Proflight Simulator Scam

I am trying out flight simulator programs.
The first thing to watch is proflightsimulator is a SCAM.
If you search for flight simulators on google, you get page after page of hits pointing to proflight simulator.  It seems that they are all somehow related to product.  even though they have all sorts of domain names and wot not. It is apparantly just http://www.flightgear.org which is free (Open Source) being peddled by some mony hungry grub.

So what flight simulation programs are there.

http://www.flightgear.org
Free download.


Microsoft Flight Simulator FSX
$28 at EB games.  Amazing value for money.
Plus - Great value for money.  Good tutorial on how to fly.
Minus - Throttle is automatic via a governer associated with the collective.
No Cyclic trim

X-Plane 10
$79 order on the internet.  Arrived a few weeks later.
Plus -
Minus - Throttle is automatic via a governer associated with the collective.

The R22 is very twitchy.
No Cyclic trim

Object Lesson Baptism Holy Spirit and Our Response

Here is a nice object lesson that illustrates the idea of Gods Holy Spirit and it's effect on our lives.
Bible reference: Mark1:9-15 - Jesus is Baptised by John.
We did this at Flashpoint http://thomsoneu.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/first-flashpoint-of-2012.html

The preparation information is at the end.
If you use this idea, or even if you just like it, how about leaving a comment.

"This white cloth is clean.  Imagine it represents us.  Clean and ready to do things.  We want to go into the worls and help out.  But the world can be  a bit of a grotty place at times.

Point to bottle of world and ask what colour does this remind you of.  I thought 'wee' but it appears our kids are just too nice and suggested 'apple juice'

We go into the world wanting to make it a better place

But sometimes things just don't go so well and everything gets a bit well messed up.  It can become a drag.  No matter how hard we try, we do not seem to be able to fix the world and at the same time, we get dragged down.

Made dirty.

Ask: "When we get dirty, what do we do?"

Hopefully some kid will say - "Have a bath" or "wash"

We wash in water.  Here I have some water and I will wash the cloth.

In a way, this is like to part of the baptism we see.  We see the person being washed in water.

And you can see that some of the dirt comes off.  But not all.

There is a spiritual side to baptism.  In the bible reading it was described like this

(Can get some kid to read)
Mark1:¹⁰ As soon as Jesus came up out of the water, he saw heaven opening and the Spirit coming down on him...

We put the dirty cloth into the bottle marked God and 

That cleans it up.

Hopefully some kids will go "woh" or even "wow"


The story does not stop here though.  Imagine we have asked God's holy spirit into our lives.  What happens next?

We are challenged to stay in the world and do our best.  This time though we are working with God and we can have a much better effect.

(Put the now white again cloth back into the grotty grey world)  In this photo, I had inadvertantly moved the God bottle to the left that rather confuses the photo story.

Now look.  Because we have God's spirit in us, the world gets cleaned up and we stay clean.

A nice comparison.  The cleaned up world and the grotty old water.








And now the PREPARATION

Safety

These days you have to have a risk plan for anything.

The chemicals are pretty inert. The MSDS for fixer indicates to use gloves for
prolonged use. It also says to use eye protection although I have to confess to having
never used eye protection in the past.

Do not drink fixer – If it is drunk give water or milk unless the patient is unconscious or
experiencing convulsions. Contact Poison Control for further guidance.

Spills - Wash with water.

Iodine Component:
Vapors severely irritate and can burn the mucous membranes and respiratory tract. So
don’t take deep breaths of it. However we are using quite dilute iodine.

Basically it is OK to do it in the room but have a window open.

Ingredients
Starch (Available from supermarkets)
White cotton material (old white sheet)
3 large glass jars.  I used fruit preserving jars $2 ea from cheap shop.
Tincture of Iodine. Available from chemists.
Photographic fixer. $20 (Available from photographic shops but for how long???)
Bucket and towel and a tray if you want to soak up the mess if you spill.

Preparation
Well beforehand-
Buy some starch. (From Supermarket)
Get a white cotton cloth like an old sheet and tear it into pieces. The size depends on
the size of the glass jars that you are going to use for the demo. The reason you are
tearing up more than 1 is so you have some to practice with.

Put the starch into water and put in the cloth and let it soak up the starch.  I use lots of starch and let it get in and squeeze it out a few times so hopefully plenty of starch in the fibers of the cotton.. Hang the cloth up to dry.

Mix the fixer up like cordiall.  In these jars I had about 2cm of fixer and the rest water. I think its quite quaint that God is the Fixer.  :)

The water is just water.

For the World, fill the bottle 3/4 with water then pour in a little of the iodine.  It needs to look like .... apple juice.  Too light and the cloth does not go grey.

Practice Practice Practice

Like a good organised person, don't leave this until the last minute.  Do it and work out your talk at home.  If it's worth doing it's worth doing properly.  Practice means you can engage the kids and be safe!.
You will find that the God (The fixer) does not wear out as he (she) doesn't :).  You need to re do the iodine and the water for each attempt.  I suggest making up about 6 - 10 cloth pieces all at the same time so they have the same amount of starch in them.  Then you can experiment with how strong to make the iodine.

