Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in arbiterkc's LiveJournal:

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Monday, June 22nd, 2009
11:15 pm	Farewell Livejournal Well, I suppose it sufficed for a blog-ish electronic record of my goings-on, but I really don't see the use for it anymore. Hence this is likely my last post. If interested, you can head over to my real blog. Otherwise, Ciao! (Comment on this)
Thursday, March 26th, 2009
10:08 pm	Noah's Ark OK, so I was reminded today of a discussion I had with a "friend" of mine in high school about Noah's Ark. He was fervently religious, and as a true believer he held that the Holy Bible was the literal word of God, so that everything mentioned within is absolute fact. The problem, then, is that God must not be very good at math, or physics, or biology, or really any science, because the story of Noah's Ark, as written in the Bible, simply cannot be true. At the time, I had attempted to make many rational arguments to that effect, but my "friend" would not be swayed, and I was not about to make up numbers and statistics supporting my argument without some research. Having done this research, I now feel that I can put the debate to rest. It says in Genesis 6:14-15: "Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits." OK...a biblical cubit was 21.8 inches, or 55.4 cm. Hence, this ark was 166.12 meters long, 27.69 wide, and 16.61 high. Roughly 76,500 cubic meters. A cubic meter of salt water is 1.027 metric tons, so that the maximum displacement of the Ark is roughly 78,500 metric tons. The largest wooden ship ever built (since the Ark...shall we say...) was the Wyoming, a six-masted schooner 140 meters long, 15.3 meters wide, and 10 meters deep in the hold. She foundered in 1924, likely due to the fact that she was too big to be made of wood. Let me elaborate: large wooden ships tend to twist and buckle at sea because they are approaching the size between successive waves. Either the bow and stern are supported by waves, leaving the middle to sag, or the middle is riding a wave, leaving the bow and stern unsupported. These are called "hogging" and "straddling" respectively, and it has been well known since the Roman times that ships cannot be built of wood beyond some 220 feet. Even with steel frames, wooden ships larger than 250 feet tend to hog and straddle. Also, to pitch it with a coating 5 mm thick would take 160 cubic meters of pitch, corresponding to about 1700 average sized pine trees, just for the pitch... So, how is it that a shepard, with no shipwright ability, is able to make a vessel that defies the laws governing its very material, and not have it crack in half at the first ripple of the Great Flood (which, I'm sure we can imagine, was not just a 30 second rain cloud)? I would sure like to see someone do that today...a 500 foot ship of wood...that breaks upon launch. Must have been a miracle...maybe gopher wood was Bible-speak for reinforced steel. Also, Genesis 6:16: "A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it." So...ONE window, I guess, about a quarter of a square meter in size, and three levels. Besides the obvious ventilation problem of having a single window the size of a stop sign for the whole Ark, the ship is too small to do its job (even if it's too big to exist). 3 floors of the above dimensions corresponds to roughly 14,000 square meters (71 tennis courts, or 2 football fields) of floor space. This is roughly 3.5 acres, and yet we are to include two of every species, plus their food, plus whatever room for the crew (and note, the crew consists of Noah, his wife, their 3 sons, and 3 daughters-in-law...8!). Well, Noah was at sea for slightly over a year (370 days). It has been calculated by some (*cough* creationists *cough*), that the Ark carried 5.5 thousand metric tons of animals. This is obviously way too low, but let's use it for now. Let's say that, on average, each animal eats one thirtieth of its weight each day. This corresponds to 67,000 metric tons of food for a year. But didn't we say above that the Ark could only support 78,500 metric tons of displacement before it becomes a submarine? And that included the mass of the boat itself, not to mention the animals (look up Archimedes' Principle). So, we need an extra Ark just to carry the food! And by the way, after the flood Noah sacrifices some of each "clean" animal to God, which is why God actually commands Noah to bring SEVEN of each clean animal aboard. How to fit five additional samples of each animal fit for sacrifice? Must have been another miracle. Speaking of animals, there are roughly 1.8 million named animals and likely 8 to 80 million more that are not named, and this does not include plants or unicellular organisms (most plants cannot live in seawater, let's remember). How is it, then, that Noah was able to collect the species native to the New World, Polynesia, Australia, and other parts of the world completely unknown to him? How did he get them back to the Ark? Did his motley crew of 7 others help him sort by gender the more than 500,000 species of beetles? How did all of these creatures get aboard the Ark without killing each other or the 8 brave crewmen? And heck, if there are some 2 million+ species of organisms that boarded the Ark on "the selfsame day", wouldn't you need to get 23 species on board per second? And what about parasitic species? I wonder who drew the short straw and got stuck with tapeworms, ticks, Ebola, fleas, lice, etc. More miracles, perhaps... Also, what of the freshwater species? There is enough salt in the ocean right now to crust over all of the dry land on Earth 500 feet thick. The Bible says that enough water fell from the sky to cover the mountains with 15 cubits to spare. Even if we accept the creationist argument that there has been a great deal of post-Flood mountain building, how high were these mountains? Let's say they were about 250 feet tall (hardly mountains), since any more water than that and coral reefs would die (let's assume Noah didn't grow coral on the Ark). Even if the "mountains" of Noah's time were 250 feet high (from sea level), to cover them and the rest of the world would take (surface area of Earth)x250 ft = 4x10^18 cubic meters, or 4 billion cubic kilometers. Given that this fell for 40 days and nights, that's 4 million cubic meters (4 billion kilograms ) per HOUR. The Ark would be completely destroyed. And all that salt would flood the lakes, rivers, estuaries, etc., killing billions of fish and other freshwater organisms. Maybe Noah had some large aquaria on board. Or another miracle? In fact, let's just look at this rain...a gram of steam condenses to liquid with the release of 2261 Joules (latent heat of vaporization). If we release this energy condensing rain out of the clouds, this corresponds to roughly 10^24 Joules per day (250 million megatons of TNT per day). Spread over the face of the Earth evenly, this is 26 kilowatts per square meter, 20 times the brightness of the Sun. So...the atmosphere would turn to plasma. I don't think wood can withstand incident power comparable to the surface of Mercury. Maybe gopher wood can... And what about all that food? The 67,000 metric tons? What goes in must come out...With 2 million+ species to attend to, EACH crew member would have take care of 250,000 per day (say). With 86,400 seconds in the day, a crewman would have a third of a second per species to feed, remove waste, etc. if they never slept or ate. Moving at that speed, they would probably bleed Cherenkov radiation, or at least sonic booms, shattering their bones and the already tenable wooden frame of the Ark, sending the whole logistical nightmare to a briny grave. At any rate, let's suffice it to say that anyone who actually BELIEVES the story of the Ark is a moron. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, January 1st, 2009
11:11 am	2009 Out with the old, In with the new; Our past ways of vice We've resolved to eschew. There is change in the air, For it's now a new year. So in with the hope, And out with the fear! (Comment on this)
Thursday, October 30th, 2008
2:40 pm	Life Since Summer Well, it sure has been some time since my last post. I suppose most of the time I write in any journal, electronic or otherwise, I'm usually complaining about something...banishing some source of frustration from my mind and imprisoning it in the clicking keys or the minute scrawl of my pen. Of late, however, I really don't have much to complain about. Aside from some monetary woes (soon to be erased, and which we all have at the moment anyway), there is little source of malcontent in the current state of my personal life, though for the nation as a whole we know otherwise. Here I am in La Jolla with the temperature never fluctuating far from 75 Fahrenheit, getting paid to learn and teach a subject that I love, living in a condo with my girlfriend of over 2 years and my cat, free to cook and experiment and read at my leisure. Rachael and I have amassed a large insect collection, still growing all the time (over 9% of all Nearctic families...w00t!). I've discovered I have something of a green thumb, and am growing onions, carrots, thyme, two varieties of basil, sage, rosemary, oregano, tomatoes, mint, parsley, dill, chives, cilantro, and even a pineapple plant (2 years until I get a sweet, delicious fruit)...all on my balcony and Aerogarden. I plan to add spaghetti squash, honeydew, and blackberries soon. I've also tried a hand at cultivating mushrooms, though they are proving finicky, and my experiments thus far have failed. Perhaps more sterility in the culturing, or a different substrate might be the answer. These biological studies have kept my love for all of the sciences alive, rounding out the math and physics-based curriculum of grad school. Sometimes I feel so close to some enormous epiphany, as though the sciences melt together in my mind, and I can envision the subtle and beautiful interplay between the mathematical structure of the universe, the natural laws governing matter and energy, the jittering chemicals and their myriad of structures and reactions, and the complex systems of biology and ecology that result. But there is always more to learn, more to connect. *sigh*...will I ever know everything? School itself has been enjoyable. My classes are rather easy so far, mostly reviewing mechanics and quantum with just enough new insights to be satisfying and provide a bit of challenge. My math class is a