Dave Mattingly 3:51 pm on November 20, 2015

Let Creation Rejoice

I’m a Christian, and sometimes a teacher/preacher.

Since I come from a science geek background, here’s a lesson I did on how cool the universe is.

Let All Creation Rejoice

1. Creation is a Concert.

The mathematician Pythagoras and astronomer Kepler wanted to explain the motion of the planets, and (sort of) discovered that if the orbit of each planet was a different musical note, their paths would constitute recognizable chords that form a melodic tune. Modern scientists theorize that tiny dancing strings hum at unique frequencies.

Let the fields and their crops burst with joy! Let the trees of the forest rustle with praise! (Psalm 96:12)
Let the sea resound, and everything in it. Let the rivers clap, and mountains sing for joy. (Psalm 98:7-8)
Jesus told them, “If my disciples keep quiet, the very stones will cry out.” (Luke 19:40)
The mountains and hills will burst into song, and the trees of the field will clap their hands. (Isaiah 55:12)

2. Creation is Recent

Many books cover the topic in greater detail than I can:

In Six Days by John Ashton
Studies in Flood Geology by John Woodmorappe
Young Earth by John Morris

Evidence suggests that:

the Milky Way galaxy would have lost its spiral arms if billions of years had passed
Earth’s magnetic field is decaying at an exponential rate
Dr. Gerald Schroeder has a one-hour lecture covering much of this

3. Creation is Evident

Creation sings, but I hope it won’t sing like the Singing Bush.

Since creation, God’s eternal qualities and divine nature have been obvious from what has been made, so that mankind is without an excuse. (Romans 1:20)

4. Creation is Amazing

The world is beautiful. Take a look at:

And have fun with this video from Louis CK.

5. Creation is Temporary

Our time here on the planet is not going to last forever.

The end of the world is coming soon. (1 Peter 4:7)
Jesus said, “No one knows the hour.” (Matt 24:36)
“I go to prepare a place for you.” (John 14:3)
From His mouth comes a sharp sword to strike down nations. On His robe is “King of kings, and Lord of lords.” (Rev 19:14-16)

6. Creation is Eager

Creation groans in anticipation. For what? For us to show ourselves to be followers of God.

“What are you waiting for?”
“I don’t know. Something amazing, I guess.”

All creation awaits in eager expectation for the children of God to reveal themselves. (Romans 8:19)

C – Concert
R -Recent
E – Evident
A – Amazing
T – Temporary
E – Eager

So… go out there, and be amazing!

Download the PowerPoint.

Dave Mattingly 6:33 pm on November 11, 2015

Louisville Comic Con

This past weekend, I attended the Wizard World Louisville Comic Con. Wizard World is a national organization that hosts comic book conventions in various cities around the country.

I like going to these, to meet the authors and artists, to shop at the various vendors who carry all sorts of memorabilia and oddities. There were toys, sculptures, knick knacks, gadgets, games, and more — over a hundred vendors.

But one of the biggest attractions for me is the costumes. I saw Mr. Freeze and Scarecrow, Batman and Catwoman, the Joker and Harley Quinn, Static Shock, Red X, Batman Beyond, Beast Boy, Deathstroke, Supergirl, Thor, Kingpin, Dr. Octopus, the Mad Hatter, Beetlejuice, a Discworld wizard, Vashta Nerada, Medusa and Jeepers Creepers, a Guy Fawkes Teletubby (that I can’t unsee), and many more.

I wore two of my own costumes there — Mini-Me, and Cyborg Pirate Ninja Jesus.

Here’s some coverage from a local TV station and newspaper.

There are similar conventions in Louisville, each with a different focus and run by a different group:

ConGlomeration is a nonprofit fan-run science fiction convention, and my personal favorite; crowds are small and friendly
Derby City Comic Con is fairly new and rapidly growing, with plenty of local creators
WonderFest is a special effects and model-building convention, and attracts a lot of Hollywood pros
FandomFest has grown rapidly into a 30,000-ish fan convention, with a focus on celebrities
Louisville Anime Weekend collects cartoon creators and fans
Imaginarium is a creative writing convention with top-notch programming
Fright Night is focused on horror films

Besides enjoying the usual festivities of being among my own kind, I also held the church service on Sunday morning.