Oops

What happens if on the day, the world does not get fixed when you put the cloth laced with Fixer back in it.  Maybe the God mixture was too weak or there was too much iodine.  Well pour in some God.  The world can always do with more God.

Plotting 3D Surfaces

0 Open Office Calc does not do 3D plots.
1 Excel does not do 3D plots
2 This bloke http://www.doka.ch/Excel3Dscatterplot.htm has an Excel Macro that produces 3D charts.

 Very cool but hard to visualise what the data means.

What would be handy would be to be able to put a 3D surface over the points.  Like a 3D "trend line".  I imagine it like throwing a sheet or blanket over the data points.

I wonder if this is available for free.
It may well but it would seem a physics degree is required and a government grant would be handy to provide time to investigate and understand.

This is along the lines of what I am looking for.
http://twt.mpei.ac.ru/ochkov/car/c_e.html
This is done with mathcad.
Student edition is 100euro (We could send some paper napkins) and the professional version is about 1400euro I think.



 Can do the following with D-Plot (which I own).  Not sure if it helps me visualise the data though.

First Flashpoint of 2012

That fantastic children's worship service - Flashpoint starts this Sunday.

The planning that was done before the day is below.
These photos taken on the day. 
The science experiment used chemicals to illustrate baptism.  Its here
http://thomsoneu.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/object-lesson-baptism-holy-spirit-and.html

 Dan and Steven on drums

The Gospel reading for this Sunday is Mark1:9-15 

Some thoughts - What does it mean - What does it mean for us?

1. Jesus baptised by John. 
2. Story of the spirt coming down like a Dove
3.  A period in the desert (as opposed to dessert).  Wild animals & angels.  Testing?  Character Building?
4. Preaching - -> Spreading the good news.  Doing something in response to.... 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

FLASHPOINT ORDER OF SERVICE  26-FEB-2012
Mark1:9-15  --- Jesus is Baptised by John - Dove - Temptation  - Spread the word

C5. 10, 9, 8, God is Great                                        (Colin Buchanan – photocopy)
C2. The Blind Man                                                   (All Together 23)
Opening Prayer
Bible Reading  Mark1:9-15                                      Older kid - Chris, Callan, Alex
Science Experiment (Starch in the fabric)                Frank + James or Marcus?
B3. Jesus is a Cool Dude                                             (variation on We Will Rock You)
Story   Something about revealing or doing in response to God or something.
Memory Verse based on Psalm 25 V4 & 5
Collection during next song.

D9. I’ve Got Something                                           (AT149)
Final Prayer
P1. I Walk By Faith                                                     ( photocopy)

Mark 1:9-15 (Good News Translation)

⁹ Not long afterward Jesus came from Nazareth in the province of Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan.¹⁰ As soon as Jesus came up out of the water, he saw heaven opening and the Spirit coming down on him like a dove.¹¹ And a voice came from heaven,
         You are my own dear Son. I am pleased with you. ¹² At once the Spirit made him go into the desert,¹³ where he stayed forty days, being tempted by Satan. Wild animals were there also, but angels came and helped him.

Jesus Calls Four Fishermen(; , ; )

 ¹⁴ After John had been put in prison, Jesus went to Galilee and preached the Good News from God.¹⁵
         The right time has come, he said,
         and the Kingdom of God is near! Turn away from your sins and believe the Good News!

One Computer is Never Enough

Chris has set up a Minecraft server on our new desktop PC.  Then using Hamachi he created a VPN (Virtual Private Network) so his freind could log in to the server without requiring a route to be added to our ADSL modem. 

The laptop behind Chris is running skype and chris is chatting to his friend on it while playing the game on the desk top.

All without my help.  Where do they learn this stuff.  :)

Things to do with your leftover Euros

Upon Marcus's return from Germany we seemed flush with Euros.










Steven, Jemma & Dan.

Sugar for Breakfast Anyone

Well pretty much everyone actually.

"Before WWII, breakfast cereals were only eaten by people as a 'digestive aid'". (To get things moving down below.)
"The war changed many things ... when the men returned from the front, the women often stayed at work.  With both adults in the house frequently working at least some of the time, the cooked breakfast quickly became a weekend luxury.  You didn't have to hit a manufacturer over the head with a cereal box for them to realise a real market opportunity was developing. ...
In 1949, a US ceral company (Post) created the first cereal targete at children.  Sugar Crisps were sold as the delicious treat that kids could have for breakfast or straight out of the box for a snack.  Sugar was unabashedly the primary ingredient and the sugar arms race began in earnest.  Kellogg's jumped on the banwagon in 1953 with Sugar Smacks (56% sugar)." [The Sweet Poison Quit Plan by David Gillespie page 70]

So we have Hitler and LBJ to blame for the obesity epedemic and the lack of a decent cooked breakfast.