whirlwind tour of mathematical physics, from complex function theory to differential equations, most of which I have not seen before, even as a Berkeley math major. It is very exciting, and I know that whatever I end up doing, it simply must have a healthy amount of analytic mathematics involved. School life outside of classes has been less productive. While I have become acquainted with my classmates and can count a fair many as friends, I have not connected with any as I did with Phil and Peter in the first few weeks at Cal. Perhaps it's a retention of those friendships and the others I forged at Berkeley that makes me feel like I don't really need additional friends; perhaps it's my generally shy and independent nature. I have not really felt much of a loss over it. I have Rachael to fulfill my social needs, and we are quite happy together, as ever. But I can see the lack of close friends here becoming a problem in the future, so I suppose I'll have to engage them sooner or later. There are several that have potential...just nobody that has really "clicked". At any rate, like I said, I have little to whine about. Phil came down for Oktoberfest, which was fun, and my family has visited a couple times. My funds are low at the moment, as they don't start paying us until Nov. 1st (and even then I'll only get half pay), but by January I'll be back in the black. I guess I just still feel a bit foreign down here. Not in the condo so much (after all, I spent so much time here while visiting Rachael over the years), but rather as a student at UCSD. I'm sure that it is a temporary frame of mind, and that time will effect familiarity. For now, I can be glad to say that I am happy, and feel a great peace about me. Calm and content. Like everything is going according to plan. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, June 17th, 2008
10:40 pm	Heh...24 weeks ago, I posted an entry. I think it's time to update. Just a bit. Living for three weeks with the parents has reaffirmed my realization that one and one half weeks is just long enough before I am no longer seen as an honored guest, a happily welcomed dispeller of the monotony that seems to drown the house's inhabitants in constant dreariness (middle/high school can be that way, so I know it's not their fault). After 1.5 weeks, I again become a member of the family, with the same dammed set of rules, chores, and responsibilities I had as an 8th grader. Hence, my relocation to San Diego is greatly anticipated, and come this Saturday, I will be off. The digs will be sweet. I'll be living with Rachael, so that's a plus, and we'll be splitting a two-bedroom condo in La Jolla. The second bedroom can be a study, with bookcases and computer desks. Ahhh....a study of my own. Sweeeeet. I'm also getting a 42" LCD 1080p TV, so that I can take full advantage of HD when I can get a Blue-Ray player or PS3 or whatever. And the gears are grinding on getting a Russian Blue kitten in the coming months (truly beautiful cats). I'm rather happy with my life right now. The wait is killing me, though. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, December 28th, 2007
1:45 am	Internet service is spotty here, at best, so I'll be brief. I've had a good time this winter so far, and am now in Virginia. Things here are nice, though there is no snow. The trip over was something of a nightmare, since our brilliant pilots decided to fly directly through the tropospheric layer of a storm front, nearly knocking the steward off his feet. And the connection trip wasn't much better...I am reminded how obesity is a real problem in the South when my brother and I, upon boarding our propeller plane connecting to Roanoke, come to our aisle to discover that an incredibly obese man is taking up our seats (plural). I ask if he has the correct spot, and he informed me that he actually had the spot on the other side of the plane, which was being taken up by another obese man, and clearly these two men could not physically occupy adjacent seats. So, my brother and I were confined to the half-seats next to each overweight man, fat spilling over the handrest (at least for my brother, since I could not even lower mine) and oozing onto our entire lateral body surfaces. Luckily, the exit rows had open seats, and we were able to change once we were sure they were unoccupied... At any rate, I hope everyone has had a good Xmas, and will have a Happy New Year! (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, August 17th, 2007
9:06 am	Boston, Part 2 So, I visited MIT to get some information on their energy research initiative (for myself) and quantum computing programs (for Peter). The campus is nice, but they didn't really have any additional information for me besides what is online. It was recommended that I visit the department itself for more detailed info. I headed out for the physics office, got my visitor's pass to go to the fourth floor, and went on in. Only, there was nobody there. Not a single person, not a stick of furniture. Every room was completely empty. The floor was deserted. A single piece of paper said that they had moved to 4-308, but there was no room 308, and no building 4, and the guard said that she thought they were supposed to be up there. Very weird...where did the MIT physics department go? Anywho, now it's time for the art museum! (Comment on this)
