Monthly Archive for November, 2007

Bugs

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bcg
on 8 November 2007
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One of the most frustrating things when programming in any language, is bugs. Not bugs caused by your own coding (although they can be annoying) but bugs caused by the language itself not working properly.

For example, in trying to reference an overloaded array in PHP 5.2.x the following error was raised: 'Notice: Indirect modification of overloaded property'. I spent at least two hours trying to find out where I was going wrong, and then found this on the web.

The fact that the problem can be fixed only makes me feel slightly better, having wasted so much time!

Insanity

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bcg
on 7 November 2007
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I feel like this occasionally: 

Sometimes the appropriate response to reality is to go insane.

Philip K. Dick

jQuery UI

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bcg
on 6 November 2007
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My favourite javascript framework, jQuery, has recently released jQuery UI, a set of user interface javascript components. These can be used for displaying websites, having sliding menus, sortable tables, that kind of thing. All of it is written for you!

I've had a look at them, and the ones I'm most interested in are the sortable tables, 'accordion', and calendar. If you want to see a demo of how these work, click on 'See the Demos' on the jQuery UI home page. Don't be surprised if some of these make it onto my website at some point..!

However, the best UI component is the gallery - don't be surprised if you see that on the site very soon.

Madness and Method

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bcg
on 4 November 2007
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He may be mad, but there's method in his madness. There nearly always is method in madness. It's what drives men mad, being methodical.

GK Chesterton

Abortion Legislation

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bcg
on 4 November 2007
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In the 40 years since abortion has been legal in Britain, the number of terminations taking place each year has increased from 22,000 to almost 200,000.

Anti-abortion groups stage rally

Since 1967 the yearly rate of abortion has multiplied - from 22,000 in 1968 to 193,000 last year. More than a fifth of pregnancies end that way.

What next for Britain's abortion law?

On one side, pro-life campaigners are trying to get the government to reduce the upper abortion limit from twenty-four weeks. On the other, pro-choice campaigners are trying to reduce the number of doctors needed to approve an abortion from two to one.

I am against abortion. A life is a life is a life, and taking one is never right. But here I'm not going to argue the medical sides. They are well-worn and well-documented.

Instead, I'm going to argue about the very nature of the 'pro-choice' argument. It argues that 'a woman should have complete control over her fertility and pregnancy' ('Pro-choice' - Wikipedia). They say that women should have access to 'safe and legal' abortions, sometimes as a last resort, but not always. It is a question of rights, particularly the right-to-choose.

I agree that the 'right-to-choose' is an important human right. It should not be the case that innocent people should be detained against their will, or that children are denied the option to go to university.

But, and it is a big but, whenever we exercise our 'right-to-choose', we have to live with the consequences. I chose to marry my wife, and now I have to live with the consequences - I do not have the freedom to carry on acting as if I am a bachelor. In making choices, in opening doors, we inevitably close others.

When people exercise their freedom and have sex with someone, the result of which is pregnancy, they are constrained by their own freedom to have sex, and the biological consequences. Humans do not have the right to do whatever they like, and then ignore the consequences. The whole criminal justice system is based on this principle.

This is a simple solution - but the problem is complex. What about women who become pregnant after being raped? What about situations where the health of the mother is endangered by the baby? What about teenage pregnancies? What about 'underground' abortions - is it better to have legalised abortions, which are safe, or force underground abortions, which are not? Obviously the former, if abortions must happen.

So where does that leave us? The ideal solution does not work in such a messy situation. So, I would suggest the following things:

  • Abortion should not be seen as a 'right', but as a 'last resort', and only in specific cases of rape or perhaps danger to the mother's health. It should never be used as a method of birth-control, to correct a 'mistake'.
  • The upper limit for abortions should be significantly lowered.
  • Education in schools must be improved to lower the rates of teenage pregnancy. Obviously my preferred option would be to encourage teenagers to wait until they are married, but given that that will never happen, contraception should be freely available (which it is - so the use of it should be encouraged).
  • Education about what actually happens in an abortion, what the baby looks like and is capable of before it is aborted, the number of babies who have been legally aborted worldwide in forty years (well over 50 million) - should be much wider.

When pro-choice campaigners frame the argument in terms of 'rights', they miss the point entirely. The 'rights' are exercised, in most cases of abortion, a few weeks before. Instead, it is a case of dealing with the consequences of a sinful and broken world, in the best possible way, given the worst possible options.

Barth on Liturgy and the Apostolic Succession

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bcg
on 2 November 2007
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I'm currently reading a lot of Barth. Expect more quotations to come!

It is a strange thing that when there are revisions of books of order and hymn-books in the Evangelical churches every possible authority is usually consulted as standard but not dogmatic science. The results usually correspond.

Barth, Church Dogmatics I.1, 81

Perhaps we could add modern worship songs to the list; one of my constant frustrations in churches is the use of songs with poor - sometimes misleading - theology.

Here is a typically long sentence by Barth, but he makes (I think) an excellent point. I heard it made similarly a couple of days ago: the apostolic succession means those who succeed the previous generation in faith and doctrine, not physically by the laying-on of hands. This is similar to Paul's argument in Romans 4 about the descendents of Abraham being by faith, not flesh.

The protest of Protestantism in this question of [Apostolic] succession is directed solely and simply against the fact that the Tu es Petrus, etc., is mechanically transferred over Peter's head to every succeeding bishop as a second, third and hundredth Peter, as if the succession and tradition of the Peter of Mt. 16 to whom flesh and blood had not revealed such things, could be related to any succession but a spiritual one, or as if, being spiritual, it could be tied to the secular circumstance of a list of bishops of this kind.

Barth, Church Dogmatics I.1, 103

Although 'the Rock' is Peter himself, he is only called 'the Rock' after he makes a confession about who Jesus is. So, Peter is properly 'the Rock' on which the church will be built only as one who rightly confesses who Jesus is. Those who truly succeed Peter in the church are therefore those who rightly confess who Jesus is.

Of course, such people do include many (hopefully most!) bishops. But it is important to stress that those bishops only have ecclesiastical authority derived from Peter if they too make the confession: 'Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.'

Cancer Risk

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bcg
on 1 November 2007
in Culture and Sci & Tech
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In the news this week has been a story about cancer risk. A major reivew of scientific studies from the last five years has concluded that pretty much everyone should lose weight, not drink any alcohol or sugary drinks, and not eat bacon. The reason for all this is that they have discovered body fat to be a much larger factor that anyone previously thought.

On the TV news, a chef said he thought the study was ridiculous, and advocated 'everything in moderation'. Another expert clarified that the risks identified in this review were far less than the risk of cancer from smoking. The article above also points out that two-thirds of cancer is not linked to lifestyle, so having a strict health regime would only partially reduce the risk of cancer. Add to that the fact that red wine is supposed to reduce the risk of heart problems, and you have a confusing picture! Indeed, the report itself acknowledges the benefits of alcohol in moderation.

So what should we do? The review is obviously the result of some hard work, but their conclusion is perhaps a little bit obvious - whatever we stick into our bodies, there is the danger that we might get seriously ill. If we avoid sticking that stuff into our bodies, we might get seriously ill with something else.

My common sense response is this: a healthy diet with exercise. Alcohol is fine, as long as you don't get drunk every night. Sugar and salt are fine and necessary - just don't smother your food in them! And it's always better to make your own food that buy ready-cooked processed food. Drink lots of water, try not to have too much tea and coffee (the quantities of caffiene people must consume every day is frightening). Be sensible most of the time, and you can gorge yourself on occasion!