Waving goodbye to 2006

So 2006 is coming to a swift end. To close the year, our picture is of Kez and Muts on holiday at Titsikama earlier in the year, the cool chicks.

I apologise for the lack of posts recently. I know I didn't finish off my last post about "What is a maser?" I was holding back on posting anything else until I had finished that, but I think I will just have to finish it later. Watch this place.

I'm working on my new years resolutions. I never really make new years resolutions, because I never keep them, so why bother...? But I like to have some sort of general approach to the year to come.

Some general thoughts I have on going into the new year are...
* Being chilled out, no pressure.
* Focus on work, enjoying work and giving more time to work.
* Being more adventurous with my friends. I dearly love the friends I have, but I spend one heck of alot of time with the same people. So I think I need to start being a bit braver and hanging out with some different people.
* Worshipping God and loving people.

What is a maser?

What is a maser?
The word maser is an acronym for Microwave Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation.
The word laser stands for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation - its the same process, but lasers work with visible light, whereas masers work with microwave frequency radiation.

Okay, so a maser is an invisible laser, working as microwave frequencies (frequencies quite a bit lower than those of visible light). Whats with the "Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation" bit?

Well, lets start off by looking at what stimulated emission is. Say you have an atom or molecule - it has lots of energy levels (remember drawing electrons in the different energy levels of an atom at school?). Usually the lowest energy levels are all full, and the upper levels are maybe a bit full, but not much.

So we start off in a low energy state... Then a photon of light comes along - a photon of just the right frequency for the molecule - and the molecule absorbs the photon. Now it has more energy, and the higher energy level is more full. This is called absorbtion. Thats the first was atoms or molecules (particles, for the sake of brevity!) can interact with radiation, or light. The picture below illustrates two energy levels of a particle. The wave is a photon, that gets absorbed by the particle, moving it to a higher energy state.



The second way particles interact with radiation is called spontaneous emission. When our particle has absorbed a photon it is in a higher energy state, but its not really stable. It wants things to be back to normal, comfortable with all the lowest energy levels full. So the particle spontaneously emits a photon of the same special frequency for the atom, and drops back to a lower energy.

This is actually how scientists can tell what the sun and stars and the Milky Way are made of. We look out into the sky and capture the radiation from a particular object. Then we look for special frequencies that ony come from certain particles - we call emission or absorbtion of these special frequencies spectral lines. If we see those special frequencies, we know we are seeing that element or molecule. For example, I look at silicon monoxide, SiO, which is at a frequency of 43122.03 MHz. When we see emission at that frequency, we know it is SiO.

But I've got side-tracked from the main question - what is a maser? Tune in to the next post for the answer!

Too good

This book is great, I cant help myself, here is another quote:

... But the trouble with deep belief is that it costs something. And there is something deep inside of me, some selfish beast of a subtle thing that doesn't like the truth because it carries responsability, and if I actually believe these things I have to do something about them. It is so, so cumbersome to believe anything. And it isn't cool. I mean its cool in a Reality Bites, Welcome to Sarajevo, Amnesty International sense, but that is only as good as dreadlocks. Chicks dig it to a point, but you can't be all about it; you also have to want a big house and expensive clothes because in the end, our beliefs are about as enduring as seasonal fashion.

Its from a chapter entitled "Belief." He speaks about his friend "Andrew the Protester," who is a Christian, and politics wise, a liberal. Andrew goes to protests, he's an anti-Bush, anti-IMF kinda guy. And on Saturday mornings he feeds the homeless, hangs out with his homeless friends. The author, Donald, says of Andrew: "My Republican friends get frustrated when I paint Andrew as a hero, but I like Andrew because he actually believes things that cost him something. Even if I disagree with Andrew, I love that he is willing to sacrifice for what he believes."

Andrew is the one who taught me that what I believe is not what I say I believe; what I believe is what I do.

Blue Like Jazz

A quote from the book Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller:

"My most recent faith struggle is not one of intellect. I don't really do that anymore. Sooner or later you just figure out there are some guys who don't believe in God and they can prove He doesn't exist, and some other guys who do believe in God and can prove He does exist, and the argument stopped being about God a long time ago and now its about who is smarter, and honestly I don't care. I don't believe I will ever walk away from God for intellectual reasons. Who knows anything anyway? If I walk away from Him, and please pray that I never do, I will walk away for social reasons, identity reasons, deep emotional reasons, the same reasons that any of us do anything."

... not to say we shouldn't exercise out minds in our faith, but I think that this quote has alot of truth in it. It kindof reminds me of Psalm 131:
"Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty: neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me..." (KJV) - I would have preferred to quote it from the NIV, but my Bible is at home unfortunately!

