A lot of today's marketing meeting focused on Portland's supposed inferiority complex.
We're wedged between Washington and California, which both have a reputation for attracting venture capital. That's Silicon Valley to the south and Bellvue/Redmond to the north.
From my angle it's more symbiotic than competitive as we have more of a FOSS meets healthcare angle (a stimulus focus), whereas Microsoft has Xbox and San Jose has disk drives and routers -- not saying I'm not biased.
My attitude is we're happy to accept sponsorships for program expenses, but what we really want are program participants getting to work with us as a part of their job descriptions.
Don't just send us your money, send us your people too. That's more the non-profit psychology, with paid volunteers (e.g. paid by their own companies to help reboot the schools, a self interested practice if your long term plan is to stay in business, recruit new players).
Of course there's a product placement angle to all this. Who wants to be seen as a champion? You don't get it about marketing if you think there's no glory.
Speaking of Portland and champions, I liked how Portland Mercury handled the Michael Phelps story. Way more honestly than the Kellogg's approach. We still have some free speech left in "Little Amsterdam" (FOSS capital). We may be corporate and button down, but we're also sanely liberal (as in catholic) -- OK, so maybe "Little Vienna" then (as in Vienna Circle), likewise a hotbed of liberalism (as in "liberal arts" as in "open and sharing").
The upshot: market Portland as the Nashville of Open Source, laptops as like guitars, geeks as like musician, with lots of different sounds (more than "just country" -- in Nashville as well). The analogies run deep given how player pianos fed into the punch card era. Gibson Guitar already saw this a long time ago, as our sponsor at OSCON. I paid my respects on my last visit to TN (to Jack Daniels as well).
And no, we're not ashamed of our Wild West ethics, park American Cowgirls right across from our Oregon Convention Center. Don't think we're not proud of our night life. Our streets are packed when many a city shuts down, everyone home in the suburbs watching TV. We'd call that scary (even creepy), much prefer to nurture our own, have music clubs galore. That's a feature, not a bug, as we say in the business (show business).
"Shocking maybe, but not shabby" could be our mantra, because we're very serious about studying. We're book readers in this City that Works (another slogan). We plan, we have meetups (oft times at CubeSpace).
So don't underestimate Portland's value, would be my advice. Like if you're really serious about being a Grunchie, get a footprint in this town (to sound esoteric about it -- not everyone reads our buckaneer syllabus, gotta remember that).
Friday, February 20, 2009
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Flash Forward
The Fuller Projection forms a good backdrop for telling stories from the Cold War Era, like about those radomes, basically radar covers, with 3rd generation models in use even today. As Oregonians, it helps to see why that Lufthansa to Frankfurt takes such a northerly path, over Great Slave Lake by way of Calgary.
Dr. Chuck Bolton, emeritus in Sociology at PSU, brought me a recent Futurist article by one Marvin J. Cetron (Timeline for the Future... March-April, 2009). I scanned it over lunch and agreed it seemed pretty fanciful, not unusual in this genre. Science fiction is what you get whenever you write about some time beyond the present.
Transforming possibilities into realities is a kind of alchemy, with lots of psychological elements. The Jungians talk about sublimation a lot, even this late in the game. Strong concepts have a life of their own it seems. This doesn't mean psychology is all you'll need. On the contrary, you'll want to study chemistry, biology... art, ethics.
On the Wanderers list, I've been telling the story of FOSS (free and open source software), somewhat drawing from Revolution OS, a documentary. Grad students were tired of losing access to their favorite toyz, once ejected with a degree, and so used the Internet to collaborate on all the tools one would need to build an operating system (this was GNU-not-Unix), and then they built that operating system (which was Linux-also-GNU).
By keeping the generic power tools in the commons, everyone enjoys higher living standards right out of the gate. Those who put work into it, benefit from the work of that many more others. Those that don't put any work into it, still benefit as well, presumably add value in other ways besides committing to the kernel (something I've never done).
FreeBSD, OS X... Windows. There's lots more lore.
I also talk on the Wanderers list about about how we could be doing a lot more fun and informative storytelling if we'd deign to introduce SQL, a language for "keeping tabs":
You can't explain the world to children without talking about SQL. Not really. If this were a village, and you were the village elder, and you didn't have anything to say about core memes of the culture, left that to other elders, then we'd want to find those other elders. I have this "take me to your leaders" attitude, being fresh off the UFO (Princeton).I was yakking with Larry and Dave about OLPC:
On edu-sig (Python Nation), I tout MDPA i.e. multiple desktops per adult, thinking more of those NASA type mission control places ("control room" in the language of places). Park your laptops at the door when ye enter the workplace (or return them to the checkout clerk?).The XOs are really for children, not adults so much, or even teens. That doesn't mean they're not cool.
In Hillsboro, we liked having the Internet through a gateway with two subnets, so we could play IP routing games. We had a wifi option but student stations were on traditional ethernet, with an air gap between the lab and the rest of West Precinct.
I've been getting some good peer review from New Mexico on my nascent "geek versus nerd" distinction, an exercise in systematic ideology.
I'm mapping "geek versus nerd" to Terry' "engineering versus science" meme, which encourages practice, exercising of freedoms.
Brian wisely counsels against hubris.
I've got lots of mnemonics going. Mostly I'm working to recruit activists for our "circus" (an allusion to our geek heritage).
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Wanderers 2009.2.17
This is one of those gothic meetups, like we're all Victorian ghosts, arguing Scopes Trial stuff. There's lots of wood, old fixtures, i.e. the Pauling House works as a set for this material. We're living in the past, way way in the past.
This is why I'm skeptical that the Lower 48 is holding many cards. Why would an investment banker park an office in this neighborhood, when people act like nothing significant has occurred since Williams Jennings Bryan went up against Clarence Darrow that time?
How about Ed Murrow versus Joe McCarthy? If you want great debates, why not come a little further forward towards the present? Any interest in recent history? Anyone? Gary Powers was fun. Let's do some First Person Physics around him, his clever dodges? Just trying to stay relevant, thinking of McMinnville, field trip possibilities.
I used to think Ronald Reagan giving a Medal of Freedom to some guy declaring "the USA we have known... bankrupt and extinct" a newsworthy event. That's back when I thought journalists were supposed to take "the long view" about stuff.
Later I learned it's historians who hammer together a story like that. So what's the story? Over twenty years to cover since then, so we'd best get on with it then. Narrative makes a difference. Geeks know that.
Anyway, Duane does a good job with the slides, packs in some good science (amino acids, tyrannosaurus). I've blogged about his rap before. He admits that Catholics, Methodists, Presbyterians and Episcopalians are pretty much off the hook, don't listen to Creation Station, an obscure network to begin with. These aren't real debates in my view, just re-enactments of what used to be real debates. There's a difference.
I just interrupted to ask why we care if North Americans are ignorant slobs (excluding Canadians of course) i.e. the whole world already knows we're living in a fictional media cloud, a Matrix. We could probably let them wallow in their Wall*e-like way, and still get through the day maybe? Misplaced priorities? Wasting pearls?
Duane defended his people, I thought somewhat valiantly.
I'm always taking this weirdo position that the Lower 48 is this irrelevant "dumbfuckistan" we don't care about ("toxic assets"). Just a position (offensive!), looking for feedback.
People know Kirby takes weird positions, defends them, find me entertaining in that way. Bring me to a meeting and it'll probably take a different direction, even if I just sit there blogging, sipping vino.
Given I actually live here (in the Lower 48), you can imagine I actually care deeply about the ignorance levels (duh), have fond hopes of reaching out through coffee shops, television, Internet, maybe addressing these shortcomings.
LCDs anyone? Cafe Philosophique to the rescue (or Philanthropique).
Anyone care about Zonohedra? MVP Koski does, and I salute him for advancing our cause.
Given where my head is at, I just get impatient with all this retro, dino, prehistoric thinking. Mad Magazine cheers me up sometimes, but that's just escapism.
Why do we continue arguing "calculators or no calculators?" like we're all broken records? Why no "live logic"? Why no "software robotics"? There's lots we could do around marketing. Do I have to think of everything myself?
OK, I'm ranting. My blog, might as well pound a desk somewhere eh? I'm allowed to vent, doctor says.
I just interrupted again (too much to drink? nah): what about devolution? Can't we slide back into the primordial ooze, at least mentally? I'm thinking the Lower 48 is proof positive.
This is why I'm skeptical that the Lower 48 is holding many cards. Why would an investment banker park an office in this neighborhood, when people act like nothing significant has occurred since Williams Jennings Bryan went up against Clarence Darrow that time?
How about Ed Murrow versus Joe McCarthy? If you want great debates, why not come a little further forward towards the present? Any interest in recent history? Anyone? Gary Powers was fun. Let's do some First Person Physics around him, his clever dodges? Just trying to stay relevant, thinking of McMinnville, field trip possibilities.
I used to think Ronald Reagan giving a Medal of Freedom to some guy declaring "the USA we have known... bankrupt and extinct" a newsworthy event. That's back when I thought journalists were supposed to take "the long view" about stuff.
Later I learned it's historians who hammer together a story like that. So what's the story? Over twenty years to cover since then, so we'd best get on with it then. Narrative makes a difference. Geeks know that.
Anyway, Duane does a good job with the slides, packs in some good science (amino acids, tyrannosaurus). I've blogged about his rap before. He admits that Catholics, Methodists, Presbyterians and Episcopalians are pretty much off the hook, don't listen to Creation Station, an obscure network to begin with. These aren't real debates in my view, just re-enactments of what used to be real debates. There's a difference.
I just interrupted to ask why we care if North Americans are ignorant slobs (excluding Canadians of course) i.e. the whole world already knows we're living in a fictional media cloud, a Matrix. We could probably let them wallow in their Wall*e-like way, and still get through the day maybe? Misplaced priorities? Wasting pearls?
