Stocks going down even more
For a long time we have had prosperity and upward-rising stock prices. The Dow Jones, Nasdaq, and Standard and Poor stock averages were going up by 20% a year or more during the 1990s. Many stock analysts thought this was a bubble - a temporary inflation in value that eventually punctures like a balloon and falls back to normal long term trends. The bubble was caused by hypered-up dot-comism and to a lesser, but still significant extent, by cheap oil and gasoline. It seemed that everything was going on the Internet with dot-com and computer technology companies popping up all over the place. The people in the Internet-site industry were trying to convince us that they got some great products that will cause us to enjoy unbridled prosperity. And so we went along with this, investing in Quixtar and in stocks of all types, and unusually large growth rates occurred.
Some people were predicting that this trend would continue to go on, even into the zero-zero decade, as the baby boomers still continue to be active in the workplace and continue to push up the value of stocks. Some said this would continue even into the 20 teens, as with Schwarz and Leyden in their "Long Boom". Others, such as Harry Dent, said a crash was coming at the end of the decade and a long decline was going to occur, caused by retired baby boomers dragging the economy.
So I expected stocks would continue to go up into the 21st Century. They didn't. They hit a peak in early 2000, then have declined ever since. I did a little analysis recently and believe I have found out what is happening. The Big Dot-Com Lie was revealed, the bubble burst, and down went Enron, WorldCom and others. I feel we are headed back to long-term trends. But what are they?
I created a chart based on Dow Jones data. I fitted a least-squares exponential curve to the Dow Jones average all the way back to 1910. This shows an annual growth rate of 5.1% and is indicated in the magenta line. The actual average is in dark blue, and you can notice how all of a sudden the average leaves the long-term and starts heading for the sky. It is now headed back down. The yellow line is a least-squares exponential curve drawn since early 2000, when the Dow was around 11700. Notice that it continues to go down until late 2007, when it intersects the long term trend. The dot-com bubble burst is only half over. The remaining half has yet to play itself out. The Dow Jones average should be down to about 6500 or so in late 2007, after which it should follow the red 5.1% long term line and start to go up again, if other things don't occur, such as the running out of cheap oil.
I don't think this will be a steady decrease. A war in Iraq is likely, and the most likely (I hope!) outcome is a quick defeat of Saddam and an establishment of an interim government. If this happens, a gusher of oil will flood the developed world and cause prosperity to come back. So I expect a smaller bubble will occur, and the Dow will increase slightly in the next few years, to about 9000. After about two years, a crash or big decline will occur and the Dow will be at 6500 or so in 2007.
I don't think this is a good time to invest in stocks, however, since there is too much uncertainty in this forecast. The long term trend is downward until 2007, and this increase that I foresee may not come about. I say invest in bonds, money market funds or certificates of deposit, and pay off any debts, if you can. This decade should have been boom times with a 5-10% increase every year, but the Great Dot-Com Bubble ate all that up. After the long term comes back in 2007, we have the Fourth Turning coming so that I don't expect stocks will be a good investment for at least a decade or two.
A Journey through Blogrealm
Blogtrek
Blogtrek
2002/12/29
2002/12/26
Intelligent design?
There has been a theory for the past few years that the Universe and all the objects, physical laws, animals, beings and stars were created by an intelligence of some sort: the "intelligent design" theory. The reason proposed for this theory is that the circumstances upon which we came to exist on this planet are so remote (developing life and intelligence, right orbit, right physical constants and so forth) that there had to be some intelligent being out there that created all of this. Some criticize this as a rehash of the Biblical creation theory. My feeling is that it is more than just that. There is a problem with intelligent design that is similar to the theory that God has feet:
The most advanced structures in our life are animals, including humans. Cats, chimps, and humans all have feet. God must surely be at least this advanced, therefore he has feet.
This sounds like a silly argument, but replace feet with intelligence:
The most advanced structures in our life are animals, including humans. Cats, chimps, and humans all have varying degrees of intelligence. God must surely be at least this advanced, therefore he has intelligence.
It's exactly the same argument. If there is some sort of God or Supreme object, it doesn't have feet, because it is beyond animals and humans, and hence beyond feet. If there is some sort of God or Supreme object, it doesn't have intelligence, since it is beyond animals and humans, and hence beyond intelligence. In fact, God, if it exists, is beyond all of our ability to comprehend it, so that a better model for the Ultimate would be the Tao: The tao that can be expressed is not the real Tao.
It's like my "Just add one" philosophy. If you can imagine a God, you can imagine one even more grander and higher yet; just take "God plus one". Therefore, you haven't imagined the real God, or rather, Tao.
There has been a theory for the past few years that the Universe and all the objects, physical laws, animals, beings and stars were created by an intelligence of some sort: the "intelligent design" theory. The reason proposed for this theory is that the circumstances upon which we came to exist on this planet are so remote (developing life and intelligence, right orbit, right physical constants and so forth) that there had to be some intelligent being out there that created all of this. Some criticize this as a rehash of the Biblical creation theory. My feeling is that it is more than just that. There is a problem with intelligent design that is similar to the theory that God has feet:
The most advanced structures in our life are animals, including humans. Cats, chimps, and humans all have feet. God must surely be at least this advanced, therefore he has feet.
This sounds like a silly argument, but replace feet with intelligence:
The most advanced structures in our life are animals, including humans. Cats, chimps, and humans all have varying degrees of intelligence. God must surely be at least this advanced, therefore he has intelligence.
It's exactly the same argument. If there is some sort of God or Supreme object, it doesn't have feet, because it is beyond animals and humans, and hence beyond feet. If there is some sort of God or Supreme object, it doesn't have intelligence, since it is beyond animals and humans, and hence beyond intelligence. In fact, God, if it exists, is beyond all of our ability to comprehend it, so that a better model for the Ultimate would be the Tao: The tao that can be expressed is not the real Tao.
It's like my "Just add one" philosophy. If you can imagine a God, you can imagine one even more grander and higher yet; just take "God plus one". Therefore, you haven't imagined the real God, or rather, Tao.
2002/12/21
December Solstice
Bring back the Sun! This is the slogan at many pagan services throughout the world this week. Today the Sun will set early, before 5 where I live. However, the sunsets have been getting later for some time. The earliest sunset was in the first week of December. Since then both sunsets and sunrises have been getting later. The days have been getting even shorter, because the sunrises were getting later faster than the sunsets. Today, the sunsets catch up with the sunrises so that the day's length is a minimum today and will get longer. The sunrises will continue to get later, until the Sun does not rise until about 7:25 am in early January. But this is not the latest sunrise in the sky. The latest sunrises are in late October, when we are still on Eastern Daylight Time. The sunrises then get as late as 7:35.
This can seem a dismal time of the year because of the short days, long nights, and cold weather. But there are some people who like the December solstice and welcome its coming. Astronomers like the long nights for viewing our universe and for the many bright stars that are visible at this time of the year. The romantically inclined love the Winter Solstice Full Moon, which goes nearly overhead and makes things seem so bright as to make it like twilight, doubly so if it glitters on new-fallen snow, which may make it light enough to see flying sleighs and reindeer. And those south of the Equator are experiencing Summer Sostice, when the Sun shines for 14 or more hours a day and gets nearly overhead; a January day in the Outback of Australia can easily top 40 degrees C (104 F). There it is the time for beaches and swimming, boating, and trekking through the wilderness and just plain vacationing during this Yuletide/summer season. And it can get really warm in Antarctica. A big heat wave in Antarctica can send the temperatures soaring out of sight, maybe to -25 degrees C (-8 F).
Now the days will grow longer, and eventually the weather will get warmer as we approach the June solstice.
Bring back the Sun! This is the slogan at many pagan services throughout the world this week. Today the Sun will set early, before 5 where I live. However, the sunsets have been getting later for some time. The earliest sunset was in the first week of December. Since then both sunsets and sunrises have been getting later. The days have been getting even shorter, because the sunrises were getting later faster than the sunsets. Today, the sunsets catch up with the sunrises so that the day's length is a minimum today and will get longer. The sunrises will continue to get later, until the Sun does not rise until about 7:25 am in early January. But this is not the latest sunrise in the sky. The latest sunrises are in late October, when we are still on Eastern Daylight Time. The sunrises then get as late as 7:35.
This can seem a dismal time of the year because of the short days, long nights, and cold weather. But there are some people who like the December solstice and welcome its coming. Astronomers like the long nights for viewing our universe and for the many bright stars that are visible at this time of the year. The romantically inclined love the Winter Solstice Full Moon, which goes nearly overhead and makes things seem so bright as to make it like twilight, doubly so if it glitters on new-fallen snow, which may make it light enough to see flying sleighs and reindeer. And those south of the Equator are experiencing Summer Sostice, when the Sun shines for 14 or more hours a day and gets nearly overhead; a January day in the Outback of Australia can easily top 40 degrees C (104 F). There it is the time for beaches and swimming, boating, and trekking through the wilderness and just plain vacationing during this Yuletide/summer season. And it can get really warm in Antarctica. A big heat wave in Antarctica can send the temperatures soaring out of sight, maybe to -25 degrees C (-8 F).
Now the days will grow longer, and eventually the weather will get warmer as we approach the June solstice.
2002/12/19
When it isn't, it is
Frequently, when a person makes a negative statement, the corresponding positive statement is the one that is true. For example, when Richard Nixon said, "I am not a crook.", that says that he was a crook. When an email message comes that says "This is not spam.", that means that it is spam. For if an email message is legitimate, then it does not need to say that it is. When I email someone in one of my clubs about when the next meeting is, I don't say that it is not spam; I just simply state when the next meeting is, and the recipient will know from what I say that it isn't spam. So if a message has to say that it is not spam, that means that it is not legitimate, for it has to state that it is. Therefore, it is spam.
The latest example is Mariah Carey saying "I'm not wacko." Who would say this if they felt that they were relating satisfactorily to other people? I conclude from this that she is wacko. But then she goes on to say, "I mean, we're all a little wacko sometimes, and if we think we're not, maybe we are more than we know." Now this I agree with. We can never know ourselves completely because that would cause an infinite regress of brain tissue. But she did contradict herself.
Frequently, when a person makes a negative statement, the corresponding positive statement is the one that is true. For example, when Richard Nixon said, "I am not a crook.", that says that he was a crook. When an email message comes that says "This is not spam.", that means that it is spam. For if an email message is legitimate, then it does not need to say that it is. When I email someone in one of my clubs about when the next meeting is, I don't say that it is not spam; I just simply state when the next meeting is, and the recipient will know from what I say that it isn't spam. So if a message has to say that it is not spam, that means that it is not legitimate, for it has to state that it is. Therefore, it is spam.
The latest example is Mariah Carey saying "I'm not wacko." Who would say this if they felt that they were relating satisfactorily to other people? I conclude from this that she is wacko. But then she goes on to say, "I mean, we're all a little wacko sometimes, and if we think we're not, maybe we are more than we know." Now this I agree with. We can never know ourselves completely because that would cause an infinite regress of brain tissue. But she did contradict herself.
2002/12/18
World Trade Center
Now we have 7 more designs for the World Trade Center. The six original ones were rejected, as they seem to be just piles of buildings without any character. The new proposals are certainly unusual, except for Number 6. Also there is some contradiction in the media as to whether there are 7 designs or 9. Get this straight, hypermedia, or anything goes. I will assume that there are 7 designs, the 7 on the CNN site. Here is my view of them:
1. This one features a collection of buildings with corners taken off and one high 1,776 foot spire. The chopped nature of this design makes me feel uneasy, and the spire is somewhat ill-defined. I would give this one 2 stars.
2. This one features what looks like a buckled up tower or pair of towers of tremendous height. It is inspiring because of the great height but the buildings look like they might fall down. I'd give it 4 stars. (out of 5)
3. This one has one building that looks like a domed building next to it, as well as two buildings that look like parts of some toy. This clashes with the architecture near it and seems a little alien. I'd give it 3 stars.
4. I have seen two designs for this. One features a bunch of tall glass buildings but the picture does not show me their tops. Another shows two wire frames of the original towers, along the lines of the original towers. I think it features both, and if so, this may be the best of the designs. I would give it 4.5 stars.
5. This design has the same problem as 2 or 3: an alien look. The buildings are supposed to be tied in knots somehow, which would be an architectural feat. I would give this one maybe 2.5 stars.
6. This one looks like the original designs. It looks like the worst of those designs - a pair of tall buildings and nothing out of the ordinary. I would give it 1.5 stars.
7. This one consists of 9 buildings 80 stories high, and the buildings are of unusual shapes. The massiveness of this one is notable. Give it 3 stars.
It seems Design 4 is my favorite, but I would have to get a full look at this design before I could definitely say that. There seems to be a tendency to give these buildings a non-building or unusual look (except for Design 6), probably as a reaction to the negative response of the public at the original six designs.
I tried to compose a design of my own recently, by plucking a pentagonal dodecahedron on the WTC site. This dodecahedron would be essentially a cube with roofs on each of the six sides. It would look like a jewel from space but unfortunately so wide that a model that would fill the entire WTC site on the ground would not come anywhere near the height of the original towers.
I notice by the way that these designs are being compared to the Petronas towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, because the Petronas towers are supposed to be the tallest in the world. Not as far as I am concerned. If you count those tiny little minarets on the Petronas towers, then you have to count the antenna on top of the Great Tower of Chicago, in my opinion. That would make the Great Tower of Chicago the tallest building. So I feel that the Great Tower of Chicago is the tallest building in the world. I call it Great Tower of Chicago because the usual name for this building, the Sears Tower, is inappropriate in my opinion because Sears no longer owns it.
Now we have 7 more designs for the World Trade Center. The six original ones were rejected, as they seem to be just piles of buildings without any character. The new proposals are certainly unusual, except for Number 6. Also there is some contradiction in the media as to whether there are 7 designs or 9. Get this straight, hypermedia, or anything goes. I will assume that there are 7 designs, the 7 on the CNN site. Here is my view of them:
1. This one features a collection of buildings with corners taken off and one high 1,776 foot spire. The chopped nature of this design makes me feel uneasy, and the spire is somewhat ill-defined. I would give this one 2 stars.
2. This one features what looks like a buckled up tower or pair of towers of tremendous height. It is inspiring because of the great height but the buildings look like they might fall down. I'd give it 4 stars. (out of 5)
3. This one has one building that looks like a domed building next to it, as well as two buildings that look like parts of some toy. This clashes with the architecture near it and seems a little alien. I'd give it 3 stars.
4. I have seen two designs for this. One features a bunch of tall glass buildings but the picture does not show me their tops. Another shows two wire frames of the original towers, along the lines of the original towers. I think it features both, and if so, this may be the best of the designs. I would give it 4.5 stars.
5. This design has the same problem as 2 or 3: an alien look. The buildings are supposed to be tied in knots somehow, which would be an architectural feat. I would give this one maybe 2.5 stars.
6. This one looks like the original designs. It looks like the worst of those designs - a pair of tall buildings and nothing out of the ordinary. I would give it 1.5 stars.
7. This one consists of 9 buildings 80 stories high, and the buildings are of unusual shapes. The massiveness of this one is notable. Give it 3 stars.
It seems Design 4 is my favorite, but I would have to get a full look at this design before I could definitely say that. There seems to be a tendency to give these buildings a non-building or unusual look (except for Design 6), probably as a reaction to the negative response of the public at the original six designs.
I tried to compose a design of my own recently, by plucking a pentagonal dodecahedron on the WTC site. This dodecahedron would be essentially a cube with roofs on each of the six sides. It would look like a jewel from space but unfortunately so wide that a model that would fill the entire WTC site on the ground would not come anywhere near the height of the original towers.
