earmarked

As the director of the Human Genome Project, I have led a consortium of scientists to read out the 3.1 billion letters of the human genome, our own DNA instruction book. As a believer, I see DNA, the information molecule of all living things, as God's language, and the elegance and complexity of our own bodies and the rest of nature as a reflection of God's plan.

more..

I did not always embrace these perspectives. As a graduate student in physical chemistry in the 1970s, I was an atheist, finding no reason to postulate the existence of any truths outside of mathematics, physics and chemistry. But then I went to medical school, and encountered life and death issues at the bedsides of my patients. Challenged by one of those patients, who asked "What do you believe, doctor?", I began searching for answers.
I had to admit that the science I loved so much was powerless to answer questions such as "What is the meaning of life?" "Why am I here?" "Why does mathematics work, anyway?" "If the universe had a beginning, who created it?" "Why are the physical constants in the universe so finely tuned to allow the possibility of complex life forms?" "Why do humans have a moral sense?" "What happens after we die?"
I had always assumed that faith was based on purely emotional and irrational arguments, and was astounded to discover, initially in the writings of the Oxford scholar C.S. Lewis and subsequently from many other sources, that one could build a very strong case for the plausibility of the existence of God on purely rational grounds. My earlier atheist's assertion that "I know there is no God" emerged as the least defensible. As the British writer G.K. Chesterton famously remarked, "Atheism is the most daring of all dogmas, for it is the assertion of a universal negative."
But reason alone cannot prove the existence of God. Faith is reason plus revelation, and the revelation part requires one to think with the spirit as well as with the mind. You have to hear the music, not just read the notes on the page. Ultimately, a leap of faith is required.
For me, that leap came in my 27th year, after a search to learn more about God's character led me to the person of Jesus Christ. Here was a person with remarkably strong historical evidence of his life, who made astounding statements about loving your neighbor, and whose claims about being God's son seemed to demand a decision about whether he was deluded or the real thing. After resisting for nearly two years, I found it impossible to go on living in such a state of uncertainty, and I became a follower of Jesus.
So, some have asked, doesn't your brain explode? Can you both pursue an understanding of how life works using the tools of genetics and molecular biology, and worship a creator God? Aren't evolution and faith in God incompatible? Can a scientist believe in miracles like the resurrection?
Actually, I find no conflict here, and neither apparently do the 40 percent of working scientists who claim to be believers. Yes, evolution by descent from a common ancestor is clearly true. If there was any lingering doubt about the evidence from the fossil record, the study of DNA provides the strongest possible proof of our relatedness to all other living things.
But why couldn't this be God's plan for creation? True, this is incompatible with an ultra-literal interpretation of Genesis, but long before Darwin, there were many thoughtful interpreters like St. Augustine, who found it impossible to be exactly sure what the meaning of that amazing creation story was supposed to be. So attaching oneself to such literal interpretations in the face of compelling scientific evidence pointing to the ancient age of Earth and the relatedness of living things by evolution seems neither wise nor necessary for the believer.
I have found there is a wonderful harmony in the complementary truths of science and faith. The God of the Bible is also the God of the genome. God can be found in the cathedral or in the laboratory. By investigating God's majestic and awesome creation, science can actually be a means of worship.

more..

In order to attempt to formulate a theory on this topic, it becomes vital to define geek in the first place, not an easy task. So, we now ask the question, 'What is a Geek?'. There can be many kinds, Art Geeks, Music Geeks, Computer Geeks, Math Geeks, you name it.  Geeks are the people you want to talk to when you need to know something but perhaps don't always want to invite to your parties.  They are the people that collect information almost compulsively and nurture deep understandings of very obscure branches of knowledge.  Geeks are people that live by their wits and believe in meritocracies and recognition not privilege or nepotism. They value our knowledge and appreciate those who can appreciate that and more importantly, add to it.  They find great joy in learning a new thing, to extending our knowledge and sharing knowledge with another that can appreciate it.  We are diverse, we are everywhere, we are different.

1. 사람들이 종교적인 한 가지 이유는 사람은 사회적인 동물이기 때문인데, geek들은 별로 사회적이지 않다.  그럴 듯 하군요.
2. geek들은 우주의 작동원리에 관심이 있는데, 신을 통하여 이것을 설명하는 것은 우주의 우아함에 대한 지나치게 단순한 설명이라고 생각한다.  말을 이렇게 하니... 오캄의 면도날은 어떻게 되었을까요?
   
3. 논리를 선호하는 편견은 신앙에 대한 불신으로 이어진다.
4. 똑똑한 사람을은 다른 사람이 틀렸다는 것을 보이는 것을 좋아한다 (비판적 사고).
5. 다르게 생각하려는 성향
   

• Douglas Adams interview: 더글러스 아담스는 "은하계를 여행하는 히치하이커를 위한 가이드"로 유명한 사람입니다.  더글러스 아담스라는 이유만으로도 읽을 만한 것.  MP3 포함
• Ben Stein on retirement funding:
  
• Tough at the top: 상사가 부하를 싫어하는 10 가지 이유를 잘 정리해 놓았군요.

1. 지각 (lateness)
2. 혼자서는 아무 것도 못함 (lack of initiative)
3. 시키는 대로 안함 (too much initiative)
4. 불평불만 (bitching and whining)
5. 배신 (disloyalty)
6. 열심히 하지 않음 (lack of passion or interest)
7. 친구인 척 하기 (trying to be their best friend)
8. 거짓말 (petty lying)
9. 유치함 (childishness)
10. 자리를 뺏으려 함 (wanting their job)

Go on, admit it: you hate your boss. You do. The way they accost you with: "It'll just take five minutes" as you're trying to leave. The way they smile patronisingly when they read your appraisal request for more training. Just them having power over you for eight hours every day is enough to make you spit with fury.
But at least we're not alone in our angst. It seems bosses are also a bit cross: they hate us, too. All of us. Even when we bring them coffee. And, according to Sandi Mann, senior lecturer in occupational psychology at the University of Central Lancashire, they may have a point. "A generation ago, people worked their way up the ladder, hierarchy was based on age and experience, and it was more respected," she says.
 Go on, admit it: you hate your boss. You do. The way they accost you with: "It'll just take five minutes" as you're trying to leave. The way they smile patronisingly when they read your appraisal request for more training. Just them having power over you for eight hours every day is enough to make you spit with fury.
But at least we're not alone in our angst. It seems bosses are also a bit cross: they hate us, too. All of us. Even when we bring them coffee. And, according to Sandi Mann, senior lecturer in occupational psychology at the University of Central Lancashire, they may have a point. "A generation ago, people worked their way up the ladder, hierarchy was based on age and experience, and it was more respected," she says.
"Now, people may be brought in [as bosses] who are seen as the 'young whippersnappers' or 'from outside' so there is much more resentment than there used to be - which makes it much difficult to manage effectively."
And that's not all. In the days before open-plan offices and team-bonding days, managers were better protected from us oiks. "Managers used to be more remote, with their own staffrooms and canteens, and there used to be more middle management," Mann says.
"But now, they are expected to be the authority figure and 'one of the lads' as it were, and it's not always easy to get that balance right."