Duane defended his people, I thought somewhat valiantly.
I'm always taking this weirdo position that the Lower 48 is this irrelevant "dumbfuckistan" we don't care about ("toxic assets"). Just a position (offensive!), looking for feedback.
People know Kirby takes weird positions, defends them, find me entertaining in that way. Bring me to a meeting and it'll probably take a different direction, even if I just sit there blogging, sipping vino.
Given I actually live here (in the Lower 48), you can imagine I actually care deeply about the ignorance levels (duh), have fond hopes of reaching out through coffee shops, television, Internet, maybe addressing these shortcomings.
LCDs anyone? Cafe Philosophique to the rescue (or Philanthropique).
Anyone care about Zonohedra? MVP Koski does, and I salute him for advancing our cause.
Given where my head is at, I just get impatient with all this retro, dino, prehistoric thinking. Mad Magazine cheers me up sometimes, but that's just escapism.
Why do we continue arguing "calculators or no calculators?" like we're all broken records? Why no "live logic"? Why no "software robotics"? There's lots we could do around marketing. Do I have to think of everything myself?
OK, I'm ranting. My blog, might as well pound a desk somewhere eh? I'm allowed to vent, doctor says.
I just interrupted again (too much to drink? nah): what about devolution? Can't we slide back into the primordial ooze, at least mentally? I'm thinking the Lower 48 is proof positive.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Family Bulletin
For those tracking Famiglia Urner via the blogosphere, rumors are true that Carol Urner is in the care of Presbyterian Hospital with a non-life threatening ailment, likely to be discharged this week.
Alexia is on standby in case I'm needed but that's so far unlikely, our family reunion for later this year. I might have more details on Facebook.
My thanks for your expressions of concern. I'm thinking she's getting excellent professional attention.
Julie recalls her care in Bloemfontein (Orange Free State) when the prognosis was far less clear. South Africa has earned itself a good reputation for its superior medical care.
Alexia is on standby in case I'm needed but that's so far unlikely, our family reunion for later this year. I might have more details on Facebook.
My thanks for your expressions of concern. I'm thinking she's getting excellent professional attention.
Julie recalls her care in Bloemfontein (Orange Free State) when the prognosis was far less clear. South Africa has earned itself a good reputation for its superior medical care.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Friday, February 13, 2009
Science and Public Policy
I scooted from the OS Bridge planning meeting, which I will blog about separately, to this ISEPP lecture at Portland's main downtown theater, the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, where Dr. Susan Haak was already in full swing with her slide presentation. I managed to sit towards the front, with other Wanderers.
Susan teaches law, coming from a background in epistemology (a good word for clearing any room). Her focus is the scientific endeavor, of which she is rightly proud, and yet using "scientific" as an honorific, a tool for inspiring deference, is one of the social problems bogging us down, including at the Supreme Court level.
The ethics of science are coming under increasing strain because of the huge sums involved. The open, sharing aspect of the work, so critical to keeping the enterprise on track, is up against the will to hunker down around intellectual properties of an undisclosed nature, a "we have it and you don't" ethic, running contrary to overall productivity.
Bruce Adams had some excellent perspective on this, which he raised at the Heathman dinner right after. He works in chip fabrication, is currently crazy busy moving two laser labs in a stormy business climate. How do we recruit new talent to these industries when the greatest technical achievements, the most celebrated romantic breakthroughs, are wrapped in secrecy for legal reasons?
In the old days, a young person could dream herself or himself into the future by reading realistic accounts of airplane flight, and enter on the path to becoming a pilot or aircraft engineer as a hobbyist or amateur, feeling equipped with the knowledge of where this might lead. The state of the art was relatively "open source".
Bruce worries high technology, esoteric to begin with because of its invisibility, its super smallness, is self limiting, self strangling, because when it gets really good, it becomes inaccessible. People can no longer follow the action and become beauticians instead. The culture fails to replicate itself. As Susan pointed out towards the end of her slides, there's no guarantee against backsliding. We're capable of losing ground.
I sat next to Bruce at the dinner and shared my "Portland as Toontown" meme. The story here is that one of Portland's high technology outputs is visualizations, animations in particular, which feed the imagination with well-informed disclosures.
Children grow up on cartoons, such that schooling may feel like a sudden deprivation, a removal of oxygen (a suffocating decrease in bandwidth). We need to see what we're talking about, from the chip to the cloud (as in "cloud computing").
Open source "code" (as in "software code") is insufficient, though necessary, is only a part of the solution. O'Reilly works to fill provide some of the rest of what's needed with Make: magazine.
The hardware itself needs more public appreciation (I'm agreeing with Bruce in other words).
Medical science is a good example of where these cartoons apply, and yet most of the budget for such animations goes towards marketing, where realism and technical content are not priorities, only get in the way. Inspiring desire through motivational psychology is not the same thing as teaching science or its ethics.
Joe, our practicing psychiatrist, had some related concerns. If the science doesn't really corroborate the practice of giving highly psychoactive drugs to young people as a "preventative" (a controversial tendency pushed by industry), will the flood of "scientific" papers dressing up the idea drown out these physicians' concerns.
Psychiatry is a difficult area and the best and the brightest in that field do not have a uniform view, are not in lockstep. The scientific enterprise might suggest a go slow approach, simply on the basis of the lack of consensus.
But with huge pressure from big pharma, the manufacture of consent might proceed forthwith. Children get to be guinea pigs, woo hoo.
Susan is quite familiar, from her involvement in actual cases, with how science becomes corrupted. This counters and tempers her pride in the human animal. Our capacity for selflessness and patience is offset by our rush to cash in, no matter how prematurely.
Susan teaches law, coming from a background in epistemology (a good word for clearing any room). Her focus is the scientific endeavor, of which she is rightly proud, and yet using "scientific" as an honorific, a tool for inspiring deference, is one of the social problems bogging us down, including at the Supreme Court level.
The ethics of science are coming under increasing strain because of the huge sums involved. The open, sharing aspect of the work, so critical to keeping the enterprise on track, is up against the will to hunker down around intellectual properties of an undisclosed nature, a "we have it and you don't" ethic, running contrary to overall productivity.
Bruce Adams had some excellent perspective on this, which he raised at the Heathman dinner right after. He works in chip fabrication, is currently crazy busy moving two laser labs in a stormy business climate. How do we recruit new talent to these industries when the greatest technical achievements, the most celebrated romantic breakthroughs, are wrapped in secrecy for legal reasons?
In the old days, a young person could dream herself or himself into the future by reading realistic accounts of airplane flight, and enter on the path to becoming a pilot or aircraft engineer as a hobbyist or amateur, feeling equipped with the knowledge of where this might lead. The state of the art was relatively "open source".
Bruce worries high technology, esoteric to begin with because of its invisibility, its super smallness, is self limiting, self strangling, because when it gets really good, it becomes inaccessible. People can no longer follow the action and become beauticians instead. The culture fails to replicate itself. As Susan pointed out towards the end of her slides, there's no guarantee against backsliding. We're capable of losing ground.
I sat next to Bruce at the dinner and shared my "Portland as Toontown" meme. The story here is that one of Portland's high technology outputs is visualizations, animations in particular, which feed the imagination with well-informed disclosures.
Children grow up on cartoons, such that schooling may feel like a sudden deprivation, a removal of oxygen (a suffocating decrease in bandwidth). We need to see what we're talking about, from the chip to the cloud (as in "cloud computing").
Open source "code" (as in "software code") is insufficient, though necessary, is only a part of the solution. O'Reilly works to fill provide some of the rest of what's needed with Make: magazine.
The hardware itself needs more public appreciation (I'm agreeing with Bruce in other words).
Medical science is a good example of where these cartoons apply, and yet most of the budget for such animations goes towards marketing, where realism and technical content are not priorities, only get in the way. Inspiring desire through motivational psychology is not the same thing as teaching science or its ethics.
Joe, our practicing psychiatrist, had some related concerns. If the science doesn't really corroborate the practice of giving highly psychoactive drugs to young people as a "preventative" (a controversial tendency pushed by industry), will the flood of "scientific" papers dressing up the idea drown out these physicians' concerns.
Psychiatry is a difficult area and the best and the brightest in that field do not have a uniform view, are not in lockstep. The scientific enterprise might suggest a go slow approach, simply on the basis of the lack of consensus.
But with huge pressure from big pharma, the manufacture of consent might proceed forthwith. Children get to be guinea pigs, woo hoo.
Susan is quite familiar, from her involvement in actual cases, with how science becomes corrupted. This counters and tempers her pride in the human animal. Our capacity for selflessness and patience is offset by our rush to cash in, no matter how prematurely.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
PPUG 2009.2.10
Our Portland Python Users Group is well attended tonight. We went around introducing ourselves. A lot of us are between jobs or underemployed, but a few of us are doing OK, working for the State or whatever. We seem to be collectively into Django a lot, web frameworks being the currency of the realm in some ways.
Robin Dunn of wxPython fame has joined us, good seeing him again.
I said something about fighting a MUMPS dragon in some unspecified context, not getting into details. Nobody knew what that was.
Michel gave a really quick talk on the Python turtle module (like in Logo).
I went to some key slides in my Chicago talk, like the one showing Python Nation as a neighbor to the Programming Republic of Perl, wondering if that made sense, talking about lore, storytelling, it's importance as cultural glue. We need to tell our own history. Every age has its epics and sagas. Technical content embeds against that backdrop.
These thoughts connect with my power walk with the CSO this morning, to the top of Mt. Tabor. Glenn is into a strong mnemonic matrix relating geography, navigation and geometry. Generating the key edge lengths needed to construct the polyhedra is a part of it. Our raps dovetail quite a bit.
Back to the meeting: I mainly focussed on VPython, showing the kind of stuff I use to teach geometry, animation. I didn't mention anything about Bucky this time. I opened with my little xtranormal cartoon, which people enjoyed, shared that with Gordon Riggs as well.