My sermon this time was based on Ghostbusters, in honor of my friend Ryan Kemp who passed away recently. The scripture I used was Luke 16:19-31, with references to Psalms 146:4, Ecclesiastes 9:5-6, Isaiah 8:19, Leviticus 19:31, Revelation 12:9, James 4:7, 1 John 4:1, Romans 8:38, Matthew 27:52, 1 Thessalonians 4:16, and Acts 24:15. The gist was that we don’t need to be afraid of no ghosts, because greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world.

As usual, I game a shout-out to various geeky ministries.

Dave Mattingly 8:26 am on November 2, 2015

Health Tech

Thursday was the annual XlterateHealth’s Demo Day. The healthcare startups involved all showed off their latest and greatest ideas and achievements. I love checking out the new ideas that inventors and creators come up with.

Here are the companies that were there showing their wares:

Digital

iClinical is an app for trial clinicians to collect, analyze, and display realtime test results, saving months of time in the research process. Also, since the data is pulled in as it happens, they can quickly respond to changes. Imagine that during the trial, they find out that someone with a certain condition or taking a certain drug has died. The clinicians could send out an instant alert to others in the same metaphorical boat to have them stop the test and seek help.
Trajectory is a data analysis tool that studies lots of patients who have had a similar health occurrence (stroke, heart attack, etc.), and finds similarities before and after. This helps to identify accurate warning signs and the most effect treatment.
SYSGenomics uses molecular diagnostic tests to predict which type of cancer treatment is likely to be the most effective for any given cancer patient.
MedUX combines a video display and a sterile wireless joystick so that doctors can access medical systems even after they’ve scrubbed up.

Physical

Inscope invented a laryngoscope (the tube that doctors use to intuabte your airways) that is wifi enabled with an onboard video feed. That makes it easier and safer for the tubes to go into the right place without scraping or bruising the throat as it goes.
NormaLyte created a drink mix that reverses the effect of dehydration. This is also great for relief efforts in areas where water is rare or tainted, by helping people’s bodies get more use out of the water that they do drink.
iPillbox is a pill organizer that let doctors and caregivers monitor whether or not their patients have taken their medicines. Imagine that your parents are aging and taking many types of medications at different frequencies throughout the day; this could alert you that they missed their lunchtime pills.

This year, the event was held at the Play Dance Bar, which I hadn’t been to yet. (Me not frequenting dance clubs; go figure.) The place was decorated for Halloween. Very nicely done, too.

Here’s the Business First article about the event.

Thursday was also the “Data! Fostering Health Innovation in Kentucky and Ohio 2015” event, that I didn’t hear about early enough to get involved with. But a friend who went told me that even thought “data” was the first word in the event, it was mostly Department of Health officials talking about policy. Bullet dodged.

Dave Mattingly 1:21 pm on October 28, 2015

Odd Ministries

Halloween is this weekend! My favorite holiday. I love the creativity and artistry that goes into costume design. I find that the costume-wearing community (often known as cosplayers, for costume play) are a friendly and enthusiastic bunch.

In the past, I’ve made a variety of my own costumes — Cap’n Crunch, Cyborg Pirate Ninja Jesus, Mini-Me, and others.

Some people consider it odd that as born-again Christian like me is into Halloween and similar events. But I don’t see it as a problem at all — costumes are sometimes a part of my ministry. Science ficiton, games, costumes, technology, cartoons, and other “geeky” activities are celebrated by thousands of enthusiasts in cities all over the world. Wearing a costume sometimes opens metaphorical doors for me that would sometimes be hard to get into. It allows me to have conversations that may be hard to arrange otherwise.