Tuesday, August 14th, 2007
8:26 am	Boston So Far ( Read more... ) (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, June 29th, 2007
9:51 pm	Rant So, I've been here 4 weeks, and the family/parentals have finally started to seriously get on my nerves. Mostly Sue, of course, as my "contribution" to the family's well-being in the form of chores and favors and driving etc. seems to be without end or pause. And to be honest, now that I'm going to have a loan for nearly $10k, why do I even need to work? Oh, of course I'd rather not have to use it all and have less debt in the long run, but why slave away to the agony of working as an extra in miserable LA all summer while sharing a tiny corner of my brother's room (who wakes at five most days of the week for water polo)...AND paying for my OWN place up north, where I might have a job that relates to my eventual field! At any rate, my rantings don't really amount to much, I know, but still...I think this may be my last summer coming back to this house. It's not that I don't love my family, naturally, but rather that I've grown too independent to be shackled into the rigorous routines of the house. And now that Dad has left for Connecticut until October (meaning I won't see him again at least until Thanksgiving), I feel like asking "What's the point?" At the end of next school year, I'll use some of my leftover loan money to start paying for Dad's Mercedes, move to an apartment near my grad school, and begin working in my field. It's just the restriction of it all that bugs me....gah! (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, June 8th, 2007
9:18 pm	I think I might have to initiate the cleansing sooner than I had originally planned. When things like this come to my attention, my blood boils, my hatred grows, and ever closer advances the standards of theocide in my mind's eye. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, June 3rd, 2007
10:18 am	Back in SoCal So, after arriving near midnight on Friday, I chatted with family until we all went to bed. I'm sharing Chase's room, but it's not a big deal, since I have so few possessions with me that my effect on living arrangements here is inconsequential. Yesterday we had a belated birthday celebration with cake and presents, which I suppose is the chief purpose of this post: I got an XBOX 360 (not the crappy core version) and Guitar Hero II for it! Needless to say, I was/am quite ecstatic about it, since I was thinking I'd have to save some $500 over the summer to purchase it for next semester. It turned out the Guitar Hero disc was unreadabley scratched, though, so we have to exchange it today. Nonetheless, I am sure that I'll be able to achieve my goal of being able to play any expert song well over the summer (I've already gotten halfway through the expert career track, with few failed songs). Life here as been good, most likely because I haven't had to start working yet. Had a nice 21 year old bottle of wine with the folks, played with the siblings...good times. Monday I will have to sign up with Central Casting et al, and I'm not looking forward to it. With any luck, though, there won't be work available right away, and I might have jury duty next week to keep me busy, and the following week is a whirlwind tour of Devin's graduation, Mom's visit, Dad's 50th birthday, and Rachael-time. This month will certainly be interesting... (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, May 27th, 2007
1:15 pm	My Review of Pirates 3 (with spoilers) ( Read it. ) (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, May 11th, 2007
12:09 pm	OK, Phil is a Web God: http://www.patriotradio.org/ib198/ Good job, man! Anyone that has comments/suggestions can tell me or him (no content up yet, just style). I think I did so-so on my thermal final...I know I got a couple wrong. Now to study for paleo, then see Rachael in Moraga afterwards, then rest/study for biochem on Mother's Day, then biochem, then it's just work until GRE/last school year San Diego visit/home. This has been a great year (my favorite so far, I think): living in the Mansion with such fine people, taking fun classes (paleo, German, biochem), and seeing a great girl in sunny SD. Math 185 and Phys 111 were retarded, as is having to work at the Microlab, and dealing with Beverly, but they are small prices to pay. Lots of memories: Melanie's BDay party, Alyssa's strip club adventure, Halo/LAN party/board+card gaming, Christmas presents, St. Patty's Day deliciousness, lots of Mansion cooking and talking, Opera, geocaching, dim sum, Costco/Safeway/Andronico runs...good times had by all, with little to no drama. Just the way I like it :) (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, May 8th, 2007