So how much sugar is in the Sultana Bran I eat each day I wonder.  A quick look at the side of the pack and all I see is a blur.  Reaching for my glasses clarified 22.7% sugar.  Hmm me thinks.  Just Right should be just right but Just Right has a whopping 28.7% sugar.  I may have to eat Wheet Bix at 3.3%.

You may recall an investigation into the sugar in coke
Well even though the absolute sugar was a shocking 40g, as any good politician knows, there is always a way to dress up the stats.  Coke is way below the Sultana Bran comming in at 10.6% sugar.  I am told VitaBrits trumps Weet Bix with only 1.6% sugar.  So maybe I should have a bowl of Vita Brits in Coke and still be better off than Sultana Bran and Milk.

On a more depressing note one 200g (2 scoops) of Streets Blue Ribbon Ice Cream will give you a huge 23 teaspoons of Sugar.  48.6% sugar.  (Parlour Style Chock Chip).  I breathe a sigh of relief as I prefer Vanilla.


Marus has taken all this on board and is having Bacon and Eggs for breakfast.  (No packet to tell you how much sugar and so therefore we conclude zero sugar and max goodnes).





Other links
www.howmuchsugar.com
http://sweetpoison.com.au/?page_id=473
http://sweetpoison.myfreeforum.org/index.php 

Everything in moderation.  There is no moderation.  Moderation is mediocre.

It appears that Sugar is responsible for depression.
http://www.raisin-hell.com/2011/06/how-fructose-makes-us-unhappy.html

Brain not absorbing Seratonin --> Depression
anti-depressant drugs eg Prozac apparantly give the brain more time to absorb the serotonin.  Note sure how they 'give time'.  Ecstasy, Amphetamines and LSD) work by enhancing the amount of serotonin we produce.

Unexpected / frightening situation --> Cortisol -->  ramps up dopamine (to focus the mind and sharpen the movements). It also rapidly increases the amount of dopamine we can absorb. But it does so at the expense of our ability to absorb serotonin.

The sight (or smell) of food gives us a squirt of the pleasure hormone, dopamine.
Once we actually start eating, serotonin kicks in.  We feel good.

Fructose is the only carbohydrate which produces a significant spike in our cortisol levels. Cortisol is our stress hormone. It’s terribly handy for confrontations with unexpected bears (for example) because it ramps up dopamine (to focus the mind and sharpen the movements). It also rapidly increases the amount of dopamine we can absorb. But it does so at the expense of our ability to absorb serotonin.

Chris does some homework

It's Tuesday night and Chris has an assignment.  It's quite warm and so he is sitting at the camping table on the deck

Out with the Old and in with the New

 Rev Dave Baker read official words and made Godly noises to proclaim Grace Branjerporn THE official ministry agent (Is that the right description) at Sherwood for a massive 9hrs a week. 

 She was immediately put to work indoctrinating the children in the fine art of P?????.  The message was looking at what we see and understanding the idea of the way we see things.  I forget the word though.  (t was not perspective)

 Dave then teamed with Grant Erickson to pronounce more words of wisdom and before we knew it, Heather had handed back her little black book and was no longer the chief.

We all gathered outside for a happy snap.  I think someone put a sticky finger on the lens.

Dan and Jemma down the front in bright Tee shirts

 We then moved into the hall for a celebratory nosh up.  This photo makes it look empty but in actual fact it was packed.  I had to grab an extra table from the shed and one of those small square plastic ones and still a few more people had to purch on corners of existing tables.

 Then we subjected the Griffins to a barrage of speakers waxing lyrical about how wonderful they were.  There were quite a few people who spoke and I was beginning to wonder whether we could just take some speeches as 'read' you see dessert was not allowed to be served until everyone had completed their adulations

 There were church people, people who had been cared for in the hall during the flood, people from groups who use the hall like indoor bowlers and a quilt making group.

 Heathers Fans

 In keeping with fundamental biblical principles, there was a cake.

A happy family snap.
Derek, Heather, Mark & Naomi.
(With Grant dancing a jig in the background)

Having cut the cake, Heather got the right to reply.

We also presented Heather with a picture of the last super framed by Ian (megan's dad) but I do not seem to have a picture of that.

Emanuel College Bush Dance

I had had a cold and a headache since Wednesday afternoon until Saturday afternoon.  This combined with a really tough bush dance the week before meant that I was not really looking forward to Saturday nights commitment.

This evening though, the band really got into it.  Being outside, the audio mixing was much easier.  The band sounded great and played with an infectious energy.  megan had tonsilitus and I hope was not too infectious but she kept going as she does.

 It made me feel old.  They were young and full of energy and danced and danced.

Chris checks his phone.

The Audio mixer in the foreground is a Soundcraft powerstation 1200.  It has two channels of FOH of 600 watts each and two 15inch speakers.  It puts out lots of sound but on this occasion it was pushed to the limit.

Megan sorting out the finer details of "peel the banana" or maybe left hand clap right hand clap.

 "Freshies on the ground" Some kind of idoctrination and bonding ritual for the new kids.  Maybe we should try that with the next new person that shows up at church.

Or did we just exhaust them with all that dancin.

The portrait of the band.  For their "Best Of" Album.