I was somewhat scattered, as is my style, but entertaining and not incoherent. People expressed appreciation afterwards. I built up Saturday Academy as a headquarters for showcasing novel curriculum ideas, true enough given I teach there (ahem ahem), but it's not just about me obviously. Gordon Hofmann comes to mind, an SA: mainstay over the years.
Jason did a fine presentation on Zine, which I'd never heard of. I always come away from these meetings feeling twice as ignorant as before they start. So much I don't know.
Pocoo Development Center: check it out! Very young people are behind this high quality code.
Werkzeug isn't a full web framework. You call it, it doesn't call you. It's more a toolkit with some glue, for doing webby things. Adam Lowry is showing us his little demos.
This looks like a good framework for getting a handle on the newish MVT paradigm for web frameworks, which seems to have fallen into place. He's using Jinja2 for a template language (T), a lot like the Django's but a superset, allows more Python in the tags. He's using SQL Alchemy for an ORM (object relational mapper (M)). There's a really cool debugger. Total control, best of breed tools. But direction is often better than freedom.
Over beers I struck up a conversation about PHP, which I'd been cramming on in case my destiny demanded it (it didn't). Michelle, employed as a Django programmer, considers it like an ugly old pair of pants she keeps around because they're comfortable.
A lot of web programmers cut their teeth on PHP, a sprawling infrastructure that grew without much of a plan, a hodgepodge in many ways. Python is cleaner, a better design, but hasn't been in the web world as long, unless you count Zope (we had a couple of Zope developers tonight, including Maria).
Michelle's idea to do more outreach to newbies, maybe new to Python but not programming, or maybe new to programming, is a good one. Maybe the City of Portland needs an open source avatar (some appropriately named office)? The Chamber of Commerce?
Our Coffee Shops Network needs imaginative coders, whereas vendors need more ways to position themselves and their products as a part of the solution, as public supporters of worthy programming, including a more productive kind of Reality TV. These are ongoing themes in my blog posts.
We all agreed that universities lag the private sector 3-5 years or more, high schools even further behind. In "theory courses" it maybe doesn't matter as much, but when it comes to teaching skills... we could be doing a lot more.
I need to wake up pretty early and fetch Anna Roys from the airport, am on duty as a Wanderers escort again, plus am wearing my Quaker futurist hat.
Robin Dunn of wxPython fame has joined us, good seeing him again.
I said something about fighting a MUMPS dragon in some unspecified context, not getting into details. Nobody knew what that was.
Michel gave a really quick talk on the Python turtle module (like in Logo).
I went to some key slides in my Chicago talk, like the one showing Python Nation as a neighbor to the Programming Republic of Perl, wondering if that made sense, talking about lore, storytelling, it's importance as cultural glue. We need to tell our own history. Every age has its epics and sagas. Technical content embeds against that backdrop.
These thoughts connect with my power walk with the CSO this morning, to the top of Mt. Tabor. Glenn is into a strong mnemonic matrix relating geography, navigation and geometry. Generating the key edge lengths needed to construct the polyhedra is a part of it. Our raps dovetail quite a bit.
Back to the meeting: I mainly focussed on VPython, showing the kind of stuff I use to teach geometry, animation. I didn't mention anything about Bucky this time. I opened with my little xtranormal cartoon, which people enjoyed, shared that with Gordon Riggs as well.
I was somewhat scattered, as is my style, but entertaining and not incoherent. People expressed appreciation afterwards. I built up Saturday Academy as a headquarters for showcasing novel curriculum ideas, true enough given I teach there (ahem ahem), but it's not just about me obviously. Gordon Hofmann comes to mind, an SA: mainstay over the years.
Jason did a fine presentation on Zine, which I'd never heard of. I always come away from these meetings feeling twice as ignorant as before they start. So much I don't know.
Pocoo Development Center: check it out! Very young people are behind this high quality code.
Werkzeug isn't a full web framework. You call it, it doesn't call you. It's more a toolkit with some glue, for doing webby things. Adam Lowry is showing us his little demos.
This looks like a good framework for getting a handle on the newish MVT paradigm for web frameworks, which seems to have fallen into place. He's using Jinja2 for a template language (T), a lot like the Django's but a superset, allows more Python in the tags. He's using SQL Alchemy for an ORM (object relational mapper (M)). There's a really cool debugger. Total control, best of breed tools. But direction is often better than freedom.
Over beers I struck up a conversation about PHP, which I'd been cramming on in case my destiny demanded it (it didn't). Michelle, employed as a Django programmer, considers it like an ugly old pair of pants she keeps around because they're comfortable.
A lot of web programmers cut their teeth on PHP, a sprawling infrastructure that grew without much of a plan, a hodgepodge in many ways. Python is cleaner, a better design, but hasn't been in the web world as long, unless you count Zope (we had a couple of Zope developers tonight, including Maria).
Michelle's idea to do more outreach to newbies, maybe new to Python but not programming, or maybe new to programming, is a good one. Maybe the City of Portland needs an open source avatar (some appropriately named office)? The Chamber of Commerce?
Our Coffee Shops Network needs imaginative coders, whereas vendors need more ways to position themselves and their products as a part of the solution, as public supporters of worthy programming, including a more productive kind of Reality TV. These are ongoing themes in my blog posts.
We all agreed that universities lag the private sector 3-5 years or more, high schools even further behind. In "theory courses" it maybe doesn't matter as much, but when it comes to teaching skills... we could be doing a lot more.
I need to wake up pretty early and fetch Anna Roys from the airport, am on duty as a Wanderers escort again, plus am wearing my Quaker futurist hat.
Sunday, February 08, 2009
Broad Brush Strokes
After a heady morning discussing dark energy, dimension theory and so on, our little group of Portland cognoscenti, our visiting MVP, stood in line at Tanh Thao, awaiting a large table.
Conversation turned to politics and the fact that so many USAers were already giving a thumbs down to the perceived stimulus package, and why was that?
Maybe because they didn't believe it would help them fulfill their dreams and aspirations? "How will this help me pursue happiness?" was the question. "Life is short, and we have no more time to keep getting it wrong".
In my view, USAers have had it drilled into their brains that the government is inherently ineffective and wasteful, squanders taxes, whereas the private sector is lean and mean, a pinnacle of know-how and efficiency.
This party line, more associated with Republicans, has been used since Eisenhower's day to argue for privatizing taxpayers' assets, dismantling FDR's "experiment in socialism".
For the public to buy in and consider it believable, it needs to have a private sector look and feel, with "it" being some positive future, some other tomorrow, one wherein the recession turns around and we see a brighter path forward.
When the federal government tries to lead, by growing its own infrastructure, the reaction is negative, because of how government is widely perceived.
The rationale here as that the government is inherently a monopoly, even with all those branches, and branches within branches, whereas the private sector or so-called "free market" is full of cut-throat competitors who must stay wasteless to keep in business.
Missing from this analysis is the fact that these cut-throat companies may feed on Americans like bloodthirsty parasites, leeching off taxpayers and their government alike, as there's nothing in a corporate charter that defines it as needing to think or care about the welfare of Americans in general.
"Just stay barely legal and go out there and make a killing for your shareholders" -- that's the free market mandate. "Raising all boats" was never the goal.
If the government wants to make a comeback, it could maybe offer some valued fee-based services at no profit. We could have government run hotel chains, rental car agencies, banks, even theme parks. Why just run schools? Why not set some standards and compete in the private sector, not as a monopolist but as an alternative.
This is what the military is in fact, an entire parallel economy with its own stores, fleets, health care system, theme parks. You just need to sign away your democratic rights to join, and then you've got a socialized ownership model, access to the people's property (jets, ships, all manner of toyz).
A good way to reinsert government into civilian life in a positive way would be to repurpose some military assets for civilian use, while keeping the not-for-profit design. Turn some bases into training centers for future road engineers, disaster relief personnel. Offer a cut rate inter-base airline.
This all sounds like science fiction today, as the status quo is to let Democrats and Republicans keep their old context, one in which they don't have to invent a real future, only have to debate in monetary terms, a degraded form of discourse, a low IQ banter.
Numbers with a lot of zeros after 'em don't really register, aren't substantive enough to really tell a good story. A trillion dollars isn't worth much, if you can't paint a clear picture of what you'd do with it. Futurism would have to be in vogue again, if these science fiction scenarios were to start holding water.
What it comes down to is a need for role models. The American public has high regard for the new president, for the most part doesn't doubt his integrity or intelligence. But politicians in general just talk about money a lot, and that in itself is a kind of dumbing down.
Take the resources and personnel you already have, a vast network of properties and assets, including public schools, a post office, even a passenger rail line, and do some creative things with them. Show us you're thinking about the future.
Otherwise you're just a cash cow with no brains, which is why the vote of no confidence. Do something smart, or don't do it at all.
For example, what's to stop a public school from sharing about the Fuller Projection, World Game, a concentric hierarchy of polyhedra in a sphere packing context, geodesic domes?
These are "adding spice" memes, not "replace everything" memes. The military is apparently not patriotic enough (unlikely), or too cowed by dino professors, to institute these reforms, but there's nothing to stop a public school from distinguishing itself, standing out as an early adopter of a new curriculum. Or how about an intelligence agency? Do we have any of those?
Conversation turned to politics and the fact that so many USAers were already giving a thumbs down to the perceived stimulus package, and why was that?
Maybe because they didn't believe it would help them fulfill their dreams and aspirations? "How will this help me pursue happiness?" was the question. "Life is short, and we have no more time to keep getting it wrong".
In my view, USAers have had it drilled into their brains that the government is inherently ineffective and wasteful, squanders taxes, whereas the private sector is lean and mean, a pinnacle of know-how and efficiency.