Here are some of the Christian geeky groups that I’m involved in:

Christian Gamers Guild, focused on tabletop games such as board games, card games, and roleplaying games
Game Church, focused on electronic games
Fans for Christ, encompassing all of fandom, from costumes to comics to games to anime (now defunct)
Grave Robbers, focusing on Christian goths and punks
CrossCon, focusing on information security professionals, aka “hackers”
Costumers for Christ, because dressing up is fun

And some great people / groups / media that I keep up with:

Geek Preacher, a Methodist Minister from Tennessee, and all-around nerd
MJ Young, gamer, author, and chaplain
Steve Racer, actor, author, and cosplayer
Hackers for Charity, security experts who support and train Uganda street kids
Geekdom House, Kyle Rudge’s outreach from his church to the geeks
The Dice Steeple podcast about board games and card games
Saving the Game, a podcast about roleplaying
Game Store Prophets and InnRoads Ministries, a podcast about Jesus and gaming
Christ and Pop Culture, examining overlaps and conflicts
Strangers and Aliens, a podcast reminding us of our true home
Geek Orthodox podcast
Hacking Christianity, extracting truth nuggets from the Word
Geeks Under Grace, uniting in differences

In a week, I’ll be preaching at Wizard World’s Louisville Comic Con. This is my first time preaching at this particular event (only in its second year here, although Wizard World has been running events in other cities for a long time).

This sermon will be Ghostbusters-themed, as a tribute to my friend Ryan Kemp.

Here are some fun costumes I’ve come across over the years:

Dave Mattingly 10:19 am on October 23, 2015

KempProv

My friend Marshall Ryan Kemp (usually known simply as “Kemp”) died last week.

He was hit by a pickup truck while he was driving to the children’s hospital to entertain the kids by dressing up in his Ghostbusters costume.

Volunteering his time to cheer up sick children was not at all uncommon for Kemp. He certainly devoted more time to cheering up sick children than I did. He died doing what he loved — bring smiles to others. (Actually, it was while he was driving to the hospital to do so, but you know what I’m saying.)

It made me wonder — any of us could go at any time, but what will what I’m doing at the time say about who I am? Like most people, the biggest chunk of my time is spent working or sleeping, or eating or doing chores and such, but when I’m not doing those, where does my time go? If someone were to spin a giant wheel-of-fortune to pick an activity during that time, would it land on something that I’d want to be known for?

Kemp’s time went into what he loved and what he believed in. Can I say the same? Or has my life become too routine?

If you knew Kemp, share your memories on the Remembering Kemp facebook group, or by using the #ForKemp hashtag on Twitter.

At the funeral, his Ghostbusters friends all came. They drove the Ecto-Mobile, and I took this picture that turned out to be unintentionally awesome. The sunlight gave the Ecto-Mobile a “spirit aura” and a sunbeam reflecting from the siren projected a “sunshine smile” on the ground. I think that Kemp would have approved.

Two of the improv comedy troupes that Kemp was involved in are performing some KempProv tributes this Saturday at The Bard’s Town.

Here’s a song parody that I wrote in Kemp’s honor:

If there’s someone sad / In your neighborhood / Who you gonna call / KempProvster!
If you’re feeling bad / And you need some good / Who you gonna call / KempProvster!
If gloomy thoughts / Run around your head / Who can you call / KempProvster!
If your heart’s in knots / When you go to bed / Who you gonna call / KempProvster!
If you’re all alone / Pick up the phone / And call / KempProvster!
If your funny bone / Hasn’t fully grown / You better call / KempProvster!

Dave Mattingly 7:23 am on October 16, 2015

Robots

The REC Foundation (Robotics Education and Competition Foundation) hosts the VEX Robotics Competition each year. This is a competition for middle schoolers, high schoolers, and collegians. The worldwide championship came to Louisville in 2015, and will stay here for at least four more years. That’s a whole lotta flights, hotels, restaurants, and shuttling — about $5 Million worth.

At this year’s event, I volunteered for all four days of the event (Wednesday through Saturday). I was at the registration table for the first two days, which was an amazing experience. With over 800 teams from around the world, there were volunteers at the desk who could speak Portuguese, Mandarin, and a host of other languages. Each team had several students, plus their coaches, meaning that there were roughly 10,000 participants all told. For the next two days, I manned (i.e. “commandeered”) the booth for FirstBuild. They were one of the event sponsors, but didn’t realize that they’d also be getting a booth out of the deal. Since the booth would have been empty otherwise (which would disappoint me), and since I had a FirstBuild t-shirt, I sat at the booth and told people what FirstBuild is, how it came to be, what they do, and how jealous they should be because they haven’t been there yet.