Its a great book, I recommend it. Very hounest, open, authentic. And because of his authenticity, I think, he leads you along with him into lots of amazing truths about God and Christianity. Rather than just informing you of them, or teaching you about them. Its a bit like what Gareth ways saying in "Apologetic of the heart" - you feel like you are a pilgrim on a journey with him.

The authors note in the beginning says "Sometimes you have to watch somebody love something before you can love it yourself. It is as if they are showing you the way." Beautiful.

Wonderful

from here.

Water followup

Just a followup on the Grahamstown water situation. To quote from the email with water test results:

In summary, the tap water on campus was safe (if unpleasant) to drink.

The tests the Biochemistry & Microbiology Department did on the water all came back as safe for humans, but not safe for trout. Trout are apparantly alot more sensitive to changes in the water and ickiness in the water. Not suprising, I guess, considering they live and breathe in the water, and they are alot littler than us!

Anyway, in all the water upheavel my geyser has stopped working. And my landlady is away, so I will just wait till she returns to sort it out. Life without hot water, arg.

On a triumphant note:
I have now parallel parked twice with Chloe! *woot*
And my external hard drive is back so I can back up my work. *woot*
And life is good :)

Public Service Announcement

THIS IS AN URGENT MESSAGE
TO ALL STAFF AND STUDENTS

Please be aware that serious concerns have been voiced over
the toxicity levels of the municipal water supply. According to
Martin Davies of the Department of Ichthyology and Fisheries
Science, over 35 000 fish at the University's Experimental Fish
Farm have died over the last few days as a result. He says that
trout fingerlings are seen as an accepted early warning system of
polluted water. The deaths of these fish together with behavioural
abnormalities which has been observed are indicative of the
presence of heavy metal pollutants in the water.

The particles are extremely toxic to human beings and cannot be
removed through cooking or boiling water. Samples of water are
currently being tested in the University's Biotechnology
Department but results of these tests will only be available by
tomorrow.

In the meantime you are requested NOT to drink water from any
taps on campus (or at home) and not to cook with this water if
your home or residence was affected by the recent water outage.

The University is making plans to bring further supplies of bottled
drinking water to Grahamstown for distribution to residences.

Please also note that all food served in the residences has been
prepared with 'safe water'. The University has been forced to
adjust menus and serving timetables as a result of the current
problems and regrets any inconvenience.

Those affected as asked to be patient as we attempt to manage
the situation.

Director: Communications & Development Division
Rhodes University

Math tutoring

A tutor is not a teacher in the usual sense: it is not his job to convey information. The student should find for himself the information. The teacher [sic] acts as a constructive critic, helping him to sort it out, to try it out simetimes, in the sense of exploring a possible avenue, rejecting one approach in favour of another. Moore, 1968, pg 18

I've been tutoring math to these kids from Nombuleo for a few weeks, and its been on my mind for the last few days. I read this quote in a paper, and it echo's my thoughts (in part). I have been using the phrase tutoring, rather than teaching, deliberately for some time. I 've put a fair amount of thought into how to approach teaching/tutoring these kids, and these are some of the thoughts/principles I have come up with:

• "First, do no harm" (Innoxa) - At the very least, let me not confuse them, not undermine their confidence, not undermine what they already know, and not undermine their teachers!
• The Baard method - In University Physics tuts, we are encouraged to use the Baard method - named after one of our previous HODs. You get small groups to work togther at different sections of the board, and you walk between them, helping as necessary. I try and use a similar method for tutoring high-school math, where possible. We usually sit around the board and the kids take turns doing problems on the board for us, but the whole group helps and advises, and does calculations on their calculator for the person at the boad when necessary. I was actually quite suprised this method worked - its usually remarkably difficult to get university students up to the board to answer questions for the class, or even in groups! Sometimes it gets a bit difficult when there are quite a few kids - 4 is a comfortable maximum to use this method. Thankfully Brent has been helping me out, so we can sometimes break into two groups.
  
• Tutoring, not teaching - These are kids writing matric math in a few weeks now. Frankly, there is not really time to teach them anything new. And perhaps more importantly, they already go to school, sit in math classes, have a math teacher and learn math. My goal isn't to teach them new things, my goal is to help them apply (unpack!) what they already know, and to help them grow in confidence. The goal is that they can actually *do* math problems. On occasion I have to teach them things (you need to know the special triangles, for example), but that is not the primary goal of my meeting with them. Its much easier to stand at the board and explain the answer to a question to them, much much easier than getting them to figure it out for themselves! But at the end of the day the goal is them being able to do things themselves, not me feeling good about my explanation. Which is part of my motivation for making them do things on the board themselves.
  