This party line, more associated with Republicans, has been used since Eisenhower's day to argue for privatizing taxpayers' assets, dismantling FDR's "experiment in socialism".
For the public to buy in and consider it believable, it needs to have a private sector look and feel, with "it" being some positive future, some other tomorrow, one wherein the recession turns around and we see a brighter path forward.
When the federal government tries to lead, by growing its own infrastructure, the reaction is negative, because of how government is widely perceived.
The rationale here as that the government is inherently a monopoly, even with all those branches, and branches within branches, whereas the private sector or so-called "free market" is full of cut-throat competitors who must stay wasteless to keep in business.
Missing from this analysis is the fact that these cut-throat companies may feed on Americans like bloodthirsty parasites, leeching off taxpayers and their government alike, as there's nothing in a corporate charter that defines it as needing to think or care about the welfare of Americans in general.
"Just stay barely legal and go out there and make a killing for your shareholders" -- that's the free market mandate. "Raising all boats" was never the goal.
If the government wants to make a comeback, it could maybe offer some valued fee-based services at no profit. We could have government run hotel chains, rental car agencies, banks, even theme parks. Why just run schools? Why not set some standards and compete in the private sector, not as a monopolist but as an alternative.
This is what the military is in fact, an entire parallel economy with its own stores, fleets, health care system, theme parks. You just need to sign away your democratic rights to join, and then you've got a socialized ownership model, access to the people's property (jets, ships, all manner of toyz).
A good way to reinsert government into civilian life in a positive way would be to repurpose some military assets for civilian use, while keeping the not-for-profit design. Turn some bases into training centers for future road engineers, disaster relief personnel. Offer a cut rate inter-base airline.
This all sounds like science fiction today, as the status quo is to let Democrats and Republicans keep their old context, one in which they don't have to invent a real future, only have to debate in monetary terms, a degraded form of discourse, a low IQ banter.
Numbers with a lot of zeros after 'em don't really register, aren't substantive enough to really tell a good story. A trillion dollars isn't worth much, if you can't paint a clear picture of what you'd do with it. Futurism would have to be in vogue again, if these science fiction scenarios were to start holding water.
What it comes down to is a need for role models. The American public has high regard for the new president, for the most part doesn't doubt his integrity or intelligence. But politicians in general just talk about money a lot, and that in itself is a kind of dumbing down.
Take the resources and personnel you already have, a vast network of properties and assets, including public schools, a post office, even a passenger rail line, and do some creative things with them. Show us you're thinking about the future.
Otherwise you're just a cash cow with no brains, which is why the vote of no confidence. Do something smart, or don't do it at all.
For example, what's to stop a public school from sharing about the Fuller Projection, World Game, a concentric hierarchy of polyhedra in a sphere packing context, geodesic domes?
These are "adding spice" memes, not "replace everything" memes. The military is apparently not patriotic enough (unlikely), or too cowed by dino professors, to institute these reforms, but there's nothing to stop a public school from distinguishing itself, standing out as an early adopter of a new curriculum. Or how about an intelligence agency? Do we have any of those?
Thursday, February 05, 2009
Dimension Talk
From the Wanderers list:
> If Physics is mathematical, is it "a miracle" that
> something physical is described by a mathematical
> formula? What does e=mc-squared mean anyway,
> what is gravity anyway? Is its essence mathematical.
> Or is the mathematical formula a partial descriptor
> of one or some of its realities?
>
Note that in buckaneer world we don't say e=mc-squared. Whoever saw the play at PCS might remember he always says "to the 2nd power".
Why?
Because using a square to model 2nd powering is a cultural convention, not anything "proved" or "necessary", not a "law" mandated from on-high.
Likewise a tetrahedron models 3rd powering just fine, plus is more economical in terms of edges and faces, is the minimum polyhedron (hence simplex) in terms of having an inside and outside in Kantian conceptuality (= ordinary experiential time/space, whereas that so-called "flatland" of "2 dimensional objects" is just a lot of cartoons about triangles on paper with talk balloons, "seeing" each other as line segments etc., Abbott's book having set the stage for the next 100+ years of inventive fiction along these lines).
We don't teach kids to "question authority" around "dimension talk" or even explain to them that there's more than one authoritative language game using it, i.e. "fourth dimension" in Einstein-Minkowski lingo (world lines etc)., is not the same as "fourth dimension" in Coxeter-Conway lingo. Coxeter himself is authoritative on this point.
Fuller's "4D" is yet different again, simply identifies the primitive 4ness of the tetrahedron (4 corners, 4 faces) with our Kantian experience of spatiality as beings in time.
> If Physics is mathematical, is it "a miracle" that
> something physical is described by a mathematical
> formula? What does e=mc-squared mean anyway,
> what is gravity anyway? Is its essence mathematical.
> Or is the mathematical formula a partial descriptor
> of one or some of its realities?
>
Note that in buckaneer world we don't say e=mc-squared. Whoever saw the play at PCS might remember he always says "to the 2nd power".
Why?
Because using a square to model 2nd powering is a cultural convention, not anything "proved" or "necessary", not a "law" mandated from on-high.
Likewise a tetrahedron models 3rd powering just fine, plus is more economical in terms of edges and faces, is the minimum polyhedron (hence simplex) in terms of having an inside and outside in Kantian conceptuality (= ordinary experiential time/space, whereas that so-called "flatland" of "2 dimensional objects" is just a lot of cartoons about triangles on paper with talk balloons, "seeing" each other as line segments etc., Abbott's book having set the stage for the next 100+ years of inventive fiction along these lines).
We don't teach kids to "question authority" around "dimension talk" or even explain to them that there's more than one authoritative language game using it, i.e. "fourth dimension" in Einstein-Minkowski lingo (world lines etc)., is not the same as "fourth dimension" in Coxeter-Conway lingo. Coxeter himself is authoritative on this point.
Fuller's "4D" is yet different again, simply identifies the primitive 4ness of the tetrahedron (4 corners, 4 faces) with our Kantian experience of spatiality as beings in time.
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
GeekSpeak
Having cut some teeth with Google App Engine, I'm keen to learn more of these routing and templating solutions, the key to "HttpResponsiveness".
In the former category: Werkzeug. In the latter: Jinja2 and Flatland (the latter by Jason of PPUG fame).
On the Chicago front, I did some promotional work around our Python for Teachers.
I need to poke Lew on Facebook, hope OK I compared him to Vernon Jordan, Jr., -- trying to map DC memes to PDX more, as they've apparently stagnated out there, no surprise really. Capitalism at work.
Speaking of nation-building, I liked this bumper sticker on an obviously union-loyal rig: Fight the Rich, Not Their Wars.
Of course I don't believe in class warfare per se, as the concept of "class", like the concept of "race", is both bogus and obsolete (per Fuller, building on work in anthropology).
Speaking of Fuller, another Medal of Freedom winner by that same surname was honored on the CBS Evening News last night, the co-founder of Habitat for Humanity. Millard really got the ball rolling, in terms of where to put the focus, if wanting to win the war on idiocracy.
In Pythonic Mathematics, we're likely to subclass DwellingMachine or EnvironmentControl (sounds Javaesque), if wanting to get back to our retro "doll houses" of the 1900s (kinda dumb), e.g.
Older generations have a right to be proud of their old fogie solutions (it's what they knew), but if the newer ones don't evolve the aerospace sector, serving civilians in our Global U... well, that'll be a sign they're still suffering from an internalized "military-industrial complex", a debilitating form of brain damage (post-WWII) that lowered IQs across the board.
Let's not stay stuck in that rut, eh? Look to Canada more? Smart cookies in those parts.
Only realistic positive futurism on TV will stimulate the economy at this point. No one cares about billions or trillions for ho hum more of the same. Let's build Old Man River City maybe? Lots of contracts for veterans.
Money-talk is mind-numbing, deadens the senses. Nobody smart just yaks about money. If someone comes forward as "an investment banker" and just talks money all the time, show him the door. That's not what it's all about. Even the hokey pokey is more relevant.
In the former category: Werkzeug. In the latter: Jinja2 and Flatland (the latter by Jason of PPUG fame).
On the Chicago front, I did some promotional work around our Python for Teachers.
I need to poke Lew on Facebook, hope OK I compared him to Vernon Jordan, Jr., -- trying to map DC memes to PDX more, as they've apparently stagnated out there, no surprise really. Capitalism at work.
Speaking of nation-building, I liked this bumper sticker on an obviously union-loyal rig: Fight the Rich, Not Their Wars.
Of course I don't believe in class warfare per se, as the concept of "class", like the concept of "race", is both bogus and obsolete (per Fuller, building on work in anthropology).
Speaking of Fuller, another Medal of Freedom winner by that same surname was honored on the CBS Evening News last night, the co-founder of Habitat for Humanity. Millard really got the ball rolling, in terms of where to put the focus, if wanting to win the war on idiocracy.
In Pythonic Mathematics, we're likely to subclass DwellingMachine or EnvironmentControl (sounds Javaesque), if wanting to get back to our retro "doll houses" of the 1900s (kinda dumb), e.g.
class Retro(DwellingMachine): def __init__(self, it): self.weatherized = False self.heavy = True self.inefficient = True self.mortaged = True self.air_deliverable = False self.precision_parts = NoneWatch out for that garbage collector! (insider Python joke).
Older generations have a right to be proud of their old fogie solutions (it's what they knew), but if the newer ones don't evolve the aerospace sector, serving civilians in our Global U... well, that'll be a sign they're still suffering from an internalized "military-industrial complex", a debilitating form of brain damage (post-WWII) that lowered IQs across the board.
Let's not stay stuck in that rut, eh? Look to Canada more? Smart cookies in those parts.
Only realistic positive futurism on TV will stimulate the economy at this point. No one cares about billions or trillions for ho hum more of the same. Let's build Old Man River City maybe? Lots of contracts for veterans.