I notice by the way that these designs are being compared to the Petronas towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, because the Petronas towers are supposed to be the tallest in the world. Not as far as I am concerned. If you count those tiny little minarets on the Petronas towers, then you have to count the antenna on top of the Great Tower of Chicago, in my opinion. That would make the Great Tower of Chicago the tallest building. So I feel that the Great Tower of Chicago is the tallest building in the world. I call it Great Tower of Chicago because the usual name for this building, the Sears Tower, is inappropriate in my opinion because Sears no longer owns it.
Banning Schools
The school district that disallowed a lesbian girl from going to gym class in California is appropriately named. The school district is named Banning School District, and I wonder if they ban books, too. The URL is http://www.cnn.com/2002/LAW/12/17/lesbian.lawsuit/index.html
The school district that disallowed a lesbian girl from going to gym class in California is appropriately named. The school district is named Banning School District, and I wonder if they ban books, too. The URL is http://www.cnn.com/2002/LAW/12/17/lesbian.lawsuit/index.html
2002/12/17
Some amusing slogans
The more I see of men the more I admire dogs.
-Mme De Sevigne, 1626-1696
My reply: It takes one to know one.
If we men married the women we deserved, we should have a very bad time of it.
-Oscar Wilde
My reply: How would Oscar know? He was gay.
THE FLY
God in his wisdom made the fly
And then forgot to tell us why.
-Ogden Nash
My reply: God is omnipotent. God created all that exists. Flies are evil. God is good. Flies exist. Therefore, God does not exist.
THE PANTHER
The panther is like a leopard,
Except it hasn't been peppered.
Should you behold a panther crouch,
Prepare to say Ouch.
Better yet, if called by a panther,
Don't anther.
-Ogden Nash
My reply: How many times in our lives are we confronted by panthers? 1960s draft dodgers were called by the Draft Panther. They didn't anther. A panther calls us up to try to sell some panther oil to us. If we succumb to his appeal, prepare to say monetary ouch. It's better not to anther. One of the biggest tasks of life is to avoid being ouched by panthers. Know when not to anther.
The more I see of men the more I admire dogs.
-Mme De Sevigne, 1626-1696
My reply: It takes one to know one.
If we men married the women we deserved, we should have a very bad time of it.
-Oscar Wilde
My reply: How would Oscar know? He was gay.
THE FLY
God in his wisdom made the fly
And then forgot to tell us why.
-Ogden Nash
My reply: God is omnipotent. God created all that exists. Flies are evil. God is good. Flies exist. Therefore, God does not exist.
THE PANTHER
The panther is like a leopard,
Except it hasn't been peppered.
Should you behold a panther crouch,
Prepare to say Ouch.
Better yet, if called by a panther,
Don't anther.
-Ogden Nash
My reply: How many times in our lives are we confronted by panthers? 1960s draft dodgers were called by the Draft Panther. They didn't anther. A panther calls us up to try to sell some panther oil to us. If we succumb to his appeal, prepare to say monetary ouch. It's better not to anther. One of the biggest tasks of life is to avoid being ouched by panthers. Know when not to anther.
2002/12/16
Cards of the Season
It has been the custom to exchange Christmas cards with others. I have done so through most of my life, and remember seeing long lists of cards that we had gotten from others. In recent years, I have improvised on this custom. I had over thirty 30-minute tapes left over from an old TRS-80 that I gave away, so in 1997 I recorded some of my own music on them and sent them out along with the cards. In another year, I illustrated an Australian aborigine legend about the constellations Orion and Taurus on a card. This year my theme is peace, because of the threat of war in more than one place next year. I put an Earth-from-space on the front and one of my polyhedra in the body, comparing it with the interdependence of the world. And I hand-write my cards to people; I don't use Microsoft Word and I don't send people greetings on the Internet.
Double-youing
We have double-yous all over the place in today's world. All the places on the World Wide Web are www, which makes for some extended double-youing in such sites as www.wwbt.com, for TV station WWBT. How do you pronounce ww anyway? Is it double-you double-you or double double-you? How do you pronounce UU? Pronounce that You-You, not Double-you; there is no way that UU = W. What about www? Is that triple-double-you? Or double triple-you? Or is it simply dubyadubyadubya? Any of the above, except that the last one gives rise to an interesting Web site: http://dubyadubyadubya.com which says that maybe all this dubyaing around may be just a big technical problem.
It has been the custom to exchange Christmas cards with others. I have done so through most of my life, and remember seeing long lists of cards that we had gotten from others. In recent years, I have improvised on this custom. I had over thirty 30-minute tapes left over from an old TRS-80 that I gave away, so in 1997 I recorded some of my own music on them and sent them out along with the cards. In another year, I illustrated an Australian aborigine legend about the constellations Orion and Taurus on a card. This year my theme is peace, because of the threat of war in more than one place next year. I put an Earth-from-space on the front and one of my polyhedra in the body, comparing it with the interdependence of the world. And I hand-write my cards to people; I don't use Microsoft Word and I don't send people greetings on the Internet.
Double-youing
We have double-yous all over the place in today's world. All the places on the World Wide Web are www, which makes for some extended double-youing in such sites as www.wwbt.com, for TV station WWBT. How do you pronounce ww anyway? Is it double-you double-you or double double-you? How do you pronounce UU? Pronounce that You-You, not Double-you; there is no way that UU = W. What about www? Is that triple-double-you? Or double triple-you? Or is it simply dubyadubyadubya? Any of the above, except that the last one gives rise to an interesting Web site: http://dubyadubyadubya.com which says that maybe all this dubyaing around may be just a big technical problem.
2002/12/14
Yuletide Lights Run
Today I ran my annual Holiday Fantasy Lights run around our neighborhood. This is similar to the Fourth of July run, but this time I run to find good holiday light displays. This is a different task than hunting Fourth of July fireworks. The fireworks are sporadic. If I hear them I have to run there right away or I'll miss them. Not so with holiday lights. I can't hear them but they are visible for hours at a time. I found this year disappointing. Many streets in my neighborhood which were brilliantly lit in years past this year were mostly dull, with only an occasional holiday display. I try to find which display is the best. This year this honor goes to someone who put strings of colored lights all through all of the trees in his front yard. The side of the street is close enough to make you feel that you are in a wonderland. It must have been hard to get those lights up there; either a long pole or a ladder, with unsure footing on that tree, was needed. Most of the brighter displays use white floodlights. To me these are out. They pollute the sky! If I were a display judge, I would automatically eliminate all lots with white floodlights on them.
Today I ran my annual Holiday Fantasy Lights run around our neighborhood. This is similar to the Fourth of July run, but this time I run to find good holiday light displays. This is a different task than hunting Fourth of July fireworks. The fireworks are sporadic. If I hear them I have to run there right away or I'll miss them. Not so with holiday lights. I can't hear them but they are visible for hours at a time. I found this year disappointing. Many streets in my neighborhood which were brilliantly lit in years past this year were mostly dull, with only an occasional holiday display. I try to find which display is the best. This year this honor goes to someone who put strings of colored lights all through all of the trees in his front yard. The side of the street is close enough to make you feel that you are in a wonderland. It must have been hard to get those lights up there; either a long pole or a ladder, with unsure footing on that tree, was needed. Most of the brighter displays use white floodlights. To me these are out. They pollute the sky! If I were a display judge, I would automatically eliminate all lots with white floodlights on them.
2002/12/12
Hypermediaism of the day
I may establish a regular feature on this blog. Hypermediaism of the day, honoring the most hypered-up news story of the past 24 hours or so. Today the honor of Hypermediaism of the day goes to the Hyper-TV networks such as CBS, NBC, and ABC, as well as CNN's web page. CNN's web page featured late today a story showing the discovery of nuclear sites in Iran. This was highlighted as the lead story on their site, and even included an aerial site showing some works. So I tried to listen for it on 1830 news tonight. But not a single one mentioned the story in the first 10 minutes. Instead, they blabbed endlessly about Trent Lott's statement about Strom Thurmond. First they give huge lead story billing to the Iran nuke story; then they drop it and give the lead hype to Trent Lott. If the networks can do this, then either the Iran nuke story has been hyped up far more than is warranted, or the Trent Lott story is. I think both are true. In fact, I believe that the hypermedia are helping make things bad for Sen. Lott and may force him to resign. For this reason, I award Hypermediaism of the Day honors today to the Iran nuke and the Trent Lott stories.
I may establish a regular feature on this blog. Hypermediaism of the day, honoring the most hypered-up news story of the past 24 hours or so. Today the honor of Hypermediaism of the day goes to the Hyper-TV networks such as CBS, NBC, and ABC, as well as CNN's web page. CNN's web page featured late today a story showing the discovery of nuclear sites in Iran. This was highlighted as the lead story on their site, and even included an aerial site showing some works. So I tried to listen for it on 1830 news tonight. But not a single one mentioned the story in the first 10 minutes. Instead, they blabbed endlessly about Trent Lott's statement about Strom Thurmond. First they give huge lead story billing to the Iran nuke story; then they drop it and give the lead hype to Trent Lott. If the networks can do this, then either the Iran nuke story has been hyped up far more than is warranted, or the Trent Lott story is. I think both are true. In fact, I believe that the hypermedia are helping make things bad for Sen. Lott and may force him to resign. For this reason, I award Hypermediaism of the Day honors today to the Iran nuke and the Trent Lott stories.
2002/12/10
Estival Christmas
I got an email today that says that we should try to show up for a party in the most festival costume that we can find. Well, of course, your costume can't be festival, for that's a noun, not an adjective. It can be festive or estival, but not festival. If it is estival, that means T-shirt, shorts, and flip-flops, or a swimsuit and a surfboard, since "estival" means "summerlike" or "summery". Thus a baseball uniform is estival. Which gave me the idea to rewrite "Take me out to the Ballgame" for this season of the year. At a Yuletide party, it would go:
Take me out to the Yule Party,
Take me out to the bash,
Buy me some chestnuts and spiked egg nog,
I don't care if I ever come back
for it's Ho, Ho, Ho here comes Santa Claus
If he don't come it's a shame,
For it's jerk, nod, up the chimney he scoots
at the Old Yule Party.
I got an email today that says that we should try to show up for a party in the most festival costume that we can find. Well, of course, your costume can't be festival, for that's a noun, not an adjective. It can be festive or estival, but not festival. If it is estival, that means T-shirt, shorts, and flip-flops, or a swimsuit and a surfboard, since "estival" means "summerlike" or "summery". Thus a baseball uniform is estival. Which gave me the idea to rewrite "Take me out to the Ballgame" for this season of the year. At a Yuletide party, it would go:
Take me out to the Yule Party,
Take me out to the bash,
Buy me some chestnuts and spiked egg nog,
I don't care if I ever come back
for it's Ho, Ho, Ho here comes Santa Claus
If he don't come it's a shame,
For it's jerk, nod, up the chimney he scoots
at the Old Yule Party.
What is a code?
When is a code not a code? When it is the dress code of a place in West Virginia. It seems that this one worker at this company protested the code by coming to work dressed in a dress. It was a maternity dress, and he says it is not as comfortable as it would seem to appear. He started working at his computer, then his company sent him home because he did not conform to their dress code. Now dress codes may be nice. If I were head of a firm that had contact with the public, I would have them all dress in purple shirts, pants and skirts to make us look unique. And maybe some decorum is needed. But the supervisor of this worker said, ""The dress code is not a code. It is a statement that we expect our employees to be properly attired at work," Now that goes beyond the pale of simple logic. Since when is a code not a code? I guess when it's a dress code in West Virginia. You can require a workplace to adhere to a dress code, but you can't require them to follow a code that is not a code. That is simply contradictory.
When is a code not a code? When it is the dress code of a place in West Virginia. It seems that this one worker at this company protested the code by coming to work dressed in a dress. It was a maternity dress, and he says it is not as comfortable as it would seem to appear. He started working at his computer, then his company sent him home because he did not conform to their dress code. Now dress codes may be nice. If I were head of a firm that had contact with the public, I would have them all dress in purple shirts, pants and skirts to make us look unique. And maybe some decorum is needed. But the supervisor of this worker said, ""The dress code is not a code. It is a statement that we expect our employees to be properly attired at work," Now that goes beyond the pale of simple logic. Since when is a code not a code? I guess when it's a dress code in West Virginia. You can require a workplace to adhere to a dress code, but you can't require them to follow a code that is not a code. That is simply contradictory.
2002/12/08
Ice Storms
We had a snowstorm followed by an ice storm this week, coating all the branches with ice. It did not affect our power much, causing only one or two glitches of a fraction of a second. But it caused a lot of power outages in the Carolinas. Some people don't have power for a week. For them it was like the Great Ice Storm of 1998 December 24 for us which gave us a 21-hour power outage.
The question is why ice storms come with such large number of power outages. It is because trees fall on power lines. Many of our power lines are aerial, on endless sequences of TTTTT that line highways through the countryside. If there are trees nearby, then they could fall on these power lines. It seems to me that electric companies could do a better job of keeping trees away from power lines, and of making power lines that withstand weight better. Trees are not intelligent creatures, and they don't want to harm us. Terrorists are intelligent and they want to harm us. If falling trees can take hundreds of thousands of people out of power for a week, think of what terrorists can do. This is something the power utilities need to do something about. The worst of ice storms should cause no more than a few hundred outages.
We had a snowstorm followed by an ice storm this week, coating all the branches with ice. It did not affect our power much, causing only one or two glitches of a fraction of a second. But it caused a lot of power outages in the Carolinas. Some people don't have power for a week. For them it was like the Great Ice Storm of 1998 December 24 for us which gave us a 21-hour power outage.
The question is why ice storms come with such large number of power outages. It is because trees fall on power lines. Many of our power lines are aerial, on endless sequences of TTTTT that line highways through the countryside. If there are trees nearby, then they could fall on these power lines. It seems to me that electric companies could do a better job of keeping trees away from power lines, and of making power lines that withstand weight better. Trees are not intelligent creatures, and they don't want to harm us. Terrorists are intelligent and they want to harm us. If falling trees can take hundreds of thousands of people out of power for a week, think of what terrorists can do. This is something the power utilities need to do something about. The worst of ice storms should cause no more than a few hundred outages.
2002/12/05
Ambiguity forever and ever
I found today an article in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune's web site about the North Carolina ice storm. The headline read: "Residents of North Carolina face up to life without power after ice and snow storm", and was by Emery P. Dalesio. The headline is ambiguous, and the other meaning of the headline is simply horrendous! It says that North Carolina residents have lost their electrical power for good; that they will never, ever again have electricity; and that furthermore, there is an implication that this was due to some wrongdoing. Convicted criminals "face up to life". North Carolina residents "face up to life". Perhaps whoever wrote the headline could have said "Residents of North Carolina adjust to life". He should have checked the meaning of his headlines before he published.
I found today an article in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune's web site about the North Carolina ice storm. The headline read: "Residents of North Carolina face up to life without power after ice and snow storm", and was by Emery P. Dalesio. The headline is ambiguous, and the other meaning of the headline is simply horrendous! It says that North Carolina residents have lost their electrical power for good; that they will never, ever again have electricity; and that furthermore, there is an implication that this was due to some wrongdoing. Convicted criminals "face up to life". North Carolina residents "face up to life". Perhaps whoever wrote the headline could have said "Residents of North Carolina adjust to life". He should have checked the meaning of his headlines before he published.