• They lack confidence - For the most part, they lack confidence to a detrimental degree. Part of the motivation for tutoring, rather than teaching, is to show them that they actualy know quite alot. And they are more capable than they thought. There is little as empowering as realising you actually *can* do something you initially thought was impossibly difficult. And with a bit of prodding in the right direction, they often can do math questions they really thought they couldn't.
  
• They are generally mentally lazy - So am I. Most of us are. Especially in areas we we lack confidence... there is just no motivation to mentally apply yourself to something you think you have no hope of figuring out! So I have to provoke them to think, allow them to get things wrong and have their class-mates correct them, just wait while they stubbornly refuse to ask questions, try and think of leading questions that will give them just enough of a clue to get started, and then they are engaged and its much easier.
• Helping each other - I try to leave them to correct, encourage and help each other as much as possible. In fact I keep my involvement as minimal as possible. Their first language is Xhosa, so ideally I would like to speak to them in Xhosa, but alas I cannot. So when they all discuss a problem together in Xhosa, thats great. Also, they are all learning the same way, and they have roughly the same information/way of understanding in their heads. I did matric maths yonks ago, so in many respects they are more qualified to help each other than I am to help them. And referring back to the first point - at the very least, I don't want to confuse them. Rather let them explain to each other in a way they are all familiar with, than me giving an explanation that works for me, but that is unfamiliar and intimidating to them. Also, it pulls them all in to engage with the questions. When someone gets things wrong on the board, I often leave it for a while to give someone else in the group a chance to see the error and correct it - which often happens. Sometimes I do step in and correct something, especially if it is a fundamental error/misunderstanding, but I try to keep this to a minimum.

One of the reasons I have thought this through alot is that I heard that you have to be quite careful when to teach kids from non-former-model-C schools (jeepers, what a mouthful). Also just because I'd like to actually be making a difference to these kids, not just wasting 3 hours of their and my lives every Saturday!
If you have any advice or thoughts on the matter, I would love to hear them!

Mutsa's party

It was Mutsa's party on Friday evening - it was her birthday on Friday. Minz cooked about a billion kilograms of curry, and we spent Wednesday and Thursday evenings rolling roti. Altogether we made about 150 rotis for the party, and Claire and Sizwe and Verashni made a some batches too.

It rocked... says Minoshni :) And it did!

"Ohana means family. Family means nobody gets left behind, or forgotten." Lilo & Stitch

A lesson

When I was in about standard 6 or 7, I heard that when my friends did well in class their parents paid them. I was in the 'A' stream class so most of my friends did well academically, and I had been doing pretty well too at the time. So I figured I should be rewarded with money too! After all, most of my friends were...

So one day I went and told my dad that I reckoned I should be financially rewarded for good work. So my dad thought about it and gave me what, in retrospect, was a wonderful answer.

He thought about it and answered: "Well, I tell you what, if you come first in class I'll give you R xxx, if you come second in class I'll give you R yyy, if you come third in class I'll give you R zzz. But if you come fourth in class, YOU have to give ME R zzz, if you come fifth in class you have to give me R yyy and if you come lower than fifth you have to give me R xxx."
heh.
So I thought "!!!!!!"
And responded "no thanks, I don't like that arrangement" and my desire for (and expectation of!) reward was thoroughly gone :)

It was the best lesson because in a few words he managed to express how silly it is to place too much importance on academic achievement. And how silly it is to expect rewards for everything!

Kepler, Kepler

I'm in the lab for no good reason at 10:30, arg. I am waiting for Kepler (my physics pc) to finish running something so I can start something else. I am very attached to Kepler, but he is getting a bit old and sluggish, prone to erratic break downs. On Sunday all of his usb ports died, for no good reason. So I'm trying to back things up, but it looks like my external hard-drive might be poked. Fun and games :)

So what shall I do with my time Lord? Just waiting here.

I've been browsing through some blogs (Verashni, Natalie, Binks, Vicky, Biance, Ralph, James, Neels, Rebecca, Lindsey, Nathan etc etc.) I must make myself a little Blog Boxi al la Twitch. Something I really enjoy about reading all of your blogs is that you realise that people are even cooler than you think, and more hectic than you think, more creative than you think... you guys are so great :)

And just a final thought, before I try make good use of my waiting time:
Hear ye, hear ye: It is John (Richter)'s birthday on Monday, and Mutsa's birthday next Friday.

Busi's party #2

This is a continuation to the "Busi's party" post, because I really can't do her party justice with just one picture. Above is my friend Emma, and her foster/adopted child (I'm not sure which), busi. Emma was in Dingemans with me way back, before Spar was Pick 'n Pay, and The Blue Room was The Red Cafe. It was Busi's birthday party. She had a jumping castle, which was awesome. The top picture is of Busi and some of her friends on the jumping castle. The little girl in yellow is Emma's other child, Thandi. Thandi is very sweet, she has a lovely happy disposition.