Money-talk is mind-numbing, deadens the senses. Nobody smart just yaks about money. If someone comes forward as "an investment banker" and just talks money all the time, show him the door. That's not what it's all about. Even the hokey pokey is more relevant.
Tuesday, February 03, 2009
Wanderers 2009.2.3
Lynne Taylor is the featured artist at Artwalk in Hillsboro tonight, so obviously won't be joining us at the Pauling House.The beautiful painting above is from her promotional materials.
Speaking of promos, the MOTD (message of the day) at Open Source Garden is a sneak peak at the OS Bridge call for proposals. I like the innovative categories Audrey came up with.
Open session tonight. If the elist is any indication, we'll have some rollicking debates.Good seeing Gordon today, glad to meet his brother.
Later: all guys tonight, Steve Bergman included, with conversation drifting to motors and engines (internal combustion, marine, jet), though we started with kosher foods, the difference between gefilte fish (עפֿילטע פֿיש), and lutefisk etc. David Tver knows lots of lore.
Clean air standards: retiring more of the fleet in favor of contemporary vehicles, not just hybrids, would improve matters. In LA, the average new vehicle breaths in filthier air than it exhausts, contends Barry.
Our proposed repatriation bases in Stockton, Las Vegas, might feature van pools for carbon-conscious security moms, government issue, more practical than hummers. They could do their own driving (we're accepting in that way).
How is a company like Raytheon not part of the government? Just asking.
Lots of discussion of philosophy as a discipline, rhetoric versus logic etc. We discussed Terry's defense of free agency and engineering, scientism vs. Scientology etc. We coached Steve on possible scenarios regarding his philosophical framework. Bill worked on a jigsaw puzzle.
The wine flowed freely.
Monday, February 02, 2009
Sunday, February 01, 2009
The Day the Earth Stood Still (movie review)
I'm posting about the remake with Keanu, who by now has lots of street cred as "the one". This is a Judgment Day reverie, with God replaced by a Really Big Metal Person, Keanu his quasi-human emissary.
It's the same dark pestilence though, with the same humans in denial about their selfishness and depravity, a very Biblical film, could be one of Cecil B. DeMill's, but we've come a long way (a long way) in the special effects department.
I went with my North Portland friend Leslie, sometimes a man's name. Some people wonder if ethnic Quakers are allowed to mingle in mixed company, especially if single. Our practices aren't especially unusual in that regard, at least not in the USA.
We exercise our civil liberties in a democracy, meaning our meetings (of even just two or three) criss-cross ethnicities and genders (related concepts).
Jesus is encouraged as a role model, in that he pow wowed with tax collectors, Roman soldiers, other non-Jewish types (however a lot of his best friends were Jews, as he was).
That wasn't an entirely irrelevant aside, in that the biologist mom in this movie is the non-biological guardian of a cute little boy, who could pass for a girl in the introductory scene, even though playing a violent video game (as many girls do). Later it's clear what sex he is.
Although the relationship between Helen and Jacob is somewhat strained, it's real enough, and strong enough, to give Keanu pause. He's also met with a wise Chinese sage (note "Chinese dialog coach" in the credits), formerly one of "them" who has become comfortable with his humanity, thinks we're OK.
Those metal mites eating the truck and stadium were awesome, very Prey.
Our venue was the St. John's McMenamins, a charming stop on any leisurely itinerary. Read up on your history. Expo 1905 was no joke, one of the great world's fairs of all time. Seattle's came later.
National Cash Register (NCR) had the domed pavilion, and that dome was preserved, what you'll look straight out at, from inside the movie theater.
I'm reminded of the Expo 1897 in Nashville. Most of the pavilions went away, but Nashvillians fell in love with Athena, a relationship that has only gotten more serious with the passage of time.
It's the same dark pestilence though, with the same humans in denial about their selfishness and depravity, a very Biblical film, could be one of Cecil B. DeMill's, but we've come a long way (a long way) in the special effects department.
I went with my North Portland friend Leslie, sometimes a man's name. Some people wonder if ethnic Quakers are allowed to mingle in mixed company, especially if single. Our practices aren't especially unusual in that regard, at least not in the USA.
We exercise our civil liberties in a democracy, meaning our meetings (of even just two or three) criss-cross ethnicities and genders (related concepts).
Jesus is encouraged as a role model, in that he pow wowed with tax collectors, Roman soldiers, other non-Jewish types (however a lot of his best friends were Jews, as he was).
That wasn't an entirely irrelevant aside, in that the biologist mom in this movie is the non-biological guardian of a cute little boy, who could pass for a girl in the introductory scene, even though playing a violent video game (as many girls do). Later it's clear what sex he is.
Although the relationship between Helen and Jacob is somewhat strained, it's real enough, and strong enough, to give Keanu pause. He's also met with a wise Chinese sage (note "Chinese dialog coach" in the credits), formerly one of "them" who has become comfortable with his humanity, thinks we're OK.
Those metal mites eating the truck and stadium were awesome, very Prey.
Our venue was the St. John's McMenamins, a charming stop on any leisurely itinerary. Read up on your history. Expo 1905 was no joke, one of the great world's fairs of all time. Seattle's came later.
National Cash Register (NCR) had the domed pavilion, and that dome was preserved, what you'll look straight out at, from inside the movie theater.
I'm reminded of the Expo 1897 in Nashville. Most of the pavilions went away, but Nashvillians fell in love with Athena, a relationship that has only gotten more serious with the passage of time.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Voucherology
I've continued to defend my position that the best argument against vouchers is private schools are intentionally off the hook from really going deeply into civics out of loyalty to Uncle Sam, grooming students to be president someday.
For example, you might be doing this "grin and bear it" stint in Oregon, a Japanese national, staring down the barrel of some ETS equivalent, have no time to waste on what passes for "curriculum" at Joe Sixpack public high school.
So you attend a private school, funded by Japanese companies, and no, you can't take public tax funded vouchers to fund your attendance here, nor did you ask to do that, ever.
The USA is very accepting of the many cultures and isn't hell bent on stifling freedoms, so we have lots of Yeshivas, Ashrams, Gulags, Gazeebos you name it.
Many kids go through life mostly oblivious to the USA's inner workings and dynamics, don't need to know, don't care to know, read the voters' pamphlets, take cues from community leaders.
However, those public systems which work openly in service of the public trust in having a USA sustained charter, need to focus on training and recruiting future elected officials and their support staffs, providing them with the skills necessary to work in a rough and tumble democracy with many diverse ethnicities endeavoring to self-govern as USA citizens.
Filling openings in local, state and federal government from the ranks of public schools is not a conflict of interest, it's what these schools are especially good at, by design.
Now one could imagine an "eager beaver" private school turning itself into a 100% flag waving pro USA elite academy, taking that tack, and then lining up to take vouchers, could happen.
But that's a kind of back handed loophole approach, versus simply forming a new charter and accepting public monies openly and directly, i.e. if you want to quack like a public school, why not just be one?
There's a wrinkle here, in that some private academies might actually have a more effective way of promoting its grads into government positions i.e. it is indeed possible for privately run schools to outshine public ones, even where training "virtual presidents" is concerned. Something in the meatloaf? Some secret sauce?
However this is not inherently a contradiction, nor need these schools take a position any different from mine on the voucher issue, i.e. they're proud of not taking government handouts, even as they help staff the ranks of government. Takes all kinds.
For example, you might be doing this "grin and bear it" stint in Oregon, a Japanese national, staring down the barrel of some ETS equivalent, have no time to waste on what passes for "curriculum" at Joe Sixpack public high school.
So you attend a private school, funded by Japanese companies, and no, you can't take public tax funded vouchers to fund your attendance here, nor did you ask to do that, ever.
The USA is very accepting of the many cultures and isn't hell bent on stifling freedoms, so we have lots of Yeshivas, Ashrams, Gulags, Gazeebos you name it.
Many kids go through life mostly oblivious to the USA's inner workings and dynamics, don't need to know, don't care to know, read the voters' pamphlets, take cues from community leaders.
However, those public systems which work openly in service of the public trust in having a USA sustained charter, need to focus on training and recruiting future elected officials and their support staffs, providing them with the skills necessary to work in a rough and tumble democracy with many diverse ethnicities endeavoring to self-govern as USA citizens.
Filling openings in local, state and federal government from the ranks of public schools is not a conflict of interest, it's what these schools are especially good at, by design.
Now one could imagine an "eager beaver" private school turning itself into a 100% flag waving pro USA elite academy, taking that tack, and then lining up to take vouchers, could happen.
But that's a kind of back handed loophole approach, versus simply forming a new charter and accepting public monies openly and directly, i.e. if you want to quack like a public school, why not just be one?
There's a wrinkle here, in that some private academies might actually have a more effective way of promoting its grads into government positions i.e. it is indeed possible for privately run schools to outshine public ones, even where training "virtual presidents" is concerned. Something in the meatloaf? Some secret sauce?
However this is not inherently a contradiction, nor need these schools take a position any different from mine on the voucher issue, i.e. they're proud of not taking government handouts, even as they help staff the ranks of government. Takes all kinds.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Back at Cubespace
I'm geeking out around town again, hoping to snarf five PHP books before sundown, praise Allah for O'Reilly's Safari.
These have been heady days. I phoned the office of a heart surgeon, talked with the secretary, hoping for permission to use his name as a reference, having collaborated on that application for the operating room years ago.
Too boring for ER or Gray's Anatomy: Kirby in scrubs, 2 AM, plugging away in Microsoft FoxPro at the observation station, all darkness and empty theaters, nothing going, reams of xBase reflecting in my glasses, pre-iPod (CD players in the theaters though).
By day, I'd be out of their way, except those few times when perfusionists called me in for a font change or something, a way of keeping alert during a sometimes long procedure, for which they are highly trained.