Snow, ice and birds
Yesterday we had a snowstorm, followed by an ice storm that produced a crusty snow surface on the ground. I went out early in the morning and restocked the bird feeder and scattered bird seed on the ground. This produced results fairly quickly. A whole bunch of birds came to our feeder, including seven blue jays. Snowbirds and several other species came as well, and it was interesting to see how these react to each other, or to squirrels. There were a dozen or more small birds there if there were no blue jays, but if there were blue jays there, there were no more than six small birds. These birds behaved in a domineering manner, as demonstrated when one blue jay arrived at the ground filled with small birds and squawked, "skaaaaa…". Half of the small birds left. There were five blue jays on the ground near the feeder when a red-headed woodpecker, considerably smaller than the jays, swooped down on the feeder area and caused all the blue jays to fly away. That is something to see a bird scare away five substantially larger, more aggressive birds. We saw eight species in our backyard today:
Blue jay
Tufted titmouse
Slate-colored junco (snowbird)
Carolina Chickadee
White-Throated Sparrow
Cardinal (female)
Song Sparrow
Red-headed woodpecker
Yesterday we had a snowstorm, followed by an ice storm that produced a crusty snow surface on the ground. I went out early in the morning and restocked the bird feeder and scattered bird seed on the ground. This produced results fairly quickly. A whole bunch of birds came to our feeder, including seven blue jays. Snowbirds and several other species came as well, and it was interesting to see how these react to each other, or to squirrels. There were a dozen or more small birds there if there were no blue jays, but if there were blue jays there, there were no more than six small birds. These birds behaved in a domineering manner, as demonstrated when one blue jay arrived at the ground filled with small birds and squawked, "skaaaaa…". Half of the small birds left. There were five blue jays on the ground near the feeder when a red-headed woodpecker, considerably smaller than the jays, swooped down on the feeder area and caused all the blue jays to fly away. That is something to see a bird scare away five substantially larger, more aggressive birds. We saw eight species in our backyard today:
Blue jay
Tufted titmouse
Slate-colored junco (snowbird)
Carolina Chickadee
White-Throated Sparrow
Cardinal (female)
Song Sparrow
Red-headed woodpecker
2002/12/03
Metric System and the Kilofoot
I saw a review of a book "The Measure of All Things", by Ken Alder, about how the meter was first defined. The review was entitled "The Meter is a Crock". The book was about two Frenchmen who surveyed in a triangulated form stretches of land all across Europe, to estimate the distance between the North Pole and the Equator. The meter was then defined to be one ten-millionth of this distance. The review showed how mistakes were made in the surveying, and that the Frenchmen assumed that the Earth was a sphere when actually it is slightly oblate. However, neither the book nor the review offers an alternative to the meter; if it supposed to be a "crock", then what's better?
Here is my answer: the foot. Yes, the foot. This is English measure, but we are used to feet in measuring things. What I would change the definition of the foot. Right now it is 12 inches, and an inch is defined to be 2.54 centimeters. I would define it as the distance that light travels in a nanosecond, one billionth of a second. Then the speed of light would be a gigafoot per second. I would not use miles, yards, or inches, but rather metric versions of the foot: kilofoot, decafoot, millifoot, decifoot (the new inch), and so forth. So I can talk about traveling 2800 kilofeet or 2.8 megafeet to drive somewhere in a day rather than 530 miles. Further, this would be useful in dealing with computers. If there is a billion operations per second (1 GHz), then one operation can take place only within a foot, since nothing can travel faster than light. Most importantly, the foot would be defined on a natural measure, in terms of the speed of light and in terms of time - a second is 1/86400 of a day.
I saw a review of a book "The Measure of All Things", by Ken Alder, about how the meter was first defined. The review was entitled "The Meter is a Crock". The book was about two Frenchmen who surveyed in a triangulated form stretches of land all across Europe, to estimate the distance between the North Pole and the Equator. The meter was then defined to be one ten-millionth of this distance. The review showed how mistakes were made in the surveying, and that the Frenchmen assumed that the Earth was a sphere when actually it is slightly oblate. However, neither the book nor the review offers an alternative to the meter; if it supposed to be a "crock", then what's better?
Here is my answer: the foot. Yes, the foot. This is English measure, but we are used to feet in measuring things. What I would change the definition of the foot. Right now it is 12 inches, and an inch is defined to be 2.54 centimeters. I would define it as the distance that light travels in a nanosecond, one billionth of a second. Then the speed of light would be a gigafoot per second. I would not use miles, yards, or inches, but rather metric versions of the foot: kilofoot, decafoot, millifoot, decifoot (the new inch), and so forth. So I can talk about traveling 2800 kilofeet or 2.8 megafeet to drive somewhere in a day rather than 530 miles. Further, this would be useful in dealing with computers. If there is a billion operations per second (1 GHz), then one operation can take place only within a foot, since nothing can travel faster than light. Most importantly, the foot would be defined on a natural measure, in terms of the speed of light and in terms of time - a second is 1/86400 of a day.
Null
Microsoft has done a lot to infuriate computer users and programmers, but one of the worst is Null, most prevalent in his database package, Access. This is a quantity that supposedly fills a slot where there supposedly is no value; it isn't zero, it isn't "" (a word with zero letters in it), it isn't 0.0, and it isn't False. It is Null, and any operation that uses Null is Null. 3 + Null = Null. "This is a good string" concatenated with Null is Null, and so forth. The most unreasonable at one time was saying that True or Null is Null. No matter what the truth value of the second argument is, the expression is going to be True; that is a property of "or". Later versions of Access set True or Null to True.
The other way in which Null infuriates programmers is that you can't use it in certain applications without causing an error message that terminates the entire application. That's like A-bombing a street because it has a pothole. When this thing can happen, it can take a long time to see what is happening, and it causes you to have to program around it. I don't know how many programmer hours have been lost because of Null, but it must be a lot.
Microsoft has done a lot to infuriate computer users and programmers, but one of the worst is Null, most prevalent in his database package, Access. This is a quantity that supposedly fills a slot where there supposedly is no value; it isn't zero, it isn't "" (a word with zero letters in it), it isn't 0.0, and it isn't False. It is Null, and any operation that uses Null is Null. 3 + Null = Null. "This is a good string" concatenated with Null is Null, and so forth. The most unreasonable at one time was saying that True or Null is Null. No matter what the truth value of the second argument is, the expression is going to be True; that is a property of "or". Later versions of Access set True or Null to True.
The other way in which Null infuriates programmers is that you can't use it in certain applications without causing an error message that terminates the entire application. That's like A-bombing a street because it has a pothole. When this thing can happen, it can take a long time to see what is happening, and it causes you to have to program around it. I don't know how many programmer hours have been lost because of Null, but it must be a lot.
A day that shall live in infamy
It is interesting that Saddam Hussein picked December 7 to offer his report to the United Nations on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. According to President Roosevelt, that is a day that shall live in infamy, because of a catastrophic event that happened 61 years ago. Will Saddam continue that infamy?
It is interesting that Saddam Hussein picked December 7 to offer his report to the United Nations on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. According to President Roosevelt, that is a day that shall live in infamy, because of a catastrophic event that happened 61 years ago. Will Saddam continue that infamy?
2002/11/29
Putting up the Holiday Lights
Well today I put up our holiday decorations and lights. It took several hours and a few hitches to do it. The biggest is that we are having our house painted this month. Therefore, nothing can go on the exterior walls of the house that would be painted. That eliminates the lights above the porch, so I have to redesign the display. I put lights on our deck instead of around the back door. I put a lot of lights in the bushes. But still it makes for a monotone display. So maybe I should get something like a deer to put on the lawn.
Except that our decorations take up a lot of space, 27 boxes of it (I counted such things as the Xmas tree base as a box). I put up the lights first and some broke, so I had to go to the loco Wal-Mart to get another string of 100 white lights. Then some other lights would not work, so I had some time trying to find a set of lights that would work, but I did. I next put up the candelabras. We put a three-candle electric candelabra in each window except in the kitchen. That is 13 three-candelabras. Our neighborhood has the habit of putting up a single white candle in each window, but it is our tradition to put up three red ones instead; I think it looks better. Putting these up is somewhat of a match-it game. I use these X-10 modules like from Radio Shack, so that I can turn on and off all 13 of them with the press of a button. I need to figure out how to deploy all of our candelabras, cords and modules so that when I put them together I don't get stuck because I have a three-pronged plug that wants to go into a two-pronged outlet.
The tree comes next. We use an artificial tree, and we put the tree together in seven layers with branches that are color-coded: yellow, red, black, pink, brown, green and white. Then we put a top on the tree. We also put a toy train set around the tree. The idea here, long ago was to prevent our cats from playing with the ornaments, by scaring them away with a noisy train. However, the train did not work this year; I suppose too many connector bars are missing. So this year it is merely decorative.
Tonight I got out the remote and hit "on". Instantly the lights came on, and I could see that some of the white lights were not working. So I will need to go to the store again. But the holiday lights are up, giving us cheer this Yuletide season until New Year's Day 2003, when we take them down.
Well today I put up our holiday decorations and lights. It took several hours and a few hitches to do it. The biggest is that we are having our house painted this month. Therefore, nothing can go on the exterior walls of the house that would be painted. That eliminates the lights above the porch, so I have to redesign the display. I put lights on our deck instead of around the back door. I put a lot of lights in the bushes. But still it makes for a monotone display. So maybe I should get something like a deer to put on the lawn.
Except that our decorations take up a lot of space, 27 boxes of it (I counted such things as the Xmas tree base as a box). I put up the lights first and some broke, so I had to go to the loco Wal-Mart to get another string of 100 white lights. Then some other lights would not work, so I had some time trying to find a set of lights that would work, but I did. I next put up the candelabras. We put a three-candle electric candelabra in each window except in the kitchen. That is 13 three-candelabras. Our neighborhood has the habit of putting up a single white candle in each window, but it is our tradition to put up three red ones instead; I think it looks better. Putting these up is somewhat of a match-it game. I use these X-10 modules like from Radio Shack, so that I can turn on and off all 13 of them with the press of a button. I need to figure out how to deploy all of our candelabras, cords and modules so that when I put them together I don't get stuck because I have a three-pronged plug that wants to go into a two-pronged outlet.
The tree comes next. We use an artificial tree, and we put the tree together in seven layers with branches that are color-coded: yellow, red, black, pink, brown, green and white. Then we put a top on the tree. We also put a toy train set around the tree. The idea here, long ago was to prevent our cats from playing with the ornaments, by scaring them away with a noisy train. However, the train did not work this year; I suppose too many connector bars are missing. So this year it is merely decorative.
Tonight I got out the remote and hit "on". Instantly the lights came on, and I could see that some of the white lights were not working. So I will need to go to the store again. But the holiday lights are up, giving us cheer this Yuletide season until New Year's Day 2003, when we take them down.
2002/11/28
International Space Station
When I was a boy around 1955, I read books and magazines about how one day we will have space stations that look like double doughnuts and that these stations will be big and numerous. It is now 2002, the future is here. Do we have space stations? Yes, but we have only one, the International Space Station, much smaller than the ones that Chesley Bonestell imagined in his space art, and difficult to get to. But we do have one, and after looking the times up on a NASA web site, I went outside tonight just before 1800 and saw the space station crossing from right to left with a shuttle docked to it. I enjoyed seeing this bright speck of light traveling in the sky - it indicates that we are progressing into space, although rather slowly. Eventually we will get more space stations up and start colonizing the moon, provided that none of a number of possible catastrophes hits us first. I found the sight of that station inspiring.
When I was a boy around 1955, I read books and magazines about how one day we will have space stations that look like double doughnuts and that these stations will be big and numerous. It is now 2002, the future is here. Do we have space stations? Yes, but we have only one, the International Space Station, much smaller than the ones that Chesley Bonestell imagined in his space art, and difficult to get to. But we do have one, and after looking the times up on a NASA web site, I went outside tonight just before 1800 and saw the space station crossing from right to left with a shuttle docked to it. I enjoyed seeing this bright speck of light traveling in the sky - it indicates that we are progressing into space, although rather slowly. Eventually we will get more space stations up and start colonizing the moon, provided that none of a number of possible catastrophes hits us first. I found the sight of that station inspiring.
Thanksgiving
Today is Thanksgiving, the second most important holiday in the year in the United States of America. It is a uniquely American holiday, with no counterparts much elsewhere, although Canada has its Thanksgiving in another month. It features a turkey dinner. Since only two of us live at my house, baking a huge 8-lb turkey does not seem to make sense; it results in turkey meals all the way to Yule, it seems. So we cooked instead three turkey legs. Maybe we should save the turkeys and have a vegetarian Thanksgiving meal and save the poor birds. As far as the meaning of the holiday, it seems to imply a God, to give thanks to, but I don't believe in such a personal God. So I simply feel glad for all the good things that have happened this year. My congregation got it right on their Thanksgiving service. They hosted a play featuring a family wanting to leave their country because men in uniform were stationing in their community and were about to monitor or even arrest them. Where did they go? America. The land of freedom of speech, of economic opportunity, and religious freedom. I just hope our country continues to be a haven for retreat from repression elsewhere; there is still a lot of it in this world. I know we have had Planeattack and feel threatened by other countries' and organizations' (such as al Qaeda) weapons, but we must not give up these freedoms. That is one of the special things about being Americans.
Today is Thanksgiving, the second most important holiday in the year in the United States of America. It is a uniquely American holiday, with no counterparts much elsewhere, although Canada has its Thanksgiving in another month. It features a turkey dinner. Since only two of us live at my house, baking a huge 8-lb turkey does not seem to make sense; it results in turkey meals all the way to Yule, it seems. So we cooked instead three turkey legs. Maybe we should save the turkeys and have a vegetarian Thanksgiving meal and save the poor birds. As far as the meaning of the holiday, it seems to imply a God, to give thanks to, but I don't believe in such a personal God. So I simply feel glad for all the good things that have happened this year. My congregation got it right on their Thanksgiving service. They hosted a play featuring a family wanting to leave their country because men in uniform were stationing in their community and were about to monitor or even arrest them. Where did they go? America. The land of freedom of speech, of economic opportunity, and religious freedom. I just hope our country continues to be a haven for retreat from repression elsewhere; there is still a lot of it in this world. I know we have had Planeattack and feel threatened by other countries' and organizations' (such as al Qaeda) weapons, but we must not give up these freedoms. That is one of the special things about being Americans.
Different types of Weather
I ran the Richmond Marathon in 1983. The weather was rainy with a temperature in the mid 50s (or about 12 C). It was not the nicest weather to run a marathon in. Since that time I had called cloudy and rainy weather "marathon weather"; that is, until I went to several Toastmaster conferences in a row that featured such weather. Then I called cloudy and rainy weather "Toastmaster weather". Here is a table of the various weathers I had come up with in the past few years:
The third one is pronounced FAIR weather, not fair WEAther, and means weather typical of a Virginia State Fair; i.e., cloudy and rainy. To that I might add "drought weather", which means cloudy and rainy. SWIM is the Southeast Winter Institute in Miami, a Unitarian-Universalist camp and conference held between Yule and New Year's; no URL for this camp seems to be available.