Busi likes tomato and chicken and mashed potato and pretty much nothing else. She does not like sweets, bizarrely enough. She loves barbies, and has about three thousdand million of them, as well as a Barbie car and a Barbie house. She feels that it is inappropriate to cut hear Barbie's hair, even though some of her friends cut their Barbies hair. And it was her birthday party.

Emma says that "fancy shaped party cake" is one of the skills you have to master as a mother :)

Mother abuse

Oh dear, I have not posted in a *long* time!

Yesterday I was tutoring math to some kids (well, matric scholars I suppose!) from Nombulelo. Nombulelo is a school in Grahamstown. Anyway, there were six of them, two guys and four girls. Towards the end of the session we were discussing when to schedule our next meeting and I suggested next Saturday morning. One of the guys commented that Saturday afternoon was better for him, because he does chores on Saturday morning, like washing clothes. So one of the girls advised him that his family should be washing his clothes to help him out, because he is writing matric exams. He was agast: "That would be mother abuse!" "Yes," chimed in the other guy "we couldn't do that, thats mother abuse!"

My mother was washing my clothes well into my degree... even when I lived in another town and had access to a washing machine in my res!!! How embarassing - they put me to shame! :)

PhD comics

I love PhD comics. The strip above is so like me its embassing.

Busi's party

Back in Grahamstown

So I am back in Grahamstown from my stint in Cape Town.

In my absence, my Church had a prayer vigil, Christians@Rhodes had a mission, my brother went on camp, my flat got broken into, my car battery died and my former digsmates went to the Greek ball (as you can see in the pic above!)

Thankfully, it seems nothing was actually taken from my flat - the burglers were probably disturbed by the armed response people. Hooray.

Being in CT was fun, but its good to be back and get into the swing of things again!

Gratitude

I'm eating a haddock and broccoli woolies microwave meal for dinner. Yummy.

I was thinking yesterday/this morning how I have lots of things to be grateful for. I am grateful to be at Rhodes, to have learned fourier transforms via flipping-and-shifting methods. I am grateful for two great supervisors, tons of resources at my disposal, a great lab of people, a great staff in the department. I an really grateful that I have had the chance to travel and see other universities, and go to a few conferences. I'm grateful for having gone through an undergrad programme which developed lots of practical skills I use now. I'm grateful for people who believe in me and encourage me.

I often get discouraged academically, but the truth of the matter is that the Lord had put me is such a favoured place, in terms of the background I have, and the place I'm in now. And I am very grateful to him. I commit it all to Him.

Great quote

I just found a great quote:

"How easy it would have been in South Africa for the natural feelings of resentment at white domination to have been turned into feelings of hatred and a desire for revenge against the white community. Here, where every day in every aspect of life, every non-white comes up against the ubiquitous sign, "Europeans Only," and the equally ubiquitous policeman to enforce it - here it could well be expected that a racialism equal to that of their oppressors would flourish to counter the white arrogance towards blacks. That it has not done so is no accident. It is because, deliberately and advisedly, African leadership for the past 50 years, with the inspiration of the African National Congress which I had the honour to lead for the last decade or so until it was banned, had set itself steadfastly against racial vain-gloriousness."
- Albert Luthuli

A week in Cape Town

I've been in Cape Town for a week now. So far, I:

• Have given 5 lectures. Its hard.
• Went to the inaugural lecture of Prof Ian Scott, entitled "Equity, Merit and Development: Critical Tensions in Higher Education in South Africa and Abroad." Very interesting - "equity related educational strategies are a central component of development."
• Have hung out with Taryn, Emma, Linda, Roshni.
  
• Went to Busisiwe's 7th birthday party! There was a jumping castle! Woot.
• Went to a lunch time lecture organised by the UCT YCL (young communist league), where the SA minister of Intelligence, Ronnie Kasrils, spoke about the conflict in Palestein. Very interesting.
• Went to Taryn's cell group - great bunch of girls. We did a Bible study on a passage from Romans.

It has been quite an eventful week!

A picture is worth a thousand words

Choosing a picture to represent a preson is a significant thing. A few months ago there was some scandal in the news involving Bill Cosby, and the article in the Daily Dispatch that covered it included the most horrible picture of him - he looked... smarmy. He looked like the kind of person who could have done what he was being accused of. And I thought: "Now, is that fair?" They must have tons of happy Bill Cosby pictures on file, but they chose the one that made him look like a creep." Because they wanted people to think "hey, we thought this oke was a nice guy, but actually, maybe he is creepy..." I suppose. So the picture we choose to represent someone says alot about how we view them and how we want others to view them, even if our choice may not be deliberate.

So anyway, I saw these two pictures of the new Rhodes VC in the "this Week at Rhodes." These pictures are definately saying something! Something good.