1:06 pm	Here Comes the Sun =( Ahh...another great weekend in San Diego...saw Spiderman 3 (it was OK, just a bit preachy at times, Wicked (very well done), ate at the Melting Pot in Pasadena (all fondue=delicious), introduced Rachael to Guitar Hero (man was I rusty), saw a couple meteors while chilling with her in the jacuzzi, and went to the LA County Natural History Museum (the dino hall was closed though..boo). All in all, very good times, though it left me quite exhasuted. I'll be seeing her again Saturday after my paleo final. And speaking of end-of-the-year stuff, I only have a paleo quiz, 3 finals, and the GRE left! Then it's off to Hell on Earth again...the decaying concrete desert of LA/Hollywood to be an extra. The traffic, the heat (San Diego is great: ~75 F. It's just that LA is ~95 F), the smog, the people...just going to the Pantages reminded me of how awful the city is. But until then, just some Microlab work and gaming (now that Phil has Liz back), with some South Park/Simpsons/DoD/AoM/Starcraft/etc. Gotta do well on these finals though! (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, April 12th, 2007
11:02 am	Nothing Can Possibly Stop Me From Seeing This... Check it out. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, April 11th, 2007
9:50 am	Back in Berkeley after another excellent weekend in San Diego: We had live lobster...buttery meaty goodness! Watched many movies, including the Planet Earth series. Had other good foods, and just generally hung out enjoying ourselves. I return in 2 weeks (more like a week from tomorrow). And now I have to study up for the GRE with the stupidest review book ever printed. At least things are going well in my classes, and it looks like our DeCal will finally be offered! (Comment on this)
Sunday, April 1st, 2007
10:48 am	Wow! I can't wait to try out Google TiSP! Check it out here! (Comment on this)
Thursday, March 29th, 2007
2:24 pm	On the Quantization of Space-Time So, Phil, in answer to your post, I think that we have to look at a time-evolution lattice: Consider the first point of the universe, just before the Big Bang. Call this point A. One planck second after the Big Bang (1E-43 sec), the universe has expanded by one planck length (PL), in all directions, so that the universe now consists of point A and the sphere of radius 1 PL, but nothing in between. In the second planck second, each point of the planck sphere expands by 1 PL in all directions, so that now the universe is the union of a planck sphere (PS) centered at A and the locus of all PS's centered at points on the first PS. Continue this process over the course of the number of planck seconds the universe has been in existence, and you have the set of points describing the universe. While the number of such iterations is countable (finite, in fact), the number of available points on any sphere is uncountable, so that space is quantized only in a secondary manner. There are still an uncountable number of unavailable points between all these spheres, but this is like removing the real line from the complex plane: the remaining space is still uncountable. The timeline, it seems, is the easiest to envision as quantized. You might ask how the first PS could be constructed, since there are distances on the surface that are within a planck length of each other. The fact is, within a planck second, the construction of the universe need not be quantized, only the accessible sites to quanta of energy and matter. As matter and energy diffuse across the set of points accessible to the universe, they will all stick to one PS at a time in such a way that they are at least one planck length from any other. True, there are a finite number of such PS's available, but so much larger than the finite available amount of energy and matter that we need not worry. Only in the first few seconds of the universe did such a conflict occur, and that is why early forms of energy-matter were so dense energetically: not enough available space to obey Heisenberg and the Pauli Exclusion Principle. *shrug* (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, March 27th, 2007
10:38 pm	Monterey So, I had a great weekend with Rachael and her family in Monterey. It's amazing how much we did: Aquarium, Point Lobos, Carmel, yummy foods, the Slough, Santa Cruz, Marine Science Center, Mystery Spot...great stuff. Her family is nice and seems to tolerate my presence, so I enjoy myself. Looking forward to our Ostera celebration weekend after next. Also, here is a tentative schedule for the upcoming semester: Physics 105: Analytic Mechanics Math 140: Differential Geometry Nuclear Engineering 180: Fusion Reactors Physics 221A: Quantum Mechanics (my first grad course!) Should be awesome. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, March 13th, 2007
12:28 pm	Another fun weekend in San Diego, and another bout of frustration having to come back to Berkeley. Oh well. It seems like it's time to start looking a bit further into the future: GRE stuff, grad schools, and courses for next semester; what to do about jobs/research; renewing the housing lease; summer plans; etc. Blah. At least SCHOOL is starting to let up a bit: 111 is essentially over, and once my 112 midterm and paleo paper are done, it's really just finals left. For the first part of Spring Break, I'll get to go to Monterrey with Rachael and her parents again. That'll be very relaxing. Then the following weekend I'm back in San Diego for Easter (Ostern in German, Ostera for the Pagan celebration/goddess), and we have a nice time planned, including lobster (I'll be wealthy!). It should be awesome. Just have to make it till then! (Comment on this)