I ran the Richmond Marathon in 1983. The weather was rainy with a temperature in the mid 50s (or about 12 C). It was not the nicest weather to run a marathon in. Since that time I had called cloudy and rainy weather "marathon weather"; that is, until I went to several Toastmaster conferences in a row that featured such weather. Then I called cloudy and rainy weather "Toastmaster weather". Here is a table of the various weathers I had come up with in the past few years:
| Marathon Weather | Cloudy and Rainy |
| Toastmaster Weather | Cloudy and Rainy |
| Fair Weather | Cloudy and Rainy |
| Miami Weather | Pleasant sunny days and bone-chilly nights |
| SWIM Weather | same as Miami weather |
| SUUSI Weather | Warm and hazy; storms at night |
| Spring Weather | Snow flurries |
| Skywatch Weather | Cloudy or muggy and hazy |
| Eclipse Weather | Clouds at the wrong time |
| Christmas Weather | No Snow |
| Fourth of July Weather | Warm and muggy with lots of bugs |
| Skiing weather | Warm weather suitable for short sleeves and shorts |
The third one is pronounced FAIR weather, not fair WEAther, and means weather typical of a Virginia State Fair; i.e., cloudy and rainy. To that I might add "drought weather", which means cloudy and rainy. SWIM is the Southeast Winter Institute in Miami, a Unitarian-Universalist camp and conference held between Yule and New Year's; no URL for this camp seems to be available.
2002/11/26
It's that time of the year again
This evening I went up into my attic to get down the Yule decorations - 27 boxes of it. I only got down 10 of them tonight, and I will leave box number 16 upstairs: that's Halloween. This is the yearly ritual we go through that transform our drab landscape into a festival of color. I will take two or three hours to get our tree, three-light candelabras, and outdoor lighting up. The result is not as bright as some other displays I have seen, which require getting on the roof and putting up loads of lights. These displays must eat up a lot of electricity and take the entire holiday period to put up. I will also send cards this season, and get gifts for my relatives. Only two are that close - my wife and my mother. There will be parties all over the place, at my workplace and even at my astronomy club. Maybe we will sing Christmas carols at my church. And by the way, why call it Christmas when I am not Christian? I am a Unitarian Universalist with "pagan" leanings. So that is why I call it Yule.
This evening I went up into my attic to get down the Yule decorations - 27 boxes of it. I only got down 10 of them tonight, and I will leave box number 16 upstairs: that's Halloween. This is the yearly ritual we go through that transform our drab landscape into a festival of color. I will take two or three hours to get our tree, three-light candelabras, and outdoor lighting up. The result is not as bright as some other displays I have seen, which require getting on the roof and putting up loads of lights. These displays must eat up a lot of electricity and take the entire holiday period to put up. I will also send cards this season, and get gifts for my relatives. Only two are that close - my wife and my mother. There will be parties all over the place, at my workplace and even at my astronomy club. Maybe we will sing Christmas carols at my church. And by the way, why call it Christmas when I am not Christian? I am a Unitarian Universalist with "pagan" leanings. So that is why I call it Yule.
2002/11/25
Declaring Weapons Of Mass Destruction
By 2002 December 8, Iraq must declare all of its weapons of mass destruction, reads one headline today. Declare? To me that is unusual language, that Saddam must declare his weapons of mass destruction. It makes me think of his morphing into the image of Scarlett O'Hara, who then says, "Well, I'll Declare! Weapons of Mass Destruction!" In any case, Saddam may have his own idea of what "declare" means, as this script shows:
[Saddam Hussein standing up front in his usual uniform. Behind him are some buildings and a collection of inspectors. To the right and front are UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and US President George W. Bush]
Annan: Saddam, by December 8, you must declare all of your weapons of mass destruction or face serious consequences.
Hussein: You are saying, Kofi, that I must declare all of my weapons of mass destruction.
Annan: Yes, you must.
Hussein: OK, I will. [presses button on gadget]
[In the background a blue-green cloud emanates, and all of the inspectors collapse to the ground.]
Hussein: Sir, I have just declared a weapon of mass destruction. Do you want me to declare any more weapons of mass destruction?
Bush: No, that will be OK, Saddam. It is now our turn to declare. We declare a Regime Change!
[Big explosion in middle of screen; Saddam vanishes.]
Here is my declaration: that Saddam Hussein destroys all of his weapons of mass destruction without harm to any one and without anyone going to war with anyone.
By 2002 December 8, Iraq must declare all of its weapons of mass destruction, reads one headline today. Declare? To me that is unusual language, that Saddam must declare his weapons of mass destruction. It makes me think of his morphing into the image of Scarlett O'Hara, who then says, "Well, I'll Declare! Weapons of Mass Destruction!" In any case, Saddam may have his own idea of what "declare" means, as this script shows:
[Saddam Hussein standing up front in his usual uniform. Behind him are some buildings and a collection of inspectors. To the right and front are UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and US President George W. Bush]
Annan: Saddam, by December 8, you must declare all of your weapons of mass destruction or face serious consequences.
Hussein: You are saying, Kofi, that I must declare all of my weapons of mass destruction.
Annan: Yes, you must.
Hussein: OK, I will. [presses button on gadget]
[In the background a blue-green cloud emanates, and all of the inspectors collapse to the ground.]
Hussein: Sir, I have just declared a weapon of mass destruction. Do you want me to declare any more weapons of mass destruction?
Bush: No, that will be OK, Saddam. It is now our turn to declare. We declare a Regime Change!
[Big explosion in middle of screen; Saddam vanishes.]
Here is my declaration: that Saddam Hussein destroys all of his weapons of mass destruction without harm to any one and without anyone going to war with anyone.
Bottom Line?
The phrase "bottom line" does not make sense. It is an accounting term that has been pulled out of its content. The bottom line of a baseball league standings is the last place team. Nice guys finish last, remember? The bottom line of an outline is the least important. The phrase needs to be replaced by "front line", else it generates contradictory phrases such as BLUF, bottom line up front. What's the front line of your enterprise?
The phrase "bottom line" does not make sense. It is an accounting term that has been pulled out of its content. The bottom line of a baseball league standings is the last place team. Nice guys finish last, remember? The bottom line of an outline is the least important. The phrase needs to be replaced by "front line", else it generates contradictory phrases such as BLUF, bottom line up front. What's the front line of your enterprise?
Wasting Population Explosion
Since when does a disease among an animal species causes its numbers to increase? The answer is when the species is deer. In Wisconsin, they come down with chronic wasting disease, which is a relative of mad cow disease. Hunters now stay away since they can't eat their kill. This will cause deer populations to explode in Wisconsin. So what do you call a spreading disease that increases the numbers of the species that it attacks? An anti-epidemic?
Since when does a disease among an animal species causes its numbers to increase? The answer is when the species is deer. In Wisconsin, they come down with chronic wasting disease, which is a relative of mad cow disease. Hunters now stay away since they can't eat their kill. This will cause deer populations to explode in Wisconsin. So what do you call a spreading disease that increases the numbers of the species that it attacks? An anti-epidemic?
2002/11/24
Birds and Stars
This year I have been to one birding trip, at the Outer Banks, in October, and several skywatches or star parties. These two events have similarities. They both use binoculars or telescopes, they both try to spot objects in nature (birds or celestial objects), and they involve transportation to favorable sites (shores for birds, dark sites for stars). So the idea I had is, why not combine the two on the same trip? Have a birding and amateur astronomer outing, probably lasting two days, wherein you would observe the birds by day and the stars (and possibly a few birds) at night. Binoculars would be good for both. So where do you start Birdstar? Someone has to find a location, preferably a place near the ocean without lights nearby, such as Okracoke Island, and someone has to handle the logistics of this event, including informing both astronomical, nature and birding groups, arranging for the space and providing accommodations, leaders, and food for everyone. But I think it would be a good way to get birders to meet stargazers.
State Quarters
The two most recent quarters have become rather scarce. Indianas came out in August, and so far I have seen only five of them. Mississippis came out last month, but so far I have not seen a single one. I sorted out my excess collection and found out that I have more Virginias and North Carolinas than any other state. I took a look at next year's offerings. Alabama struck me as being notable. Initially they were going to put hackneyed items such as farms, bolls of cotton and so forth on the coin; then I saw one that featured the state house, which in the past had been a symbol of segregation. I did not think much of these designs. When I found out about the final design, I got a pleasant surprise. They put Helen Keller on the coin. This is the blind and deaf woman who made the most of her life. The inscription is in English and Braille; the first coin that anyone has heard of bearing Braille inscriptions. I think people are going to want that coin. It could become scarce quickly. So I am looking forward to it.
This year I have been to one birding trip, at the Outer Banks, in October, and several skywatches or star parties. These two events have similarities. They both use binoculars or telescopes, they both try to spot objects in nature (birds or celestial objects), and they involve transportation to favorable sites (shores for birds, dark sites for stars). So the idea I had is, why not combine the two on the same trip? Have a birding and amateur astronomer outing, probably lasting two days, wherein you would observe the birds by day and the stars (and possibly a few birds) at night. Binoculars would be good for both. So where do you start Birdstar? Someone has to find a location, preferably a place near the ocean without lights nearby, such as Okracoke Island, and someone has to handle the logistics of this event, including informing both astronomical, nature and birding groups, arranging for the space and providing accommodations, leaders, and food for everyone. But I think it would be a good way to get birders to meet stargazers.
State Quarters
The two most recent quarters have become rather scarce. Indianas came out in August, and so far I have seen only five of them. Mississippis came out last month, but so far I have not seen a single one. I sorted out my excess collection and found out that I have more Virginias and North Carolinas than any other state. I took a look at next year's offerings. Alabama struck me as being notable. Initially they were going to put hackneyed items such as farms, bolls of cotton and so forth on the coin; then I saw one that featured the state house, which in the past had been a symbol of segregation. I did not think much of these designs. When I found out about the final design, I got a pleasant surprise. They put Helen Keller on the coin. This is the blind and deaf woman who made the most of her life. The inscription is in English and Braille; the first coin that anyone has heard of bearing Braille inscriptions. I think people are going to want that coin. It could become scarce quickly. So I am looking forward to it.
2002/11/23
CNN misleads on the Shuttle
I heard that the shuttle Endeavour was going to launch tonight, but it may not because of bad weather in Spain, where the astronauts would have to land if trouble developed on takeoff. This made me wonder about the shuttle. I was going to walk out to a place in my development with a low southeastern horizon so I could see it take off. I had seen one of these before. But I could go out there and wait and wait and wait without knowing that it had been scrubbed at X minus 3 seconds. So I carried out a cellular phone and asked my wife to call me if a report on CNN says the mission is scrubbed. I took this extra measure to ensure that I see the shuttle. I stood out there a while and then my wife called me on the cellular phone. She said that CNN reported that the mission had been delayed to see if they could get better weather in Spain. So I walked back to the house to find out when they were going to launch it now. I was surprised to find instead that the shuttle launched! It was too late to go back. I was misled by an erroneous CNN report. It is all the more galling because later on CNN contradicted themselves by saying the shuttle launched.
This shows you can't trust the media any more. I asked my wife to call me if the shuttle was scrubbed as protection against waiting a long time for a shuttle that won't come. Instead, this prevented me from seeing the shuttle by getting me to leave the place before the shuttle was visible. It used to be that I could trust stations like CNN to tell the truth; I could have relied on it for information on the shuttle. But I can't. Since I can't, I feel I need to treat it as though they were going to do the worst against me. That results in this matrix game:
Game theory says then I should flip two coins. If both come up heads, I trust CNN; otherwise, I don't. CNN's most perverse strategy is to tell the truth 3/4 of the time and lie 1/4 of the time. This implies that the chance that I see the shuttle is (3/4)*(1/4) + (1/4)*(3/4) = 3/8 or 37.5%. The most probable outcome is to wait forever for the shuttle; actually, probably only 20 minutes. If I could fully trust CNN, the probability would be 100%. Amazing what a lack of trust can cost. Trust is lacking in our world today and sooner or later we will pay the penalty for it.
At least I helped someone see the shuttle. I sent a notice to an Internet group, someone noticed it there, looked for the shuttle and found it.
I heard that the shuttle Endeavour was going to launch tonight, but it may not because of bad weather in Spain, where the astronauts would have to land if trouble developed on takeoff. This made me wonder about the shuttle. I was going to walk out to a place in my development with a low southeastern horizon so I could see it take off. I had seen one of these before. But I could go out there and wait and wait and wait without knowing that it had been scrubbed at X minus 3 seconds. So I carried out a cellular phone and asked my wife to call me if a report on CNN says the mission is scrubbed. I took this extra measure to ensure that I see the shuttle. I stood out there a while and then my wife called me on the cellular phone. She said that CNN reported that the mission had been delayed to see if they could get better weather in Spain. So I walked back to the house to find out when they were going to launch it now. I was surprised to find instead that the shuttle launched! It was too late to go back. I was misled by an erroneous CNN report. It is all the more galling because later on CNN contradicted themselves by saying the shuttle launched.
This shows you can't trust the media any more. I asked my wife to call me if the shuttle was scrubbed as protection against waiting a long time for a shuttle that won't come. Instead, this prevented me from seeing the shuttle by getting me to leave the place before the shuttle was visible. It used to be that I could trust stations like CNN to tell the truth; I could have relied on it for information on the shuttle. But I can't. Since I can't, I feel I need to treat it as though they were going to do the worst against me. That results in this matrix game:
| CNN tells truth | CNN lies | |
| trust CNN | see shuttle(10) | don't see shuttle(-20) |
| don't trust CNN | wait forever for shuttle(0) | see shuttle(10) |
Game theory says then I should flip two coins. If both come up heads, I trust CNN; otherwise, I don't. CNN's most perverse strategy is to tell the truth 3/4 of the time and lie 1/4 of the time. This implies that the chance that I see the shuttle is (3/4)*(1/4) + (1/4)*(3/4) = 3/8 or 37.5%. The most probable outcome is to wait forever for the shuttle; actually, probably only 20 minutes. If I could fully trust CNN, the probability would be 100%. Amazing what a lack of trust can cost. Trust is lacking in our world today and sooner or later we will pay the penalty for it.
At least I helped someone see the shuttle. I sent a notice to an Internet group, someone noticed it there, looked for the shuttle and found it.
2002/11/21
Where is Iraq?
I have found something surprising as of late. The National Geographic conducted a survey of 18-24 year olds around the world and found that only 13 percent of American young people could find Iraq on a map. 87 percent couldn't, and we want to send these people to fight a war there? Only 17 percent could identify Afghanistan on a map. About 45 percent knew where New York was, but an incredible 11 percent could not even identify the United States. Scores around the world are similar. Mexico is even worse than the United States. In general, young people around the world don't know their world. This is dangerous. A lack of knowledge about the world, about science, mathematics, and social systems is what dogmas, fundamentalist religions, and tyrannical regimes feed on. Don't you think that if instead 87 percent could identify Iraq, Afghanistan, Mongolia, the United States and so forth that tyrannical regimes would fall and fundamentalist religions would disappear? I think so. Get out your National Geographic maps and discuss them with your kids. The fate of the world may depend on it.
More Giséle and PETA
This thing is starting to get hilarious. So far I thought that when PETA activists barged into the Victoria's Secret fashion show when strutted out, that the only signs that they held read "Giséle: Fur Scum". But according to two other Blogs, namely right-thinking.com and Blogs of War (sorry, no URL; it has become invalid), there were other signs, such as "OMG, she's hot!!!" and "I'm a fat whore with no life", and even one with the F word. To me the photos look authentic, but either they are fake or the media has misreported the PETA intrusion, maybe because some of these signs are not for family audiences. In my opinion, the PETA people are missing the mark. Their target is cruel treatment of mink, not the sex life of Giséle. It is the sight of these PETA women walking around a sexy supermodel is what I find interesting. The PETA women had their mouths wide open, and looked angry and demonstrative, while Giséle did not crack a smile and looked like an unfriendly nearly-undraped statue. At least the PETA women were expressing themselves and making their positions clear. To me Giséle seemed stuck up.