The event is huge. It takes over the entire Fairgrounds and Expo Center — all four wings, and both stadiums.

You can volunteer here. (You don’t have to commit for the entire event like I did.) You don’t need to know anything about robots — they need all sorts of volunteers: registration, coordination, setup, scoring, etc. Kids can also help out, so this is a great family activity.

This week, the REC met with the Convention and Visitors Bureau, and dozens of leaders from business, technology, government, and education. (And somehow, also me.) They let us know some pretty cool things:
• the State Championship might be happening at U of L
• NASA has given them a grant to get at least one robot into every school in the county
• they’ll be offering “combo” exhibitor space in a Louisville Showcase for local business and tech, to make the sponsorship rates more affordable
• the event will once again coincide with the Thunder Over Louisville celebration
• they’ll once again rent out the entire Kentucky Kingdom amusement park for the kids Saturday night
• there are many scholarships for entry, including one from U of L

Here are some other cool robotic groups around town, if you’d like to find out more or get involved:
• The U of L Robotics Team
• The U of L Engineering Outreach
• Advanced Solutions
• DUG, the Drone Users Group
• The First Robotics competition

Dave Mattingly 1:56 pm on October 14, 2015

BioAssemblyBot

Last night, Advanced Solutions hosted a great tour last night of the BioAssemblyBot for the members of TALK (and anyone else who was interested in signing up for this free event). The BioAssemblyBot (or BAB, as she’s affectionately known) uses biological “inks” (any form of liquid bio-matter) to assemble organic tissue in any shape from any angle thanks to its six degrees of articulation.

Okay, so it can’t actually recreate Leeloo from The Fifth Element like the image above (click for animation), but it can create some amazing biological constructs. Besides their eventual goal of creating on-the-spot organ transplants (in the US alone, 22 people per day die while waiting for organ transplants), it’s great for medical and pharmaceutical research. Being able to exactly replicate hundreds of cells exactly the same way, or with intentional slight variations, make it so much faster and easier to find the right “recipe” for a medicine, and with definably repeatable results.

Michael Golway, the President and CEO, walked us through the what the bot does, and how it does it. He joked that, “It’s so easy, even a physician could do it.” While he was talking, their machine 3D-printed a heart valve for us (that I got to take away as a souvenir!), in just a few minutes.

Here are some other cool medical/biotech companies in Louisville:
• MobileMedTek, creating a portable turbo-charge EEG (their president Dave Kennedy also judged our Startup Weekend a few days ago)
• Inscope Medical, creating an easier and smarter scope for intubation
• Xlerate Health, the accelerator for medical startups
• Neuronetrix, giving neurologists a peek inside your brain (the owner Dr. John Barker is also doing incredible work regenerative medicine)
• Whip-Mix, creators of dental bionics
• …and several that I don’t have much direct experience with (Genenscape, MedVenture, RhinoCyte, Apellis, and others)

To learn more about medical technologies, experts, issues, and events, get involved with the Health Enterprises Networks (HEN), Louisville’s healthcare chamber of commerce. They consistently host great events, and help all the right people meet each other.

Some good healthcare/biotech events:
• TechFest (blending biotech, gadgetry, software, business, and more)
• Innovation Summit
• Southeast Christian Church’s Medical Missions Conference
• KY Association of Healthcare Facilities Trade Show
• the Oral Health Summit
• …and pretty much everything that HEN does

Dave Mattingly 10:35 am on October 13, 2015

Startup Weekend

Louisville’s seventh Startup Weekend was October 9-11, 2015. The event gives participants the chance to pitch ideas to each other, form teams, research their topic, speak with customers, create a thing (a gadget, an app, a website, a process, etc.), and present their findings before a panel of judges. Eight teams made it to the Sunday evening judging rounds.

This was the first time that the first, second, and third-place teams were all led by women.

Third place went to artiFACTS, led by artist/photographer/designer/coder Lea Ingold. The artiFACTS phone app will make it faster and easier to ship artwork or other valuables that need their conditions to be photographed and documented vigorously along the way.