Open heart surgery is a little like open source programming: many eyeballs praying for easy fixes for complications (aka "shallow bugs"). Surgeons have a cool bag of tricks, more every day, plus sometimes an angioplasty is sufficient (like with a stent or balloon).
I'm still debating about OSCON, whether I should give a talk this year in San Jose (Silicon Valley). Would anyone be interested? Do I have a budget?
Attracting Grunchies to cosponsor my Oregon Curriculum Network has been like pulling teeth (mine). No one thinks there's any commercial potential in tetrahedra I guess, aside from Lipton, or at least not 4D ones -- 3D is OK, as long as squares get to go first and qyoobs get all the respect they deserve.
Hooray for qyoobs, I love Big Brother, V-sign etc. (flag waving -- not white though).
I accepted an invite to join another book review team, another "animal book" maybe, University of Michigan connection.
These have been heady days. I phoned the office of a heart surgeon, talked with the secretary, hoping for permission to use his name as a reference, having collaborated on that application for the operating room years ago.
Too boring for ER or Gray's Anatomy: Kirby in scrubs, 2 AM, plugging away in Microsoft FoxPro at the observation station, all darkness and empty theaters, nothing going, reams of xBase reflecting in my glasses, pre-iPod (CD players in the theaters though).
By day, I'd be out of their way, except those few times when perfusionists called me in for a font change or something, a way of keeping alert during a sometimes long procedure, for which they are highly trained.
Open heart surgery is a little like open source programming: many eyeballs praying for easy fixes for complications (aka "shallow bugs"). Surgeons have a cool bag of tricks, more every day, plus sometimes an angioplasty is sufficient (like with a stent or balloon).
I'm still debating about OSCON, whether I should give a talk this year in San Jose (Silicon Valley). Would anyone be interested? Do I have a budget?
Attracting Grunchies to cosponsor my Oregon Curriculum Network has been like pulling teeth (mine). No one thinks there's any commercial potential in tetrahedra I guess, aside from Lipton, or at least not 4D ones -- 3D is OK, as long as squares get to go first and qyoobs get all the respect they deserve.
Hooray for qyoobs, I love Big Brother, V-sign etc. (flag waving -- not white though).
I accepted an invite to join another book review team, another "animal book" maybe, University of Michigan connection.
Monday, January 26, 2009
More School Business
The K-16 pipeline isn't about regimenting by age too strictly, especially in terms of technical content -- orthogonal to "lore" I would argue, e.g. there's nothing to stop Big Bird from teaching about complex numbers, other than reputation (character) -- no small asset in his case, ditto Barney.
So, if Jill shoots ahead up the fish ladder, wants to geek out, the well-designed charter obliges by providing early access to college materials, presuming that's what she craves. This presumes good town-gown relations, between administrators and faculties.
Closer to home, I've continued lallygagging with OS Bridge organizers Audrey and Selena, Igal and Ed. I referred them to my letter of introduction to the new PPS superintendent, about promotiong Portland schools at Pycon 2009, a possible source of marketing ideas?
How to interest teachers, executives, activists of all stripes, in the prospects of free and open source software (FOSS) and hardware? What good is "open source" if you can't read it or change it?
Not just the Gutenberg Press sparked a renaissance; also critical was learning how to teach reading effectively.
Private sky namespace: I'm liking CHR for "chief of human resources", rhymes with CTO, CSO etc., plus HR also stands for human rights.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Quiet First Day
re "evil Russians"
This is post number 501 to Control Room, sounds like a blue jeans commercial.Alexia is over for a family breakfast. They're heading to Multnomah Friends, where Tara has committee responsibilities. Then we get to meet up with our friends from Stillaguamish Country (north of Seattle).
Speaking of Quakers, Quaker-P is abuzz with policy discussions this morning, John Wilmerding, fellow faculty at John Woolman College, having just archived something to the new USA president, others (e.g. me) kibitzing.
I'm currently in the process of getting my Python for Teachers peer reviewed, just sent out some more links, to like New Mexico Tech and places. Loyal readers of my blog will have seen a lot of this material already.
Friday, January 23, 2009
Salons Dot Net
Some holdouts still think the printed page is the best investment, and I do enjoy my glossy magazines, bought the new Vanity Fair at Powell's yesterday, Tara getting something in metaphysics.
However the scribes were doing illuminated manuscripts while dreaming of Prospero's Books, much as Leibniz was dreaming of machine executable languages. They were enjoying a thriving economy while prefiguring a future one, ours, based more around LCDs, with more economies to come.
In the lore we study as geekoid Americanos, Romany Marie figures in as one of our early CSN queens. She helped Bucky and Isamu find one another, making history. Philosophy and coffee shops have an old relationship anyway, some saying those were the beans Pythagoras raved about, in terms of boosting his IQ. I don't believe it.
The printed page stays important of course, nor is there a line between those, and the illuminated screen versions. We're talking a kind of isomorphism here, with digital storage actually more secure, assuming a high tech civilization able to perpetuate itself (a lot to assume, but it's what the book people were aiming for, so it's not like we're abandoning their dream of literate descendants).
I'm awake early again, chipping away on my slides for Chicago, fixing those typos. We're gonna slog through a pre-college "curriculum of tomorrow" (or visit an "other tomorrow" as Esozone put it) but not by treating ourselves as if we're on some remedial track. No, we're busy professionials, here to have fun. Experience counts for something. We'll share lotsa lore.
However the scribes were doing illuminated manuscripts while dreaming of Prospero's Books, much as Leibniz was dreaming of machine executable languages. They were enjoying a thriving economy while prefiguring a future one, ours, based more around LCDs, with more economies to come.
In the lore we study as geekoid Americanos, Romany Marie figures in as one of our early CSN queens. She helped Bucky and Isamu find one another, making history. Philosophy and coffee shops have an old relationship anyway, some saying those were the beans Pythagoras raved about, in terms of boosting his IQ. I don't believe it.
The printed page stays important of course, nor is there a line between those, and the illuminated screen versions. We're talking a kind of isomorphism here, with digital storage actually more secure, assuming a high tech civilization able to perpetuate itself (a lot to assume, but it's what the book people were aiming for, so it's not like we're abandoning their dream of literate descendants).
I'm awake early again, chipping away on my slides for Chicago, fixing those typos. We're gonna slog through a pre-college "curriculum of tomorrow" (or visit an "other tomorrow" as Esozone put it) but not by treating ourselves as if we're on some remedial track. No, we're busy professionials, here to have fun. Experience counts for something. We'll share lotsa lore.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Operations
We also chatted about the CFO some, another jet setter, if I may use an archaic term.
Prior to jets, Hollywood movie stars would head for Avalon, Catalina, a romantic overnight trip. The small airfield wasn't really about handling large scale commercial traffic, so when jet travel came into vogue, Catalina sort of went off the radar, in favor of Paris, Hawaii...
The Chicago talk looks at the importance of mnemonics, the Art of Memory, as a complement of skills building. We master new skills with a purpose, because we're expecting to accomplish some real world task. A seminar or workshop will have that purpose as a focus, and gear its stories accordingly.
The same skills-building exercises will come wrapped in different stories, depending on which subculture is making use of the tools (in this case, computer languages).
My choice of predominantly Akbar font was pretty interesting. We talked about Oregon's history as a source of cartooning, including of political cartooning. My particular brand of positive futurism builds on that past.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Inaugural Day Ball
Confetti by D. Koski using vZomeThese studies relate to Steve Baer's vis-a-vis the 90-faced enneacontahedron, the hexahedral Baer cells likewise expressible in terms of phi-scaled tetrahedral components.
This newest dissection features 455 hexahedra with some of these (70) flattened into tiles, yielding one hexagon and two compositions of three Penrose tiles (two thin and a fat, two fat and a thin), the latter suitable for tiling the 12 decagons.
Additional patterns pertain, relating the axial count to surface:total facet ratios. These patterns served Koski as a guide, when developing this 15 axis shape from a 14 axis precursor, adding 91 hexahedra in the process.
Five of the component hexahedra are simple cubes and in Confetti (above), their locations are depicted. Note that one of these cubes is on the surface. David comments: "The name? First thing to pop in my head. I do like the Obama inaugural celebratory tie in."
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Omnitriangulating
Google Maps helpfully demarcates Streets View coverage, when you drag the little person icon onto the map, so finding this turn was no problem.
Dignity Village, not currently included in the dodeca-cam archive, is experimentally prototypical of the small, remote (sometimes extremely) campus of tomorrow, featuring local self government, some permaculture, plenty of bandwidth (potentially), and easy enough access to transportation (PDX is adjacent, while the #10 stops right outside the main gate).
Today was bright and cold, with a strong east wind from up the Columbia Gorge.
The weather wasn't severe enough to keep us off the water however. Brenda of Washington DC, and Leslie of Multnomah's Friendly Care Committee joined us in this Wanderers head office for a pow wow. I dug out the Bucky play brochure and talked about Doug Tompos, the actor, coming on the boat last year.
Given Leslie is highly trained as a teacher, I was happy to get some pointers on my technique after explaining the gist of public key cryptography to her, a topic she thought might be of interest to Montessori students.
Welcome back Alexia, after a long drive from Tennessee, looking forward to seeing you once you get settled.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
OOP in an Hour
Alex knows his stuff
Learn OOP the Python way, from a master. Sure, it's a home movie in some ways, but that's part of its charm.This takes us back a ways, to the dawn of Python 2.3 when the property descriptor was introduced. What's a descriptor again? If you've heisted the __set__, __get__ and __delete__ rib cage, that makes you one.
Note: every Python class comes with a "rib cage" of special names or __ribs__, for which you're free to define special behaviors. Snakes have lots of ribs so this all makes some sense, no?
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Mathematical Toyz
Projectile Motion in VPythonby Erik Thompson at Cal State
Calling it "progamming for everyone" ala CP4E and/or P4E may give the wrong picture, given cultural stereotypes.