Giséle's name is interesting; to me, unnecessary umlauts and accents are hifalutin. But apparently her real family name was Bündchen. That is a German name; the word means little "Bund", since -chen plus umlaut is what the Germans use for a diminutive. For example, "Hund" is dog, and Hündchen is "doggie" or "puppy". "Bund" has several meanings, all of which suggests a binding or putting together. It could mean "league", in which case Giséle is Little League; maybe I'll find her in Williamsport. It could also mean "waistband", in which case it describes what she wore: a little waistband.
To me PETA is the Coyote of the protest world. They are always uncorking goofy skits. They have a woman in a skimpy bikini in a cage in the middle of downtown to protest cruel treatment to caged animals. Their dress is interesting and is designed for maximum impact: they dress skimpy where people are normally dressed, and they dress well covered where people are normally skimpily dressed, as at the fashion show. They recommend that kids drink beer, not milk. Why not orange juice? Because they want impact. They even compare a grisly murder to the butchering of cattle and other animals destined for the dinner table. Their tactic is to get people to notice. But much of the time they simply alienate. I prefer the actions of groups such as the Humane Society or the Farm Sanctuary.
I have found something surprising as of late. The National Geographic conducted a survey of 18-24 year olds around the world and found that only 13 percent of American young people could find Iraq on a map. 87 percent couldn't, and we want to send these people to fight a war there? Only 17 percent could identify Afghanistan on a map. About 45 percent knew where New York was, but an incredible 11 percent could not even identify the United States. Scores around the world are similar. Mexico is even worse than the United States. In general, young people around the world don't know their world. This is dangerous. A lack of knowledge about the world, about science, mathematics, and social systems is what dogmas, fundamentalist religions, and tyrannical regimes feed on. Don't you think that if instead 87 percent could identify Iraq, Afghanistan, Mongolia, the United States and so forth that tyrannical regimes would fall and fundamentalist religions would disappear? I think so. Get out your National Geographic maps and discuss them with your kids. The fate of the world may depend on it.
More Giséle and PETA
This thing is starting to get hilarious. So far I thought that when PETA activists barged into the Victoria's Secret fashion show when strutted out, that the only signs that they held read "Giséle: Fur Scum". But according to two other Blogs, namely right-thinking.com and Blogs of War (sorry, no URL; it has become invalid), there were other signs, such as "OMG, she's hot!!!" and "I'm a fat whore with no life", and even one with the F word. To me the photos look authentic, but either they are fake or the media has misreported the PETA intrusion, maybe because some of these signs are not for family audiences. In my opinion, the PETA people are missing the mark. Their target is cruel treatment of mink, not the sex life of Giséle. It is the sight of these PETA women walking around a sexy supermodel is what I find interesting. The PETA women had their mouths wide open, and looked angry and demonstrative, while Giséle did not crack a smile and looked like an unfriendly nearly-undraped statue. At least the PETA women were expressing themselves and making their positions clear. To me Giséle seemed stuck up.
Giséle's name is interesting; to me, unnecessary umlauts and accents are hifalutin. But apparently her real family name was Bündchen. That is a German name; the word means little "Bund", since -chen plus umlaut is what the Germans use for a diminutive. For example, "Hund" is dog, and Hündchen is "doggie" or "puppy". "Bund" has several meanings, all of which suggests a binding or putting together. It could mean "league", in which case Giséle is Little League; maybe I'll find her in Williamsport. It could also mean "waistband", in which case it describes what she wore: a little waistband.
To me PETA is the Coyote of the protest world. They are always uncorking goofy skits. They have a woman in a skimpy bikini in a cage in the middle of downtown to protest cruel treatment to caged animals. Their dress is interesting and is designed for maximum impact: they dress skimpy where people are normally dressed, and they dress well covered where people are normally skimpily dressed, as at the fashion show. They recommend that kids drink beer, not milk. Why not orange juice? Because they want impact. They even compare a grisly murder to the butchering of cattle and other animals destined for the dinner table. Their tactic is to get people to notice. But much of the time they simply alienate. I prefer the actions of groups such as the Humane Society or the Farm Sanctuary.
2002/11/20
Victoria's Secret
It's name is alluring. Victoria represents the epitome of sexual repressiveness. So saying "Victoria's Secret" says that there may be more than we see of Victoria, hidden behind a curtain. The company sells women's lingerie, and tonight they had a fashion show of some of the skimpiest fashions that they sell. Women paraded around in these outfits, sometimes garnished with outlandish wings, to the tune of dance music with a heavy beat, including one of my favorites, "Independence" by Jon and Vangelis.
I looked at this program because it was doubly controversial. Women's groups such as NOW protested the show is sexual exploitation. It shows women as sex objects. There may be some evidence of this. They showed one man there as having a "family" of women, of their training women to get out there and parade nearly naked, and so forth. Women's groups maintain that shows like this help put women in second place in our society, and these scenes certainly did not do anything to dispel that.
We need to distinguish, however, between discrimination and exploitation issues and expression of sexuality. The former is negative, the latter positive. For a long time societal institutions, especially religious ones, have been trying to repress sexuality. The show tonight was an expression of sexuality, showing off products that are normally used to stir sexual interest in the bedroom. As such it sends a positive message, that sexual expression is good and can add excitement to your life.
Victoria's Secret could have cleaned up its act a little bit. If the women have to go out there half naked, then so should the men. They should have been just as alluringly dressed, including singer Mark Anthony, who belted out a great song tonight. The show described how a man can get a gift for his woman from Victoria's Secret. No. That's not how it goes. The woman is the one to buy the lingerie for herself as a gift for the man, perhaps as a surprise in the bedroom. And the show could have refrained from referring to the women as "girls" and especially as "my girls". But in general I praise the show for celebrating one of the joys of life, namely sex.
The other way in which this show was controversial was due to one particular model: Giséle Bündchen. Initially as they filmed this episode, when Giséle walked on the stage, three women from the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) walked on the stage and called her "fur scum", because she had signed a contract with Blackglama to model mink coats. Indeed, PETA's web site describes the cruel way in which mink are killed to make mink coats - electrocution, gassing and so forth. The three women were arrested and charged, then released, and the segment was edited out. Too bad. I liked seeing the models, but I would have liked seeing the PETA protesters as well. PETA's stand is well-taken; we have been unusually cruel to animals over the years. But I do think they were off-mark here. Tonight Giséle was wearing hardly anything, let alone fur. Her fur business was elsewhere. If PETA wanted to protest, they should have protested by waiting until she appeared in a fur coat somewhere. Doing it here instead puts them in the sexually repressed group. They led us the wrong way.
So to sum up I'd say that Victoria's Secret should have equalize the field by including alluring models of both sexes, by not referring to the women as "girls", by being careful recruiting models so they don't wind up with controversial people such as Giséle Bündchen, and PETA should have chosen the timing of its protests more carefully. I give the show a C+.
It's name is alluring. Victoria represents the epitome of sexual repressiveness. So saying "Victoria's Secret" says that there may be more than we see of Victoria, hidden behind a curtain. The company sells women's lingerie, and tonight they had a fashion show of some of the skimpiest fashions that they sell. Women paraded around in these outfits, sometimes garnished with outlandish wings, to the tune of dance music with a heavy beat, including one of my favorites, "Independence" by Jon and Vangelis.
I looked at this program because it was doubly controversial. Women's groups such as NOW protested the show is sexual exploitation. It shows women as sex objects. There may be some evidence of this. They showed one man there as having a "family" of women, of their training women to get out there and parade nearly naked, and so forth. Women's groups maintain that shows like this help put women in second place in our society, and these scenes certainly did not do anything to dispel that.
We need to distinguish, however, between discrimination and exploitation issues and expression of sexuality. The former is negative, the latter positive. For a long time societal institutions, especially religious ones, have been trying to repress sexuality. The show tonight was an expression of sexuality, showing off products that are normally used to stir sexual interest in the bedroom. As such it sends a positive message, that sexual expression is good and can add excitement to your life.
Victoria's Secret could have cleaned up its act a little bit. If the women have to go out there half naked, then so should the men. They should have been just as alluringly dressed, including singer Mark Anthony, who belted out a great song tonight. The show described how a man can get a gift for his woman from Victoria's Secret. No. That's not how it goes. The woman is the one to buy the lingerie for herself as a gift for the man, perhaps as a surprise in the bedroom. And the show could have refrained from referring to the women as "girls" and especially as "my girls". But in general I praise the show for celebrating one of the joys of life, namely sex.
The other way in which this show was controversial was due to one particular model: Giséle Bündchen. Initially as they filmed this episode, when Giséle walked on the stage, three women from the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) walked on the stage and called her "fur scum", because she had signed a contract with Blackglama to model mink coats. Indeed, PETA's web site describes the cruel way in which mink are killed to make mink coats - electrocution, gassing and so forth. The three women were arrested and charged, then released, and the segment was edited out. Too bad. I liked seeing the models, but I would have liked seeing the PETA protesters as well. PETA's stand is well-taken; we have been unusually cruel to animals over the years. But I do think they were off-mark here. Tonight Giséle was wearing hardly anything, let alone fur. Her fur business was elsewhere. If PETA wanted to protest, they should have protested by waiting until she appeared in a fur coat somewhere. Doing it here instead puts them in the sexually repressed group. They led us the wrong way.
So to sum up I'd say that Victoria's Secret should have equalize the field by including alluring models of both sexes, by not referring to the women as "girls", by being careful recruiting models so they don't wind up with controversial people such as Giséle Bündchen, and PETA should have chosen the timing of its protests more carefully. I give the show a C+.
2002/11/19
Thinking is believing
I saw this on Time Magazine's web site today: "He runs Iraq, in no small part, because people think he runs Iraq." (I am not going to post a URL, because in no time flat, it will become invalid.) This exposes Saddam's rule for what it is: it is a rule of abstract entities, a rule of belief. If you are an Iraqi and you think Saddam runs Iraq, then he will continue right on "ruling" Iraq and things will stay the same. But thoughts are free. What if you think differently? What if you think that he is just an ordinary bully instead? If a large number of people in Iraq thought that, the regime would fall quickly.
What else exists because of simply believing it exists? How about the value of the paper money in my wallet? Is there a dollar's worth of material in a dollar? No. That piece of paper is worth a dollar because I believe it is worth a dollar, because my friends and acquaintances think it is worth a dollar, and because the US government says it is worth a dollar. There used to be money that was really worth that (silver coins) but you don't see that anymore. In this case we want to keep on believing. If we don't, a monetary crisis will result and we will lose all of our savings. That happened during the Great Depression and in Germany in 1923.
But maybe with other things, if you stop believing in what you have been in habit of believing or what others tell you to believe, you may blaze a new trail. This is how clothing fads change. For example, people said in the 1960s and early 1970s that people will never own computers, and that it is not necessary to own one. But Wozniak and Jobs had a different idea: they wanted to own a computer and to make a living by getting others to own their own computers. So therefore the Apple II, and now many of us own computers, including this one I am writing on.
Be careful carving out a new belief trail. Trying to live life as you feel like it in Saddam's Iraq may not be a good idea. And you may startle people with your new thinking. But there are so many other belief trails to choose from, and the rewards can be great.
I saw this on Time Magazine's web site today: "He runs Iraq, in no small part, because people think he runs Iraq." (I am not going to post a URL, because in no time flat, it will become invalid.) This exposes Saddam's rule for what it is: it is a rule of abstract entities, a rule of belief. If you are an Iraqi and you think Saddam runs Iraq, then he will continue right on "ruling" Iraq and things will stay the same. But thoughts are free. What if you think differently? What if you think that he is just an ordinary bully instead? If a large number of people in Iraq thought that, the regime would fall quickly.
What else exists because of simply believing it exists? How about the value of the paper money in my wallet? Is there a dollar's worth of material in a dollar? No. That piece of paper is worth a dollar because I believe it is worth a dollar, because my friends and acquaintances think it is worth a dollar, and because the US government says it is worth a dollar. There used to be money that was really worth that (silver coins) but you don't see that anymore. In this case we want to keep on believing. If we don't, a monetary crisis will result and we will lose all of our savings. That happened during the Great Depression and in Germany in 1923.
But maybe with other things, if you stop believing in what you have been in habit of believing or what others tell you to believe, you may blaze a new trail. This is how clothing fads change. For example, people said in the 1960s and early 1970s that people will never own computers, and that it is not necessary to own one. But Wozniak and Jobs had a different idea: they wanted to own a computer and to make a living by getting others to own their own computers. So therefore the Apple II, and now many of us own computers, including this one I am writing on.
Be careful carving out a new belief trail. Trying to live life as you feel like it in Saddam's Iraq may not be a good idea. And you may startle people with your new thinking. But there are so many other belief trails to choose from, and the rewards can be great.
2002/11/17
Nature Shows
I see a generational difference in the way that nature shows are presented. Take Wild Kingdom, for instance. I used to watch it in the late 1960s and 1970s when I was a young adult. The show was presented by the Silent Generation then; those born between 1925 and 1942. The show presented mostly the animals, in their adventures in obtaining what they need to survive. It would show cheetahs chasing springbok; jaguars hunting capybaras, and elephants grazing on the savanna. Once in a great while a human would appear, as in one case when one wrestled with an anaconda.
Wild Kingdom has reappeared on the Animal Channel, but it is different. It is now presented by Generation X, noted for practicality and adventurousness. Today is the day of wrestling crocodiles and "crikey". Now people appear all over the place on Wild Kingdom, especially young men who go out in the wilderness and investigate all over the place even to the extent of holding the necks of black mamba snakes in their hands. Instead of a travelogue of animals, we now get a wild safari. The show is just as interesting and informative; it is just presented differently.
If generational trends as theorized by Strauss and Howe in Generations continue, in 10-20 years the Millennial Generation will present the show. We then will see nature people going into the wilderness showing how we can preserve the environment and how to live peacefully among the animals. It will show a much more loving attitude than the bookworms of the 1960s or the daredevils of today.
I see a generational difference in the way that nature shows are presented. Take Wild Kingdom, for instance. I used to watch it in the late 1960s and 1970s when I was a young adult. The show was presented by the Silent Generation then; those born between 1925 and 1942. The show presented mostly the animals, in their adventures in obtaining what they need to survive. It would show cheetahs chasing springbok; jaguars hunting capybaras, and elephants grazing on the savanna. Once in a great while a human would appear, as in one case when one wrestled with an anaconda.
Wild Kingdom has reappeared on the Animal Channel, but it is different. It is now presented by Generation X, noted for practicality and adventurousness. Today is the day of wrestling crocodiles and "crikey". Now people appear all over the place on Wild Kingdom, especially young men who go out in the wilderness and investigate all over the place even to the extent of holding the necks of black mamba snakes in their hands. Instead of a travelogue of animals, we now get a wild safari. The show is just as interesting and informative; it is just presented differently.
If generational trends as theorized by Strauss and Howe in Generations continue, in 10-20 years the Millennial Generation will present the show. We then will see nature people going into the wilderness showing how we can preserve the environment and how to live peacefully among the animals. It will show a much more loving attitude than the bookworms of the 1960s or the daredevils of today.
2002/11/16
A new telescope?
