balaam's ass's Journal: About me

I've been working as a computational astrophysicist in academia for several years (got the Ph.D. in 2000 after years of work...). Mostly I've involved in rather technical aspects of solving Einstein's equations in strong-field, dynamical regimes, and I mostly program in Fortran, C and perl. I know nothing about string theory, modern optics or how to cool rubidium, and almost nothing about solid state physics, but I can talk numerical analysis, high-performance computing and PDE theory for a while.

I've maintained an interest in the philosophy of science for many years, and directed a reading group on the subject with folks from my institute in Europe, where I was a postdoc.

All this to say: I'm not a complete farking idiot, that's all. I may not be right all the time, but I try to keep my replies relevant to the discussion. So if we're replying to each others' posts, let's stick to the topic and not make assumptions about the other person's views based on our own prejudices.

I am also a Bible-believing Christian, who many would consider to be "conservative". My faith is based on factual evidence, not fairy tales. I have no desire to take away your civil liberties or have the public schools practice religious advocacy. Please chill out.

My nick is taken from a story in the book of Numbers...