TV people program, sequence our shows (lotsa loops on HBO). Go to the theater, many churches, and they hand you a program don't they. The calendar is a program, a web framework, serving events (meetings, holidays) -- ready or not a lot of the time (those wheels keep on turning).
You'll interact with our snake (Python), play with a deque, a chat bot, reach into the guts of our objects for methods (dot notation), but did you write any programs? Maybe, maybe not (sure, sometimes). We don't care that much, what you call something everybody does (dinks around? solves stuff?).
We're too busy learning about vectors and polyhedra in Vpython to care strongly if this is "computer programming" or not (what's that again?). We've got this philosophical model, a logic, of objects with attributes, and yes, it happens to be machine executable (a feature, not a bug).
We're playing with "toyz" (edgier than "toys" -- closer to real tools of the trade).
Or do we deny junior much access to toyz? Too dangerous to empower her or him with executive level skills. She might become a hacker, move to Portland, feed that open source revolution or whatever they call it. Can't have that. Must oppress, must deaden.
No Zome, no vZome, no magnetic MITEs, no StrangeAttractors, nothing much hands-on (certainly no GPS, no classes in how to use those school-issued PDAs), no YouTube... a conspiracy of idiocrats or simply obsolete programming?
Does it matter whom we blame? Only to the extent that this helps us solve the problem. Allow for upgrades (have faith), do the work, be attentive, experiment. These are some Quaker teachings as well.
:: stairway 2 by David Koski in vZome ::
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
At Work
:: cube view ::My solution: do the early group theory stuff using non-Latin-1 characters, or maybe with Latin-1 if working with those unfamiliar with it. The point is to focus on the patterns without getting sucked in by any meaning, let the characters stay alien and interesting; more cardination than ordination.
You'll see another approach in my Vegetable Group Soup, done in Flash. Turn down your sound if you're in a cube not using headphones, might be annoying.
On my lunch break, I'm doing something perverse: buying the same pair of shoes I just bought from Payless, because I somehow managed to misplace some size 13Ws. My understanding of P.D. Ouspensky is he'd've had himself taken back side of the barn and shot for such spaciness (something about an umbrella -- kinda scary those Russians), but then fortunately "man cannot do" (joke).
That'll give me a chance to move the car (in a 30 minute slot) and pick a different cube (lots of empties, not tethered by an Ethernet cord). I've got the Men's Warehouse shoes now, doing "the professor". Cell phone: Mary just called, setting up lunch for Thursday, cool. The CFO, met via Western Equities, is flitting about, doing the "hotlanta circuit" via Texas.
US Bank did come through with that SBA thing, but it's not really a capital equipment challenge (KTU3's giant Sony Trinitron monitor may be going soon, I'll grant you that). It's more a matter of HR, of too many lawyers not knowing enough SQL, if I might be blunt about something. People sit around in meetings deciding what they're entitled to, but nobody has the skills. I understand Patrick's disillusionment and the millions Portland may have already lost to some other city with more savvy about buzz bots (very SQL intensive). Reminds me of the old bedside story where the patient goes "whassa matter doc, ain't my millions good enough for ya?" Too much stairway to heaven talk in some circles, no one enrolling in medical school, actually doing the hard jobs.
Of course I exaggerate the direness of the situation. Given the global Internet, we're not dependent on any one local economy for smarts. Plus Portland is on a steep learning curve, thanks to the Bucky play, thanks to Powell's, thanks to ISEPP, thanks to a lot of reasons. We're a very literate culture, plus have that pioneer spirit to boot.
Nick was through yesterday, coming from Bellingham, looks like Chehalis has opened again. Fernwood was like under water I think he said. We yakked about the student loan problem, Princeton having an enlightened policy on that score (ahead of its time). I'm more in the mood to talk "refund" than "forgiveness" but that's just my usual blarney (goes hand in hand with that elvynchyk "not ready to make nice" talk). OK, gotta go. My XO fits in the Ubuntu bag no problem. I have two XOs, thanks to "get one, keep one" (joke).
Monday, January 12, 2009
Cockfight!
:: looking at Spore ::
OK, it's somewhat demented, but consistent with my view that shadow boxing with puppets is a way to sublimate violence, more than encourage it. Channel aggression into these games, play chess (cold), not war (hot). Even make the games remunerative in some way, educational.From the Wanderers list:
Here's an invention, based on Spore and like those: kids breed their own chickens, based on various comical algorithms, on the computer (cartoon chickens), ready for combat in a game called 'Cockfight!'. At first parents object but then we show how it comes with a syllabus, like Clifford Geertz doing deep description, lots of National Geographic video about cock fighting cultures, and suddenly it's OK, and not only that, junior gets academic credit in the anthro department, plus you can play for real money, so some of the parents get involved, muscle junior aside, get involved in obsessive cockfighting for money -- all thanks to me.As I mentioned later on edu-sig:
My own DWA / 4D has: Satellite Toshiba x1 (x2 counting mom's when she's around, plus she has a Sony Vaio which I'm not counting); OLPC XO x2; Ubuntu Dell laptops x2; various PC desktops x4 (3 in office, one for Spores etc., working on Spores-based Cockfight! concept, an alternative to violence against chickens (roosters), with real money bets possible, more on Wanderers Yahoo! list (have to knock to get in)).Note I say "concept" i.e. I am not equipped to write this computer game all by my lonesome (nobody is -- takes a team). Most projects that interest me aren't one person jobs (e.g. the edu-sig link above talks more about my "bizmo" fleets).
In the context of Wanderers, I went on to compare having the Bucky & Ed stuff in philosophy to having a "combat chicken" on steroids giving philosophers fun ways to engage other departments on their own turf, more like in the old days, very Quadrivial.
Of course that's a trivializing metaphor, but hey, as a Quaker who plays Quake, I have my own karma to work out. My World Game Museum is another one of my outlets, helps me get through the day.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
1-2-3 Testing...
I use Skype with my CTO sometimes (even to send money). Here I'm testing Google Video Chat with Friend Fabik. Works great. Dave's on an Eee PC by Asus (costs more than an XO).
Friday, January 09, 2009
Weird Technoinvective
From the Wanderers list (adding hyperlinks here); me swatting at something. FAQ: "what's technoinvective Dr. Urner?"
Yeah STEM is a big buzz word, see that on Math Forum, also in Anna's writings (she's the charter school founding home schooling Sarah Palin type in Wasilla, doing Thunderbird Charter based on STEM).
What I heckled IEEE about at Portland Center Stage is how it's all so much lip service, as here I am, giving the basic STEM class, focusing on late 20th century sphere packing etc., which you'd think we'd be up to by now, yet I have approximately zero competition. They cart kids back to their public school prisons in tears after my class, as that's probably the last light of intelligence they're ever gonna see. Then it's back to dark ages Oliver Twist and anglophile curricula (count me an anglophile, but these curricula are from the time of Malthus-Darwin and we've come a long way since then).
So I do tend to snicker and sneer when I hear people tout their "reforms". As a back stage kinda guy, I know they're just bluffing, have no intention of saying "buckminsterfullerene" in the context of teaching about hexapents (e.g. nanotubes) which, if they have any clue about, they're not sharing (Alaska, on the other hand, does seem sincere, even wants to teach Python). It's the lower 48 (48L) that serves as a base for a cesspool of scam artists, a lot of them big name foundations, very into strut-and-puffery (reminds me of pre-WWII in some ways).
Anyway, not to sound too pessimistic, I don't think it's all up to the lower-48 where we go with STEM. Japan has a lot of strong leadings, and South Africa has already been a key player, will continue to be so. Alaska ain't so stupid either. Even Guam is ahead of West Virginia I'd hazard (but then who isn't?).
I'm just not looking to WDC for any leadership on this (Obama an exception -- he's from Hawaii, not L48), as legislator-lawyers don't have much math-science under their belts, can't think their way out of a paper bag, just take direction from Obnoxico (cite my rants on Exxon Math recently -- hollow self-promotion in the wake of wanton eco-slaughter).
Doug Strain was pretty funny on this, when talking about the transition to "cesium time" -- lots of pretty boys in the Navy, acting all miffed, just because they couldn't wrap their heads around metrology (Doug's forte). So they go down in history looking stupid, so what else is new?
Kirby
Yeah STEM is a big buzz word, see that on Math Forum, also in Anna's writings (she's the charter school founding home schooling Sarah Palin type in Wasilla, doing Thunderbird Charter based on STEM).
What I heckled IEEE about at Portland Center Stage is how it's all so much lip service, as here I am, giving the basic STEM class, focusing on late 20th century sphere packing etc., which you'd think we'd be up to by now, yet I have approximately zero competition. They cart kids back to their public school prisons in tears after my class, as that's probably the last light of intelligence they're ever gonna see. Then it's back to dark ages Oliver Twist and anglophile curricula (count me an anglophile, but these curricula are from the time of Malthus-Darwin and we've come a long way since then).
So I do tend to snicker and sneer when I hear people tout their "reforms". As a back stage kinda guy, I know they're just bluffing, have no intention of saying "buckminsterfullerene" in the context of teaching about hexapents (e.g. nanotubes) which, if they have any clue about, they're not sharing (Alaska, on the other hand, does seem sincere, even wants to teach Python). It's the lower 48 (48L) that serves as a base for a cesspool of scam artists, a lot of them big name foundations, very into strut-and-puffery (reminds me of pre-WWII in some ways).
Anyway, not to sound too pessimistic, I don't think it's all up to the lower-48 where we go with STEM. Japan has a lot of strong leadings, and South Africa has already been a key player, will continue to be so. Alaska ain't so stupid either. Even Guam is ahead of West Virginia I'd hazard (but then who isn't?).