I currently own a Meade 2045 telescope but am looking for a bigger model. Somoene from my astronomical society wanted to hold a telescope party in which we showed our scopes to the rest of us. I figured this would be a good place to find out what scopes are available. It was not the best day to do it, as it was pouring rain much of the time. Some of us showed the hand-made scopes we made, including one called the StarStalker, named that as no commercial ad-generating enterprise will want a name like that for their scope. I got interested in the Meade LX-200, a solidly built telescope that takes 15 minutes to set up. It is a go-to scope, meaning that if you want to see the Ring Nebula, you bring up Ring Nebula in the little remote-like device that comes with it, press Go, and it slews the scope to it and hopefully you will see it. But it weighs a lot! Further, there is so much gadgetry and details involved. At $1,500-$2,500, it is a rather expensive gizmo. Still, it may be ideal to show to the public at skywatches because of the "go to" features. But if I think it is too symbolic of the conspicuous consumption in this country, I may settle for a ten-inch Dobsonian telescope: you plunk it on a lawn, use the guide scope to move the dob to your object, using old-fashioned star-hopping, and look. I still have not decided what to do.
I currently own a Meade 2045 telescope but am looking for a bigger model. Somoene from my astronomical society wanted to hold a telescope party in which we showed our scopes to the rest of us. I figured this would be a good place to find out what scopes are available. It was not the best day to do it, as it was pouring rain much of the time. Some of us showed the hand-made scopes we made, including one called the StarStalker, named that as no commercial ad-generating enterprise will want a name like that for their scope. I got interested in the Meade LX-200, a solidly built telescope that takes 15 minutes to set up. It is a go-to scope, meaning that if you want to see the Ring Nebula, you bring up Ring Nebula in the little remote-like device that comes with it, press Go, and it slews the scope to it and hopefully you will see it. But it weighs a lot! Further, there is so much gadgetry and details involved. At $1,500-$2,500, it is a rather expensive gizmo. Still, it may be ideal to show to the public at skywatches because of the "go to" features. But if I think it is too symbolic of the conspicuous consumption in this country, I may settle for a ten-inch Dobsonian telescope: you plunk it on a lawn, use the guide scope to move the dob to your object, using old-fashioned star-hopping, and look. I still have not decided what to do.
2002/11/14
Autumn Maple
In 1992 August we purchased a Norway red maple for our yard. It was a little taller than us, with only a thin (maybe an inch) trunk. Since then it has grown into a nice pear shape and as tall as our two-story house. It is a beautiful tree. This year the leaves stayed green all October, the first time I have seen that happen here. After the first week of November, the leaves turned into a brilliant shade of red. I took a few pictures of it admired its beauty. In just ten short years, we now have the prettiest tree on the street. Sad to say, its autumn glow did not last long. This week, some windy storms came, and all of the leaves dropped off to the ground, leaving me with a leaf raking chore this weekend. But it was something to see while it lasted.
In 1992 August we purchased a Norway red maple for our yard. It was a little taller than us, with only a thin (maybe an inch) trunk. Since then it has grown into a nice pear shape and as tall as our two-story house. It is a beautiful tree. This year the leaves stayed green all October, the first time I have seen that happen here. After the first week of November, the leaves turned into a brilliant shade of red. I took a few pictures of it admired its beauty. In just ten short years, we now have the prettiest tree on the street. Sad to say, its autumn glow did not last long. This week, some windy storms came, and all of the leaves dropped off to the ground, leaving me with a leaf raking chore this weekend. But it was something to see while it lasted.
2002/11/13
Like Iraq!?
I would think that GM would stop these commercials hawking its SUVs, trucks and vans. I keep hearing about the Chevy Tahoe, how it is "like a rock". But that sounds a lot like "like Iraq", and while Saddam runs that country, I don't think anyone, no matter what their stand on war in Iraq is, would want themselves or items associated with them to be anything like Iraq. But if GM wants to be known in the future as having these SUVs that are like Iraq, that's their call.
Not a War
This is an interesting web site: http://irregulartimes.com. It has articles from an independent minded Republican; certainly not your run of the mill Republican. He's an "irregular Republican". Especially interesting is the article Not a War. In the article, entitled "When is a war not a war? When it's a crime", he maintains that the campaign against terror is not a war, because it is not against a nation; otherwise, anyone can attack our soldiers or our installations and claim that they are fighting a war against our country. Terror, such as what happened on 2001 September 11, does not come from a nation and so therefore it is not a war. It is an interesting article although somewhat overdrawn. His main point I feel is valid: our effort to combat terrorism is not a war.
Negative blogs
I note that I have been posting a lot of negative blogs as of late. Perhaps that is because times are negative: war with Iraq, stock market dropping, the sniper. I think we should all try to find good and happy things in life, and I shall try to find some myself.
I would think that GM would stop these commercials hawking its SUVs, trucks and vans. I keep hearing about the Chevy Tahoe, how it is "like a rock". But that sounds a lot like "like Iraq", and while Saddam runs that country, I don't think anyone, no matter what their stand on war in Iraq is, would want themselves or items associated with them to be anything like Iraq. But if GM wants to be known in the future as having these SUVs that are like Iraq, that's their call.
Not a War
This is an interesting web site: http://irregulartimes.com. It has articles from an independent minded Republican; certainly not your run of the mill Republican. He's an "irregular Republican". Especially interesting is the article Not a War. In the article, entitled "When is a war not a war? When it's a crime", he maintains that the campaign against terror is not a war, because it is not against a nation; otherwise, anyone can attack our soldiers or our installations and claim that they are fighting a war against our country. Terror, such as what happened on 2001 September 11, does not come from a nation and so therefore it is not a war. It is an interesting article although somewhat overdrawn. His main point I feel is valid: our effort to combat terrorism is not a war.
Negative blogs
I note that I have been posting a lot of negative blogs as of late. Perhaps that is because times are negative: war with Iraq, stock market dropping, the sniper. I think we should all try to find good and happy things in life, and I shall try to find some myself.
2002/11/12
Theft of time?
I found an editorial in the local newspaper that takes a stand that I question. The editorialist condemned the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) for its "terrorist" actions. I for one believe that the actions of the ELF do damage to the cause of environmentalism and preserving this planet as a place of beauty to live. They cause people to oppose ELF, and hence by association, environmentalism.
However, I take exception to one comment that the author makes. He quotes from the science fiction novel Dune in which he says that depriving a man of an hour and depriving him of his life is merely a difference of degree. He cites the case of a person who has to replace the tires of an SUV after they get slashed. If that's the case, then I can name quite a few mass murderers. Take the computer companies, for instance, especially Microsoft. Think of how much time has been wasted, probably billions of person-hours, because computers crash. How about the time wasted waiting for service at some of these computer and cellular phone places? I did not have cable modem service for four days, when it was the modem that was bad instead of all the other things they had me do and had me waste 10 hours or so on. Today I was forced to wait two hours for a service only to be told that I had to make an appointment another day. How about all the times that car repair places misrepaired my car or made me wait a long time for it? If this editorialist is correct, this constitutes many killings worth of time many thousands of time over.
I have never thought of things this way. To me there is a difference of level as well as one of degree between a vandalism and a murder.
Pure Theater
President Bush called the action of the Iraqi parliament in unanimously rejecting U.N. Resolution 1441 "pure theater". Interesting way of putting it. At least I'd rather have pure theater than polluted theater or dirty theater. Maybe he means a theater that has been scrubbed of germs so that you won't catch a cold there, or maybe he means one in which all of the things that are done and all that the actors ever do is devoted to producing plays in a theater. It is pure theater, and nothing else but theater. In any case, Bush still says that Iraq must comply else there will be another kind of theater - a military one.
I found an editorial in the local newspaper that takes a stand that I question. The editorialist condemned the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) for its "terrorist" actions. I for one believe that the actions of the ELF do damage to the cause of environmentalism and preserving this planet as a place of beauty to live. They cause people to oppose ELF, and hence by association, environmentalism.
However, I take exception to one comment that the author makes. He quotes from the science fiction novel Dune in which he says that depriving a man of an hour and depriving him of his life is merely a difference of degree. He cites the case of a person who has to replace the tires of an SUV after they get slashed. If that's the case, then I can name quite a few mass murderers. Take the computer companies, for instance, especially Microsoft. Think of how much time has been wasted, probably billions of person-hours, because computers crash. How about the time wasted waiting for service at some of these computer and cellular phone places? I did not have cable modem service for four days, when it was the modem that was bad instead of all the other things they had me do and had me waste 10 hours or so on. Today I was forced to wait two hours for a service only to be told that I had to make an appointment another day. How about all the times that car repair places misrepaired my car or made me wait a long time for it? If this editorialist is correct, this constitutes many killings worth of time many thousands of time over.
I have never thought of things this way. To me there is a difference of level as well as one of degree between a vandalism and a murder.
Pure Theater
President Bush called the action of the Iraqi parliament in unanimously rejecting U.N. Resolution 1441 "pure theater". Interesting way of putting it. At least I'd rather have pure theater than polluted theater or dirty theater. Maybe he means a theater that has been scrubbed of germs so that you won't catch a cold there, or maybe he means one in which all of the things that are done and all that the actors ever do is devoted to producing plays in a theater. It is pure theater, and nothing else but theater. In any case, Bush still says that Iraq must comply else there will be another kind of theater - a military one.
2002/11/11
Looms
I have noticed recently that the media likes to use the verb to loom a lot. The war on Iraq looms, unemployment looms, the top-rated Florida State Seminoles loom, new restrictions on tax shelters loom. Everything seems to loom. Here a loom, there a loom, everywhere a loom loom. Don't they get tired of using that word?
How about "approach ominously", or "is coming" or even my nonword ominate? The impending war with Iraq ominates while Iraq mulls U.N. Resolution 1441. Budget cuts ominate. At least it is new and different. But don't use it too often. Else the day when everything ominates in the media will loom.
I have noticed recently that the media likes to use the verb to loom a lot. The war on Iraq looms, unemployment looms, the top-rated Florida State Seminoles loom, new restrictions on tax shelters loom. Everything seems to loom. Here a loom, there a loom, everywhere a loom loom. Don't they get tired of using that word?
How about "approach ominously", or "is coming" or even my nonword ominate? The impending war with Iraq ominates while Iraq mulls U.N. Resolution 1441. Budget cuts ominate. At least it is new and different. But don't use it too often. Else the day when everything ominates in the media will loom.
2002/11/10
Bubble Bees Revisited
Bubble Bees has become my favorite game on the Internet. It is relatively easy to play, has a few mysteries to pique you, and, most importantly, is non-violent. I have played many games and have deduced a few rules which I feel should have been stated up front;
1. Fast red bees are 50 points.
2. Catching two objects (clocks, ordinary bees, or red bees) gets you 100 points.
3. Catching an ordinary bee by itself counts 10 points, but does not count anything if caught with other objects; then you get the bonus instead.
4. Catching a clock gives you 5 more seconds.
5. You have 60 seconds to start with
6. Going past a multiple of 500 gets you 10 extra seconds.
7. Catching three objects at once gets you 500 points.
8. Catching four objects at once gets you 1000 points (not 2500 points).
9. Bubbles vary in size.
My strategy has improved over time and my high game is now 6,230 points. Here are some of my strategies:
1. Balance between snatching bees before time passes and waiting to get more than one at a time.
2. Catch single bees while you can while you wait for two bees to get close enough to get the 100-point bonus.
3. In catching the clock, you need to put the bubbler lower than usual, especially near the bottom of the screen.
4. Wait, if possible, to catch the clock until it is near some bees, so that catching it will get a bonus.
5. Wait, if possible, to catch the fast red bee until it is near some other bees, so that catching will get the 100-point bonus.
6. Bees porpoise up and down and go at different speeds. If you watch their flying pattern, you can anticipate groupings.
7. When your score has a 4 or 9 as the hundreds digit, catch whatever you can, even if it be ordinary bees, to get you over the next multiple of 500.
8. It is better, when going after two bees, to miss them both than to catch just one of them. If the latter happens, your chance of getting the 100-point bonus with them is forever gone. I call this a "chop", borrowing the term from bowling.
9. Don't snare bees immediately upon going on the screen. You miss groupings by doing that.
My high score is 6,230, which is a far cry from the six-digit amounts that are on the top 10 list. How does one get those? I counted the bees once and determined that in 10 seconds, 8 bees appear on the average. To stay in the game indefinitely, you need to get 500 points every 10 minutes, with a little help from the clocks. To get 500 points out of 8 bees, you need to snare three of them together or catch them with the clock and the fast red bee. Usually they are too far apart to catch in pairs, so I don't see how one can last a long time in the game to get those six-digit scores. I tried stretching the bubbles, but there is only so far that they will stretch. Another way in which you can get high scores is if catching huge bunches of bees gets you tremendous scores. That is whay I thought that 4 bees would get you 2,500 points, 5 gets you 12,500 points, and 6 gets you 62,500 points, each one being 5 times the previous. But when I caught 4 bees once, it yielded not 2,500 but 1,000 points. Apparently it goes up only arithmetically. So that rules that out.
So how then does one get those six-digit scores? There must be an Easter egg in the game.
Bubble Bees has become my favorite game on the Internet. It is relatively easy to play, has a few mysteries to pique you, and, most importantly, is non-violent. I have played many games and have deduced a few rules which I feel should have been stated up front;
1. Fast red bees are 50 points.
2. Catching two objects (clocks, ordinary bees, or red bees) gets you 100 points.
3. Catching an ordinary bee by itself counts 10 points, but does not count anything if caught with other objects; then you get the bonus instead.
4. Catching a clock gives you 5 more seconds.
5. You have 60 seconds to start with
6. Going past a multiple of 500 gets you 10 extra seconds.
7. Catching three objects at once gets you 500 points.
8. Catching four objects at once gets you 1000 points (not 2500 points).
9. Bubbles vary in size.
My strategy has improved over time and my high game is now 6,230 points. Here are some of my strategies:
1. Balance between snatching bees before time passes and waiting to get more than one at a time.
2. Catch single bees while you can while you wait for two bees to get close enough to get the 100-point bonus.
3. In catching the clock, you need to put the bubbler lower than usual, especially near the bottom of the screen.
4. Wait, if possible, to catch the clock until it is near some bees, so that catching it will get a bonus.
5. Wait, if possible, to catch the fast red bee until it is near some other bees, so that catching will get the 100-point bonus.
6. Bees porpoise up and down and go at different speeds. If you watch their flying pattern, you can anticipate groupings.
7. When your score has a 4 or 9 as the hundreds digit, catch whatever you can, even if it be ordinary bees, to get you over the next multiple of 500.
8. It is better, when going after two bees, to miss them both than to catch just one of them. If the latter happens, your chance of getting the 100-point bonus with them is forever gone. I call this a "chop", borrowing the term from bowling.
9. Don't snare bees immediately upon going on the screen. You miss groupings by doing that.
My high score is 6,230, which is a far cry from the six-digit amounts that are on the top 10 list. How does one get those? I counted the bees once and determined that in 10 seconds, 8 bees appear on the average. To stay in the game indefinitely, you need to get 500 points every 10 minutes, with a little help from the clocks. To get 500 points out of 8 bees, you need to snare three of them together or catch them with the clock and the fast red bee. Usually they are too far apart to catch in pairs, so I don't see how one can last a long time in the game to get those six-digit scores. I tried stretching the bubbles, but there is only so far that they will stretch. Another way in which you can get high scores is if catching huge bunches of bees gets you tremendous scores. That is whay I thought that 4 bees would get you 2,500 points, 5 gets you 12,500 points, and 6 gets you 62,500 points, each one being 5 times the previous. But when I caught 4 bees once, it yielded not 2,500 but 1,000 points. Apparently it goes up only arithmetically. So that rules that out.
So how then does one get those six-digit scores? There must be an Easter egg in the game.