Second place went to Bodyguard, led by Berea College student Raunak Thakur. Bodyguard is a phone app that will silently alert campus police and up to five friends in case of danger. It can optionally sound an alert and flash the camera light.

First place went to Foodinary, led by high school student Abigail Griggs.

I’ll say that again — led by high school student Abigail Griggs.

Foodinary is a phone app that will explain the ingredients on food labels in plain language, including how it is likely to affect our bodies. Each user could set up a list of food allergies, dietary restrictions, religious prohibitions, and other “food no-nos” to get alerted before eating something they shouldn’t.

Future enhancements to Foodinary could include logging nutrition intake, searching for foods that will affect our bodies in the particular way we want, image recognition for prepared food (“This looks looks like a plate of fettuccine alfredo, is that correct?”), user feedback and community interaction, and more.

I love being a part of Startup Weekend. It’s a chance to meet new people, hear new ideas, unite for a common cause, explore new processes and technologies, spend time with excited entrepreneurs, learn from experienced business mentors — in short — to get out of our own comfort zones.

To find out more about events like this, check out:
• Louisville Startup Weekend
• Lean Startup Circle
• Open Coffee

There are a number of coworking spaces and business incubators:
• iHub
• The Park at Shelby
• Velocity
• Mid-America Science Park (Sellersburg)
• XlerateHealth
• MetaCyte
• ChefSpace

Read through the marvelous summaries from these experts:
• Greg Langdon’s summary of Louisville Startup Resources
• Vik Chada’s Mind Map of Louisville Startup Resources

And find an association or two to meet people in your field.
Some of the groups I’m involved in are:
• Technology Association of Louisville Kentucky (TALK)
• SQL Louisville
• Civic Data Alliance
• .NET Meetup
• Society for Technical Communication
• Louisville Digital Association
• Keep Louisville Weird
• Improv Comedy Workshop
• Louisville Mastermind
• No Rules Networking
…and plenty more. Find your own ways to get involved.

Startup Weekend Louisville, #SWLou

Dave Mattingly 4:17 pm on October 7, 2015

Louisville Technology

The Lane Report put out a great article about Louisville technology, in which Susan Gosselin covered many aspects of the local tech scene:
• TechFest, Louisville’s recent conference combining biotech, hardware, software, and emerging tech
• TALK, Louisville’s technology council
• Google Fiber announcing Louisville as its fourth city
• The Louisville Digital Association
• TechTown, the makerspace + creative studio for kids
• government support (Economic Development, KY Innovation Network, grant matching)
• makers (LVL1)
• coders (Code Louisville, Cocoaheads)
• accelerators/incubators (iHub)
• local tech companies (Silica Nexus, RedeApp, Deyta, Stonestreet One, Indatus, and more)
• events (Startup Weekend, CIO Practicum, XR Festival)

She covers even more in her article, but it would take a hundred times as much space to mention our other cool tech companies, opportunities, events, and talent in Louisville. Healthcare/biotech, robotics, STEM, security, innovation, manufacturing, data, and many other elements come together to make the tech sector an “exploding area of development.”

If you want to keep up with what I’m doing regarding technology in the city, keep an eye on my calendar, and follow me on Twitter.

Dave Mattingly 10:53 am on October 6, 2015

TALK Tour

Next Tuesday, TALK will be taking a group of people to visit Advanced Solutions Inc, for a presentation about their BioAssemblyBot.

The BioAssemblyBot is a 3D-printer for human skin and organs. These are designed and produced right here in Louisville, and sold to hospitals and clinics around the world.

Here’s a short video of it in action.

It amazes me that so many cool technologies are invented every day, and that not only does the general public not hear about them all, even those of us who are in technology for a living can’t keep up either. And even more astounding is how many of these inventions and breakthroughs happen in our own backyards.

If you’re in the Louisville area, and would like to join us for the tour, sign up here. And, of course, follow TALK on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to keep abreast of other events.

Event Details
Tuesday, October 13
5:00 – 5:30 Networking and Snacks
5:30 – 6:30 BioAssemblyBot
6:30 – 7:00 Networking and Snacks
Advanced Solutions Inc (website)
1901 Nelson Miller Pkwy, Louisville, KY 40223 (map)
Register here