I'm just not looking to WDC for any leadership on this (Obama an exception -- he's from Hawaii, not L48), as legislator-lawyers don't have much math-science under their belts, can't think their way out of a paper bag, just take direction from Obnoxico (cite my rants on Exxon Math recently -- hollow self-promotion in the wake of wanton eco-slaughter).
Doug Strain was pretty funny on this, when talking about the transition to "cesium time" -- lots of pretty boys in the Navy, acting all miffed, just because they couldn't wrap their heads around metrology (Doug's forte). So they go down in history looking stupid, so what else is new?
Kirby
Thursday, January 08, 2009
Front Lines
When taxes go towards streamlining medical record keeping, the solutions obviously belong in the commons somehow. Copyleft doesn't mean "commie" it means "you paid for it already". The engineers didn't see how they could ethically sell you the same pile of bits over and over, whereas marketing had no problem with that (they live on commissions). So GNU banded with Linus and others to make the critical tool set free of charge. Only problem: it still takes a lot of skill to use them, especially well.
So when the government moves in on some disaster zone, working on collecting census information (demographics), that's not about throwing money at the private sector and saying "hey, we're too dumb to do this ourselves" (it's not about outsourcing). The government has engineers and scientists just like everyone else and contributes. Not only that, but it contributes in a generous open way that lets more private operations benefit. We call this a BSD or MIT license -- many names for it.
Other times, we're more restrictive, because we don't trust the private sector to not pirate (copyright) what wasn't theirs to begin with -- the historical pattern. Some memes are just too valuable, make too much sense, to let the moneymakers hog 'em exclusively for selfish gain, in their trademarked "legally piggily" fashion (Bucky's word for it, cite Critical Path). Governments aren't behaving mindlessly when they protect their assets from being dumbed down by scam artists, other brands of counterfeiter, snake oil salesmen or whatever.
People worried about all this wealth flowing into cyberspace, economists mostly, think it's probably misbegotten altruism, not long for this world. But the more intelligent picture is we have a layered stack with open and closed in a sandwich (like a Dagwood). The benefit of free tools is it levels the playing field, opens the game to many more talented players.
The reason economists needn't worry is there's still good old fashioned competition and the ability to keep trade secrets (secret sauces). A typical business will carve out a niche in some coral reef, e.g. Python + SQL + Django (a turf I'm familiar with), then value-add in some proprietary direction, or maybe it's just the data that's private (medical records, bank accounts, whatever transactions). The government, like IBM, like MIT, pumps new wealth into the commons, plus has its own way of keeping secrets.
The idea of governments contributing to open source projects, especially those aimed at internationalization, i.e. opening up the interfaces to local languages, keeping a distro nurturing to a nation's children, is not all that new. This ability to build some core icons into the GUI is what will help young citizens begin to learn their way about vis-a-vis their government sponsors and services.
Faculties will be assisted in forging those voluntarily alliances with agencies reaching out to assist, not just with dollars, but with state of the art teaching materials. Recruiting begins early, a high level of civic-mindedness becomes taken for granted.
So when the government moves in on some disaster zone, working on collecting census information (demographics), that's not about throwing money at the private sector and saying "hey, we're too dumb to do this ourselves" (it's not about outsourcing). The government has engineers and scientists just like everyone else and contributes. Not only that, but it contributes in a generous open way that lets more private operations benefit. We call this a BSD or MIT license -- many names for it.
Other times, we're more restrictive, because we don't trust the private sector to not pirate (copyright) what wasn't theirs to begin with -- the historical pattern. Some memes are just too valuable, make too much sense, to let the moneymakers hog 'em exclusively for selfish gain, in their trademarked "legally piggily" fashion (Bucky's word for it, cite Critical Path). Governments aren't behaving mindlessly when they protect their assets from being dumbed down by scam artists, other brands of counterfeiter, snake oil salesmen or whatever.
People worried about all this wealth flowing into cyberspace, economists mostly, think it's probably misbegotten altruism, not long for this world. But the more intelligent picture is we have a layered stack with open and closed in a sandwich (like a Dagwood). The benefit of free tools is it levels the playing field, opens the game to many more talented players.
The reason economists needn't worry is there's still good old fashioned competition and the ability to keep trade secrets (secret sauces). A typical business will carve out a niche in some coral reef, e.g. Python + SQL + Django (a turf I'm familiar with), then value-add in some proprietary direction, or maybe it's just the data that's private (medical records, bank accounts, whatever transactions). The government, like IBM, like MIT, pumps new wealth into the commons, plus has its own way of keeping secrets.
The idea of governments contributing to open source projects, especially those aimed at internationalization, i.e. opening up the interfaces to local languages, keeping a distro nurturing to a nation's children, is not all that new. This ability to build some core icons into the GUI is what will help young citizens begin to learn their way about vis-a-vis their government sponsors and services.
Faculties will be assisted in forging those voluntarily alliances with agencies reaching out to assist, not just with dollars, but with state of the art teaching materials. Recruiting begins early, a high level of civic-mindedness becomes taken for granted.
Wednesday, January 07, 2009
Physics Update
The physics community has long dreamed of games atop physics engines, with a lot of those coming true, as in Spore and Uru. The importance of storytelling, not just particles dashing about, was singled out by Thomas Malone, a cognitive psychologist writing in BYTE magazine back in 1981 (see endnote). His theories of intrinsic motivation aimed to explain why computer games are fun, if they're fun. One of the guidelines: include lots of hidden info, make it a treasure hunt of some kind.
Our marketing is moving towards an "adds spice" message, in relation to a boringly bland diet of all XYZ all the time. It's not "teach the controversy" as the "intelligent design" people counseled, but "share the stage" i.e. we get equal time for our puppets, or at least a bigger slice of the programming pie than today, wherein few have ever heard of the great rhombicosidodecahedron (too big for Big Bird's little brain, let alone Bert's), and wherein our "arrowhead geometry" is considered strictly out of bounds, too NC-17 for any high school geometry classes (so call it geography then?).
My sense is the physics community isn't as stuck in the mud as the mathematicians and will have no problems with our slight variants on the Newtonian themes. Saying all linear momentum is angular momentum really makes no difference if your orbits are long enough, and all that matters since Einstein is "geodesic" in any case, the shape of space being described by accelerations (world lines), not any "instant, simultaneously everywhere, XYZ grid" (relative to which observer again?). These subtleties aren't enough to matter, 99% of the time. Mostly we all just want to teach the same old same old as best as we're able: how to live long and prosper while remaining worthy of such a fine planet.
Endnote: Malone, T.W., What makes computer games fun? Byte, 1981, 6, 258-277 (Reprinted in Computers in Education (U.K.), 1982, 4, 14-21; and in D. Peterson (Ed.), Intelligent Schoolhouse. Reston, VA: Reston Publishing Co. (Prentice-Hall), 1984. Abbreviated version reprinted as: Guidelines for designing educational computer programs, Childhood Education, 1983, 59, 241-247.)
Our marketing is moving towards an "adds spice" message, in relation to a boringly bland diet of all XYZ all the time. It's not "teach the controversy" as the "intelligent design" people counseled, but "share the stage" i.e. we get equal time for our puppets, or at least a bigger slice of the programming pie than today, wherein few have ever heard of the great rhombicosidodecahedron (too big for Big Bird's little brain, let alone Bert's), and wherein our "arrowhead geometry" is considered strictly out of bounds, too NC-17 for any high school geometry classes (so call it geography then?).
My sense is the physics community isn't as stuck in the mud as the mathematicians and will have no problems with our slight variants on the Newtonian themes. Saying all linear momentum is angular momentum really makes no difference if your orbits are long enough, and all that matters since Einstein is "geodesic" in any case, the shape of space being described by accelerations (world lines), not any "instant, simultaneously everywhere, XYZ grid" (relative to which observer again?). These subtleties aren't enough to matter, 99% of the time. Mostly we all just want to teach the same old same old as best as we're able: how to live long and prosper while remaining worthy of such a fine planet.
Endnote: Malone, T.W., What makes computer games fun? Byte, 1981, 6, 258-277 (Reprinted in Computers in Education (U.K.), 1982, 4, 14-21; and in D. Peterson (Ed.), Intelligent Schoolhouse. Reston, VA: Reston Publishing Co. (Prentice-Hall), 1984. Abbreviated version reprinted as: Guidelines for designing educational computer programs, Childhood Education, 1983, 59, 241-247.)
Monday, January 05, 2009
Philanthropic Arcade Games
Buy stuff from the LCD menu, get tokens per vendor-sponsored games, and commit to various charities (could be competitive i.e. you keep some of the money yourself if you're a strong player, but if you lose you know it's to a good cause of your choosing e.g. Friends Peace Teams (depends on the shop, its selection of vendors, what your choices might be)).
Of course the cynics are saying we're just doing this to take the edge off casino gambling, removing the stigma. A percentage of winnings funneled through a "public switchboard" seems like even more direct control than we get over our taxes (like sales taxes), how they're spent by non-transparent legislatures (where are their billboard-sized displays?).
Here you get to commit some casino profits yourself through another colorful game i.e. here's one more reason to stick around and play the slots, feeling good about yourself and your legacy (more salmon!). But that's just one application. No one says your CP [Cafe Philanthropique] has to be anywhere near such a place, might be in Cape Town.
Sunday, January 04, 2009
Manifest Destiny
from Coyote WarriorRaymond Cross is a Yale-educated attorney and the youngest son of Martin Cross, an American Indian tribal chairman who spent the bulk of his life fighting a losing battle against the construction of a post–WWII dam near the upper Missouri River that would forcibly remove hundreds of families from their ancestral lands. VanDevelder's exhaustively researched book uses the Cross family story — and Raymond Cross's eventual transformation into Coyote Warrior, the term given to a growing group of Ivy League–trained lawyers working on American Indian rights issues — to help trace the century-long struggle of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara tribes to protect their North Dakota homelands.
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