2002/11/07
Anti-muslimism and Anti-whitevanism
In the past two years two types of discrimination have appeared. The first appeared after Planeattack, and was directed against Muslims, since it was Muslims who piloted the planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. People looked askance at them, or anyone of Mideastern descent, because of Planeattack. The second appeared while the DC sniper was terrorizing the Washington-Richmond area and was directed against owners of white vans. Police inspected these vans much more than other cars, and people started to avoid and look wary of white vans.
There are similarities and differences between the two discriminations. They are similar in that they are based on unwarranted stereotypes - the Mideasterner as suicide bomber and the white van owner as a sniper. These stereotypes are frequently wrong; it was for the sniper case, as the snipers did their killing from a Chevrolet Caprice instead. The two discriminations are also based on the same human emotion: fear. It is different in that a person's religious beliefs are much more integrated with the person than what kind of vehicle he drives. The anti-Muslim beliefs also are more like to turn into hate, as they are directed against people, while the white-van fear was directed against things.
The white van discrimination makes it clear that discrimination of other types frequently is based on fear. This makes it important that community groups be organized once in a while to allow people to experience each other as for a common cause. This could go a long way to alleviating the fear.
In the past two years two types of discrimination have appeared. The first appeared after Planeattack, and was directed against Muslims, since it was Muslims who piloted the planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. People looked askance at them, or anyone of Mideastern descent, because of Planeattack. The second appeared while the DC sniper was terrorizing the Washington-Richmond area and was directed against owners of white vans. Police inspected these vans much more than other cars, and people started to avoid and look wary of white vans.
There are similarities and differences between the two discriminations. They are similar in that they are based on unwarranted stereotypes - the Mideasterner as suicide bomber and the white van owner as a sniper. These stereotypes are frequently wrong; it was for the sniper case, as the snipers did their killing from a Chevrolet Caprice instead. The two discriminations are also based on the same human emotion: fear. It is different in that a person's religious beliefs are much more integrated with the person than what kind of vehicle he drives. The anti-Muslim beliefs also are more like to turn into hate, as they are directed against people, while the white-van fear was directed against things.
The white van discrimination makes it clear that discrimination of other types frequently is based on fear. This makes it important that community groups be organized once in a while to allow people to experience each other as for a common cause. This could go a long way to alleviating the fear.
2002/11/06
Bomb Iraq with...
One of the more interesting pastimes I found on the web is to hunt in Google for a famous phrase with one word changed. Take, for example, "Loose lips sink ships." If I want to get the entire phrase except the word "lips", I enter "loose * sink ships" -lips, telling Google I want "loose" followed by any word (the wild character *) followed by "sink ships", and that I don't want the word "lips". The first entry I get is "loose chips sink ships", which may be appropriate for today's cybernetic world. "Give me liberty or give me *" -death yields "Give me liberty or give me, um, a Game Boy", and then "Give me liberty or give me Microsoft". Have it your own way. If I star the liberty instead, I get "Give me pixels or give me death." They probably mean the Blue Screen of Death. "Read my lips, no more *" -taxes yields "science" first, then "terror" and "Bush". The choices get better all the time. I tried "Bomb Iraq with *" and got this list:
Ballots
Food
Lots of smart bombs
Blair's backing
our a*hole smart technology
Prayer
Sh*loads of DU
No provocation
Love
Really bad jokes
As you can see, some interesting alternatives.
One of the more interesting pastimes I found on the web is to hunt in Google for a famous phrase with one word changed. Take, for example, "Loose lips sink ships." If I want to get the entire phrase except the word "lips", I enter "loose * sink ships" -lips, telling Google I want "loose" followed by any word (the wild character *) followed by "sink ships", and that I don't want the word "lips". The first entry I get is "loose chips sink ships", which may be appropriate for today's cybernetic world. "Give me liberty or give me *" -death yields "Give me liberty or give me, um, a Game Boy", and then "Give me liberty or give me Microsoft". Have it your own way. If I star the liberty instead, I get "Give me pixels or give me death." They probably mean the Blue Screen of Death. "Read my lips, no more *" -taxes yields "science" first, then "terror" and "Bush". The choices get better all the time. I tried "Bomb Iraq with *" and got this list:
Ballots
Food
Lots of smart bombs
Blair's backing
our a*hole smart technology
Prayer
Sh*loads of DU
No provocation
Love
Really bad jokes
As you can see, some interesting alternatives.
2002/11/05
Election Night
It seems the Republicans have the advantage tonight. That could have been predicted in advance, in my opinion. If the election had been held in July, Democrats would have swarmed into power in both houses. The reason why the Republicans have the advantage is that the economy seems to be doing better. The stock market is consistently going up; the days of the ebearient plummets of July and August are gone. The economy is the dominant determiner of elections by far. How else can you explain a popular victorious war president with a 90% approval rating losing to someone who had extramarital affairs, especially after the Gary Hart affair of 1988? The economy was in recession in 1992, and that cost George H. W. Bush the election. Good economies explain the victories of Reagan in 1984, Bush in 1988, and Clinton in 1996, and bad economies explain the defeats of Ford in 1976 and Carter in 1980. So who's going to win in 2004? I predict a booming economy in 2004, so I think Bush will be reelected. However, there may be an electricity shortage then due to lack of power plants, and if that occurs, a Democrat will be elected President. Elections ultimately reduce to bread and butter.
It seems the Republicans have the advantage tonight. That could have been predicted in advance, in my opinion. If the election had been held in July, Democrats would have swarmed into power in both houses. The reason why the Republicans have the advantage is that the economy seems to be doing better. The stock market is consistently going up; the days of the ebearient plummets of July and August are gone. The economy is the dominant determiner of elections by far. How else can you explain a popular victorious war president with a 90% approval rating losing to someone who had extramarital affairs, especially after the Gary Hart affair of 1988? The economy was in recession in 1992, and that cost George H. W. Bush the election. Good economies explain the victories of Reagan in 1984, Bush in 1988, and Clinton in 1996, and bad economies explain the defeats of Ford in 1976 and Carter in 1980. So who's going to win in 2004? I predict a booming economy in 2004, so I think Bush will be reelected. However, there may be an electricity shortage then due to lack of power plants, and if that occurs, a Democrat will be elected President. Elections ultimately reduce to bread and butter.
2002/11/03
Media Ambiguity
Today CNN came out with an article entitled "Saudis: No Bases for Iraq Strike". CNN, that has two meanings! The Saudis could mean either. It depends on what "bases" is the plural of. If it is the plural of "base", it means that Saudi Arabia will not allow use of its territory for a US strike on Iraq. If it is the plural of "basis", then it means that the Saudis feel there that there are no reasons why the US should invade Iraq. Both sound reasonable, so CNN needs to reword its headline to tell which one is meant.
OK, so CNN took down that ambiguous headline from its web site. Then they come up with another ambigublooper just a few hours later! "Election 2002 hours away", screams the headline. Assuming the election begins on 2002 November 4/5 midnight, they are saying that right now is 2002 August 13 at 1400 hours, 2 in the afternoon. Obviously it is not. What they really mean is "Year 2002 Election hours away", meaning "Year 2002 Election is hours away". Let's hope most of their news is more recent than 2002 August 13.
Metaphors in mathematics
I attended a mathematics conference over the weekend. One of the more interesting talks I attended was one by Jennifer Bergner of Salisbury University, who illustrated by example the use of metaphors to illustrate mathematics. A math professor says, "Let P be a point". What are you thinking of? A point. Right. But what do you imagine when the professor says "point"? Most people, she finds, think of something that is round, like a circle or ball. Theoretically, a point is a one-element set, an infintesimally small extent at a specific point in a line or plane. But we don't think like that. We need to imagine something, so rather than imagining a tiny five-pointed star, or even a tiny square, we imagine a little filled-in circle. According to one book I read, indeed a circle is a fat point.
Here are some other metaphors that come to mind when I hear words:
bird - a passerine bird, such as a warbler (NOT a duck or an ostrich, in other words).
rodent - a mouse.
building - a moderately tall brick edifice
forest - a mid-latitude deciduous forest
vehicle - a minivan
car - a Toyota sedan
and so forth. This shows that we may think of general or abstract concepts by imagining something
that is concrete.
Today CNN came out with an article entitled "Saudis: No Bases for Iraq Strike". CNN, that has two meanings! The Saudis could mean either. It depends on what "bases" is the plural of. If it is the plural of "base", it means that Saudi Arabia will not allow use of its territory for a US strike on Iraq. If it is the plural of "basis", then it means that the Saudis feel there that there are no reasons why the US should invade Iraq. Both sound reasonable, so CNN needs to reword its headline to tell which one is meant.
OK, so CNN took down that ambiguous headline from its web site. Then they come up with another ambigublooper just a few hours later! "Election 2002 hours away", screams the headline. Assuming the election begins on 2002 November 4/5 midnight, they are saying that right now is 2002 August 13 at 1400 hours, 2 in the afternoon. Obviously it is not. What they really mean is "Year 2002 Election hours away", meaning "Year 2002 Election is hours away". Let's hope most of their news is more recent than 2002 August 13.
Metaphors in mathematics
I attended a mathematics conference over the weekend. One of the more interesting talks I attended was one by Jennifer Bergner of Salisbury University, who illustrated by example the use of metaphors to illustrate mathematics. A math professor says, "Let P be a point". What are you thinking of? A point. Right. But what do you imagine when the professor says "point"? Most people, she finds, think of something that is round, like a circle or ball. Theoretically, a point is a one-element set, an infintesimally small extent at a specific point in a line or plane. But we don't think like that. We need to imagine something, so rather than imagining a tiny five-pointed star, or even a tiny square, we imagine a little filled-in circle. According to one book I read, indeed a circle is a fat point.
Here are some other metaphors that come to mind when I hear words:
bird - a passerine bird, such as a warbler (NOT a duck or an ostrich, in other words).
rodent - a mouse.
building - a moderately tall brick edifice
forest - a mid-latitude deciduous forest
vehicle - a minivan
car - a Toyota sedan
and so forth. This shows that we may think of general or abstract concepts by imagining something
that is concrete.
2002/10/31
Halloween
It's that scary time of the year again. So scary that for the first time that I can remember, the head of my work unit let out everyone at 1630 (4:30pm) regardless of their actual work hours, so that people driving home would not have to drive through trick-or-treaters. We had our share of trick or treaters tonight, but it is less than previous years. Perhaps people are being more cautious and taking their children to Halloween parties of having them trick or treat. Here are the amounts per year:
Apparently I lost the file in going from one computer to another; I recovered most of it but I don't have figures for 2000. Here is how in these five years the trick or treaters broke down as far as half-hour period is concerned (I use 24-hour time; for example, 1800 is 6 o'clock):
1730-1800, 0.9%
1800-1830, 27.1%
1830-1900, 24.1%
1900-1930, 20.9%
1930-2000, 17.2%
2000-2030, 9.2%
2030-2100, 0.5%
This shows that most of the trick-or-treaters come between 6pm and 7:30pm. The earliest I have seen one is 1748 (12 to 6 pm), and the latest 2048 (12 to 9 pm). Some come between 7:30pm and 8pm, but then it really drops sharply after that. This enables one to plan for Halloween, what time to come home, how long to leave the pumpkin and candy out and so forth.
I dressed up as a magician with an Aladdin-type costume, with black with blue silk design on it, with a dreamcatcher on a necklace. I put devil-ears on top that I bought at Busch Gardens this past summer just before Imaginique; some child though I bought it at King's Dominion instead. One young lady said I wasn't a devil because I was dressed in blue and black. Devils are dressed in red. This is an observant and inquisitive girl. She'll probably grow into a prominent mathematician or computer programmer, scientist, or investigator. Others praised my costume. It did win second place and came close to winning first at a costume contest at SUUSI in 2001.
Halloween is gone; next is Thanksgiving.
It's that scary time of the year again. So scary that for the first time that I can remember, the head of my work unit let out everyone at 1630 (4:30pm) regardless of their actual work hours, so that people driving home would not have to drive through trick-or-treaters. We had our share of trick or treaters tonight, but it is less than previous years. Perhaps people are being more cautious and taking their children to Halloween parties of having them trick or treat. Here are the amounts per year:
| Year | Trick or Treaters |
|---|---|
| 1997 | 68 |
| 1998 | 84 |
| 1999 | 88 |
| 2001 | 62 |
| 2002 | 49 |
Apparently I lost the file in going from one computer to another; I recovered most of it but I don't have figures for 2000. Here is how in these five years the trick or treaters broke down as far as half-hour period is concerned (I use 24-hour time; for example, 1800 is 6 o'clock):
1730-1800, 0.9%
1800-1830, 27.1%
1830-1900, 24.1%
1900-1930, 20.9%
1930-2000, 17.2%
2000-2030, 9.2%
2030-2100, 0.5%
This shows that most of the trick-or-treaters come between 6pm and 7:30pm. The earliest I have seen one is 1748 (12 to 6 pm), and the latest 2048 (12 to 9 pm). Some come between 7:30pm and 8pm, but then it really drops sharply after that. This enables one to plan for Halloween, what time to come home, how long to leave the pumpkin and candy out and so forth.
I dressed up as a magician with an Aladdin-type costume, with black with blue silk design on it, with a dreamcatcher on a necklace. I put devil-ears on top that I bought at Busch Gardens this past summer just before Imaginique; some child though I bought it at King's Dominion instead. One young lady said I wasn't a devil because I was dressed in blue and black. Devils are dressed in red. This is an observant and inquisitive girl. She'll probably grow into a prominent mathematician or computer programmer, scientist, or investigator. Others praised my costume. It did win second place and came close to winning first at a costume contest at SUUSI in 2001.
Halloween is gone; next is Thanksgiving.
2002/10/30
Some miscellany
Here are some comments I have about words people use. The words very and extreme are used far too frequently. "The revelation is shocking." sounds much stronger than "The revelation is very shocking.", for example. That word shocking carries with it a jolt that gets lost when very is put in front of it. As far as I can see, that is a phrase that can be eliminated. Why don't we ever say "as near as"? It is important to complete applications before the doo-doo date indicated on the form. On the other hand, why not go over the deadline, even though it is a very unique point in time. On the other hand, you can't have something that is "very unique"; unique means there is only one of them, and you can't be oner (pronounced wun-ner) than one. On the original hand, why doesn't anyone say that? Take this quote, which comes from a recent financial article on the web:
The Conference Board's October consumer confidence report -- due a half-hour after the markets open -- is expected to show a significant drop to 90 from 93.3 in September, according to a consensus of economists surveyed by Briefing.com. The drop may be attributable to a six-week decline in stocks that ran through September, thus not reflecting the recent three-week runup that has seen the Dow gain nearly 15 percent.
Whaaa?? How can runups see? They don't have eyes. I give speeches at Toastmaster club meetings; I do this because I know these speeches are apotamy. I.e., they are a part of me. All in all in all, I say this is a good blog, and I say very goodnight.
Here are some comments I have about words people use. The words very and extreme are used far too frequently. "The revelation is shocking." sounds much stronger than "The revelation is very shocking.", for example. That word shocking carries with it a jolt that gets lost when very is put in front of it. As far as I can see, that is a phrase that can be eliminated. Why don't we ever say "as near as"? It is important to complete applications before the doo-doo date indicated on the form. On the other hand, why not go over the deadline, even though it is a very unique point in time. On the other hand, you can't have something that is "very unique"; unique means there is only one of them, and you can't be oner (pronounced wun-ner) than one. On the original hand, why doesn't anyone say that? Take this quote, which comes from a recent financial article on the web:
The Conference Board's October consumer confidence report -- due a half-hour after the markets open -- is expected to show a significant drop to 90 from 93.3 in September, according to a consensus of economists surveyed by Briefing.com. The drop may be attributable to a six-week decline in stocks that ran through September, thus not reflecting the recent three-week runup that has seen the Dow gain nearly 15 percent.
