returning in the late forenoon from a-- What's that?" You scored as Owl!

ABOUT OWL: Owl is considered highly educated because he can spell his own name (WOL) and he can even spell Tuesday... although he doesn't always get it right. Owl is a good sort, really, although he can be a bit of a stuffed shirt, and he tends to overlook the smaller details in life - like the fact that his bellpull is actually someone's tail.

WHAT THIS SAYS ABOUT YOU: You are confident and you feel capable of dealing with whatever life throws at you. You know that you can handle just about everything... mostly because you know how to delegate the job of actually handling things to the people around you. You aren't one of those Bisy Backsons, who rush around trying to do everything at once. You prefer to stay at home and reflect on life, rather than go out and live it.

Sometimes, you know, you need to stop waiting for things to come to you and go out and get them. You need to go enjoy the weather, smell the fresh air, and pay attention to the little people in your life. They may not be as great as you... but maybe they could use your help.

Leaping to conclusions?

I came across a news item on MSNBC.com, Genetic mutation makes those brown eyes blue. It is basically how researchers have figured that all blue eyes originate from a single ancestor. This was due to a genetic mutation that occurred some 6,000 to 10,000 years ago.

The final two paragraphs in the MSNBC.com article read as follows:

That genetic switch somehow spread throughout Europe and now other parts of the world.

"The question really is, 'Why did we go from having nobody on Earth with blue eyes 10,000 years ago to having 20 or 40 percent of Europeans having blue eyes now?" Hawks said. "This gene does something good for people. It makes them have more kids." [Emphasis mine.]

If a person begins with the assumption that humans have been around for much longer than 10,000 years populating all parts of the earth in great numbers, and a priori rule out a Great Flood that could have constricted the gene pool and reduced the population down to a very small number, then how else can one explain how this single mutation in a single individual spread so quickly and so widely?

Now, since I am only basing my observations on what I read in the news item, I may have missed the fact that validates the theory, "It makes them have more kids." I suspect though, inferring from the way the statement is worded, that this was a off-the-cuff leap to a conclusion, putting forth a theory to fit both the assumed and the observed facts. Has there been any scientific study that tests the theory that blue-eyed individuals have more kids? If so, I'd have expected the news item to at least mention it.

Maybe the statement was made tongue-in-cheek, a joke. But the way it's reported, it's hard to tell. In any case, to my ears it is just a bizarre statement, and I had to share and comment on it.

A bit of family history

In the Fall 2007 issue (not yet online) of Pacific Union College's Alumni journal, ViewPoint, the text of the commencement address delivered in June 2007 by Dr. Julius Nam, assistant professor of religion at Loma Linda University School of Religion, is published. (The audio of the address is available HERE.)

In the address, he recounts the story of Teruhiko Okohira who came to the United States from Japan, and ended up at Healdsburg College (which later became Pacific Union College). From there Okohira-san, with William Grainger, returned to Japan as missionaries.

Towards the end of the address, Dr. Nam recounts the following:

Third, this story shows how we all are historically, existentially, and organically connected to each other. Let me tell you the rest of the Okohira-Grainger story. Through their work in Tokyo, a young soldier named Hide Kuniya became an Adventist and joined the work of the church. In May of 1904, two Koreans in Japan -- waiting for their ship to Hawaii in a few days' time -- met Kuniya and became Adventists. One went on to Hawaii, but the other returned to Korea. On the ferry back to Korea, the man, Mr. Sohn, met an educated gentleman named Mr. Lim, who became an Adventist by the end of the voyage. Lim established the first Adventist church in Korea and his ministry resulted in a Mr. Kim becoming an Adventist. Kim shared Adventism with another Kim, who introduced Adventism to a Mr. Bon, who became an evangelist and went around Korea preaching the Sabbath and second coming of Jesus -- including to a Mrs. Lee, who passed on Adventism to her three children -- the eldest among them, my mom. So here I stand today because of the uncommon passion and service of Okohira and Grainger.

Hide Kuniya happens to be my great-great-grandfather's brother (am I off by a generation?), one of the first Seventh-day Adventists and an Adventist pastor in Japan.

I just found it interesting to find a bit of family history in a place I wouldn't have expected. So maybe it is a small world, after all.

Alaska Air annual airfare sale

If you have any plans to travel to Petersburg by air over the next 12 months, now through November 20 is the time to purchase tickets. This is the Alaska Air's annual PFD (Permanent Fund Dividend) sale. Travel from Portland to Petersburg (one-way) is about $175 (all most fees) compared to the normal fare of around $260.

Added 9-Oct: After pricing and purchasing some tickets for next spring, I discovered that the fuel surcharges, security fees, etc. add another $30 or so each way to Portland.

Not gloating or anything but...

I hear rumors that many of our family and friends are possibly experiencing very hot, triple-digit (or close to it) temperatures. 

We may be getting wet (from the rain) in Petersburg, but at least we're feeling quite comfortable in our 50-60F days (which, by the way, is plenty warm enough to go about in T-shirt and shorts).

I vaguely recall something called an "air-conditioner" (which couldn't keep up anyway once the temps hit triple-digits)... Maybe it was in some kind of dream or vision... perhaps of another world...

Trying a New WYSIWYG Blog Editor

I'm just trying a new blog editor to see how well it works (or not) with Blogger.

These are a few photos already posted earlier.

Alpine Azalea	Summer Muskeg

 

It seems to work well enough...

Groceries are getting really expensive...

This is one of the specials this week...

Cruise ship runs aground

The paddlewheeler cruise ship, Empress of the North, whose photo I posted a few days back, has run aground according to the story on the Anchorage Daily News site.

This story has also made the front page of the MSN site via MSNBC.

Wishing all mothers a happy Mother's Day

A happy Mother's Day to our mothers in Alaska, Oregon and Japan; and to all other mothers that happen to drop in and read this.

It's Sunday so Elise is once again at work today. We'll see what, if anything, we do this evening.

My Linguistic Profile

An interesting little self-test to see what you speak. Here's my result:

Your Linguistic Profile:

65% General American English

15% Upper Midwestern

10% Yankee

5% Dixie

0% Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

Upgrade to latest Blogger complete

You might notice that the appearance of this page looks a little different. I started the upgrade to the latest version of Blogger yesterday, and completed the template upgrade just now.

The main difference is in the easier ways to access past postings. The contents of the left column can expand to show all the postings chronologically, or you can filter by category labels to see just a subset of postings.

Enjoy!