Whaaa?? How can runups see? They don't have eyes. I give speeches at Toastmaster club meetings; I do this because I know these speeches are apotamy. I.e., they are a part of me. All in all in all, I say this is a good blog, and I say very goodnight.
2002/10/28
Disappointment
I was disappointed to find today that Maryland intends to seek the death penalty for the DC sniper defendants, even to the extent of lifting a moratorium on the death penalty to do it. Maybe Hanover County, Virginia should try him since the victim there was not killed; therefore, no death penalty. But then he could get only one life term, meaning he would be out in the streets in a decade. I still think Maryland should seek six consecutive life terms for all three defendants.
I was disappointed to find today that Maryland intends to seek the death penalty for the DC sniper defendants, even to the extent of lifting a moratorium on the death penalty to do it. Maybe Hanover County, Virginia should try him since the victim there was not killed; therefore, no death penalty. But then he could get only one life term, meaning he would be out in the streets in a decade. I still think Maryland should seek six consecutive life terms for all three defendants.
Bugbearisms
A new virus is out, and it can cause mischief that can result in serious embarrassment or consequences. The virus is Bugbear.
Bugbear is like Klez, a virus that has been going around hitting my computer every one or two days, whereupon my antivirus program traps it, enabling me to get rid of it. Bugbear, however, instead of leaving behind a blank email message, leaves an intact message that was intended to go from someone else to someone else, and not to the user of the computer that gets the virus. So far I have gotten one from a Toastmaster and one from a Unitarian-Universalist, and in each case I called them up to inform them that they have a virus. This virus can do things like take your love letter to Sue and send it to your other girl friend Tricia; it can take a file with some of your private financial data on it and send it to an employee of the IRS; it can do all sorts of trickster things like that, some of which is funny, but most of which is not.
The best way to ensure that this type of embarrassment does not happen is to get an antivirus program, make sure it is always up to date, and have it scan email. I see now from the viruses I have received that computers must absolutely have an antivirus program with up to date virus signatures. You are headed for trouble without one.
A new virus is out, and it can cause mischief that can result in serious embarrassment or consequences. The virus is Bugbear.
Bugbear is like Klez, a virus that has been going around hitting my computer every one or two days, whereupon my antivirus program traps it, enabling me to get rid of it. Bugbear, however, instead of leaving behind a blank email message, leaves an intact message that was intended to go from someone else to someone else, and not to the user of the computer that gets the virus. So far I have gotten one from a Toastmaster and one from a Unitarian-Universalist, and in each case I called them up to inform them that they have a virus. This virus can do things like take your love letter to Sue and send it to your other girl friend Tricia; it can take a file with some of your private financial data on it and send it to an employee of the IRS; it can do all sorts of trickster things like that, some of which is funny, but most of which is not.
The best way to ensure that this type of embarrassment does not happen is to get an antivirus program, make sure it is always up to date, and have it scan email. I see now from the viruses I have received that computers must absolutely have an antivirus program with up to date virus signatures. You are headed for trouble without one.
Try them, Maryland
Yesterday Virginia Attorney General Jerry Kilgore said that Virginia is a better place to try the sniper suspects than Maryland because Virginia has the death penalty and Maryland does not as much, especially for Malvo, who is a juvenile. No, Jerry. Maryland is the better place for that reason. The death penalty is an expensive way to deal with a murderer and it duplicates his crime - killing a person. Many organizations (e.g. Amnesty International) have come out against the death penalty because of its inhumaneness and it is forbidden in many countries in the world, especially developed countries such as Australia and Germany. In fact, the US having the death penalty puts it in the same league with many of the developing nations in the world, including all of the Islamic ones. Kilgore wants the death penalty for a juvenile. That puts it in the same league with only five nations in the world, including Libya, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Yemen. It is a blight on our country for it to have the death penalty and sets us off as a bunch of rurale brutes. Maryland, try these suspects. Give them six consecutive life terms so that they spend the rest of the life in a Maryland prison, so that Virginia never gets to try them. An amendment is needed to abolish the death penalty worldwide.
Yesterday Virginia Attorney General Jerry Kilgore said that Virginia is a better place to try the sniper suspects than Maryland because Virginia has the death penalty and Maryland does not as much, especially for Malvo, who is a juvenile. No, Jerry. Maryland is the better place for that reason. The death penalty is an expensive way to deal with a murderer and it duplicates his crime - killing a person. Many organizations (e.g. Amnesty International) have come out against the death penalty because of its inhumaneness and it is forbidden in many countries in the world, especially developed countries such as Australia and Germany. In fact, the US having the death penalty puts it in the same league with many of the developing nations in the world, including all of the Islamic ones. Kilgore wants the death penalty for a juvenile. That puts it in the same league with only five nations in the world, including Libya, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Yemen. It is a blight on our country for it to have the death penalty and sets us off as a bunch of rurale brutes. Maryland, try these suspects. Give them six consecutive life terms so that they spend the rest of the life in a Maryland prison, so that Virginia never gets to try them. An amendment is needed to abolish the death penalty worldwide.
2002/10/27
Social Level
Abraham Maslov gave five levels of needs that we humans need to fulfill. They are
1. Survival - food, shelter, sleep, bathroom functions, sex
2. Security - freedom from threats
3. Social - Interaction with people, especially favorable interaction
4. Self-esteem - Feeling good about yourself, being recognized for achieving something
5. Self-actualization - Feeling at one with nature, doing what you want to do
As the levels get higher, they get harder to describe. What I have found is that I feel the people that I most like are those that I interact with on the social level - level 3. This is because with level 1, they say, do this or that or you don't get fed (or paid), and with level 2, it is not enough for a person not to present a threat. So I don't get a good impression of these people. At level 3 people interact with others to get to know and like each other, and I find that I get along the most with people that I interact with on this level. With the higher levels, being recognized for a good achievement is good, but not enough; I find something lacking with people whom I interact with on this level. Finally with level 5, it seems that people go off and do their own thing and live up to their own potential. This makes them aloof.
So I prefer to associate with people I associate with at the social level (level 3). Now the people I would like to associate with the most are those whom I can relate to at the self-esteem and self-actualization levels, but these are really rare.
Abraham Maslov gave five levels of needs that we humans need to fulfill. They are
1. Survival - food, shelter, sleep, bathroom functions, sex
2. Security - freedom from threats
3. Social - Interaction with people, especially favorable interaction
4. Self-esteem - Feeling good about yourself, being recognized for achieving something
5. Self-actualization - Feeling at one with nature, doing what you want to do
As the levels get higher, they get harder to describe. What I have found is that I feel the people that I most like are those that I interact with on the social level - level 3. This is because with level 1, they say, do this or that or you don't get fed (or paid), and with level 2, it is not enough for a person not to present a threat. So I don't get a good impression of these people. At level 3 people interact with others to get to know and like each other, and I find that I get along the most with people that I interact with on this level. With the higher levels, being recognized for a good achievement is good, but not enough; I find something lacking with people whom I interact with on this level. Finally with level 5, it seems that people go off and do their own thing and live up to their own potential. This makes them aloof.
So I prefer to associate with people I associate with at the social level (level 3). Now the people I would like to associate with the most are those whom I can relate to at the self-esteem and self-actualization levels, but these are really rare.
2002/10/24
Well it's over now
I see now all over the place that the serial snipers that have been terrorizing the Washington-Richmond area has been captured. This means we can go back to our normal lives. No more huge traffic jams and zillions of police cars all over the place. We can walk to the store and to the gas station, and our kids can safely go to school. But take notice. The snipers did instill fear in us through acts of violence. According to the definition of the term, that is terrorism. Yes, this was a terrorist attack. But not from al-Qaeda. Terrorists don't come just from overseas. They can be individuals from this country stalking in the woods. Last year our President declared a war on terrorism. This means he wanted to destroy what was causing us to fear. So he invaded Afghanistan and scattered the al-Qaeda gang all over the place. Now he wants to invade Iraq. That will stir up enmity to our nation and lead to increased terrorism. Further, he has paid scant attention to the sniper attacks. According to an article in the Washington Post, people feared the sniper more than they feared Planeattack or the anthrax attacks of last year. If Bush is really serious about getting rid of terrorism, he should have paid more attention to the sniper attacks and less to invading a dictator who does not have much to deal with terror in America. Sure, attacking al-Qaeda and capturing the snipers remove some of the terrorists from our society, but to really make headway in reducing terrorism, he also needs to improve our relations with the rest of the world, and he has not done much of that yet. Until he does, I will feel afraid.
I see now all over the place that the serial snipers that have been terrorizing the Washington-Richmond area has been captured. This means we can go back to our normal lives. No more huge traffic jams and zillions of police cars all over the place. We can walk to the store and to the gas station, and our kids can safely go to school. But take notice. The snipers did instill fear in us through acts of violence. According to the definition of the term, that is terrorism. Yes, this was a terrorist attack. But not from al-Qaeda. Terrorists don't come just from overseas. They can be individuals from this country stalking in the woods. Last year our President declared a war on terrorism. This means he wanted to destroy what was causing us to fear. So he invaded Afghanistan and scattered the al-Qaeda gang all over the place. Now he wants to invade Iraq. That will stir up enmity to our nation and lead to increased terrorism. Further, he has paid scant attention to the sniper attacks. According to an article in the Washington Post, people feared the sniper more than they feared Planeattack or the anthrax attacks of last year. If Bush is really serious about getting rid of terrorism, he should have paid more attention to the sniper attacks and less to invading a dictator who does not have much to deal with terror in America. Sure, attacking al-Qaeda and capturing the snipers remove some of the terrorists from our society, but to really make headway in reducing terrorism, he also needs to improve our relations with the rest of the world, and he has not done much of that yet. Until he does, I will feel afraid.
2002/10/23
Junk Sparrows
A little while ago I wrote a poem called "Junk Sparrows". I decided to put that on my website, on a new poetry page that I added to my site. I also pointed that page to my other poem "Where's the Way?" and a short story "The Fountain", that were already on my site. "Junk Sparrows" will be a jolt for many people, especially Americans whose ancestors came from another continent, especially Europe. I have also added another non-word, superennery, meaning (usually of a digit) greater than 9.
A little while ago I wrote a poem called "Junk Sparrows". I decided to put that on my website, on a new poetry page that I added to my site. I also pointed that page to my other poem "Where's the Way?" and a short story "The Fountain", that were already on my site. "Junk Sparrows" will be a jolt for many people, especially Americans whose ancestors came from another continent, especially Europe. I have also added another non-word, superennery, meaning (usually of a digit) greater than 9.
Woodchucking
At the Outer Banks we saw many sandpipers. I have always thought that was a strange name, but then it reminded me of the woodchuck phrase: How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? So is it that way with sandpipers? How much sand would a sandpiper pipe if a sandpiper could pipe sand? The image of a sandpiper piping sand is a silly one to me, but I suppose no more than a woodchuck chucking wood. What's that? Stuffing pieces of wood in its cheeks? Chopping the wood with its teeth? I suppose a sandpiper pipes sand through its long beak.
A long time ago I came up with other versions of the woodchucking question. I call this general pastime woodchucking. The woodchucking I came up with earlier was : How many bears would a bare bear bear if a bare bear could bear bears? Well, how many cubs does a bear usually have, anyway? How much bark would a bark bark bark if a bark bark could bark bark? That one is not so good. Bark is an intransitive verb, although I suppose you could imagine a dog, or if you stretch your imagination, a ship, spewing out pine bark mulch when it barks. I decided to look all over the Internet for woodchuckings by searching in Google for "how much * would a * if *", and by trying to find them myself. Here are some of the entries I got:
How many books would a bookmark mark if a bookmark could mark books?
How many flags would a flagpole poll if a flagpole could poll flags?
How much ground would a groundhog hog if a groundhog could hog ground?
How much wind would a windbreaker break if a windbreaker could break wind?
How much web would a weblog blog if a weblog could blog webs? (how much does this web blog?)
How many kings would a kingfisher fish if a kingfisher could fish kings?
How much chain would a chainsaw saw if a chainsaw could saw chain? (Don't try this one. The saw will buck and chop off your hand.)
How much wocky would a jabber wock, if a jabber could wock wocky? (from http://www.planethalflife.com/features/mailbag/mailbag112701b.shtm)
How much trouble would a noble cause if a noble could cause trouble? (from http://www.rpgageoff.com/news/geoffnews.html)
But the winner I feel is this one, which outdoes all the others by a huge margin:
How much C would a C++ if a C+ could +C? (from http://www.geocities.com/EnchantedForest/Cottage/4388/geobook.html)
I'd have to go back to my C++ book to check up on that one.
At the Outer Banks we saw many sandpipers. I have always thought that was a strange name, but then it reminded me of the woodchuck phrase: How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? So is it that way with sandpipers? How much sand would a sandpiper pipe if a sandpiper could pipe sand? The image of a sandpiper piping sand is a silly one to me, but I suppose no more than a woodchuck chucking wood. What's that? Stuffing pieces of wood in its cheeks? Chopping the wood with its teeth? I suppose a sandpiper pipes sand through its long beak.
A long time ago I came up with other versions of the woodchucking question. I call this general pastime woodchucking. The woodchucking I came up with earlier was : How many bears would a bare bear bear if a bare bear could bear bears? Well, how many cubs does a bear usually have, anyway? How much bark would a bark bark bark if a bark bark could bark bark? That one is not so good. Bark is an intransitive verb, although I suppose you could imagine a dog, or if you stretch your imagination, a ship, spewing out pine bark mulch when it barks. I decided to look all over the Internet for woodchuckings by searching in Google for "how much * would a * if *", and by trying to find them myself. Here are some of the entries I got:
How many books would a bookmark mark if a bookmark could mark books?
How many flags would a flagpole poll if a flagpole could poll flags?
How much ground would a groundhog hog if a groundhog could hog ground?
How much wind would a windbreaker break if a windbreaker could break wind?
How much web would a weblog blog if a weblog could blog webs? (how much does this web blog?)
How many kings would a kingfisher fish if a kingfisher could fish kings?
How much chain would a chainsaw saw if a chainsaw could saw chain? (Don't try this one. The saw will buck and chop off your hand.)
How much wocky would a jabber wock, if a jabber could wock wocky? (from http://www.planethalflife.com/features/mailbag/mailbag112701b.shtm)
How much trouble would a noble cause if a noble could cause trouble? (from http://www.rpgageoff.com/news/geoffnews.html)
But the winner I feel is this one, which outdoes all the others by a huge margin:
How much C would a C++ if a C+ could +C? (from http://www.geocities.com/EnchantedForest/Cottage/4388/geobook.html)
I'd have to go back to my C++ book to check up on that one.
2002/10/21
The Outer Banks
This past weekend I made my trip to the Outer Banks. It was a surreal place. For one thing, the thin islands were a linear place. All the places were along essentially a straight place: Kitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hills, Nags Head, Pea Island, Rodanthe, Avon, and Buxton. Everything is up and down Route 12. For another thing, it was warm. It was like a return to summer, with temperatures, both water and air, in the 70s. I swam a bit in the ocean in October. The vegetation was unlike what I usually see. It was flat, with sea oats and the like. We were part of a birding trip, Wings over Water. Therefore, we saw lots of birds, including hyperactive sanderlings moving back and forth on the surf hunting for food, herons and egrets foraging the water for something to eat, graceful pelicans in the air, and ducks of many varieties, including a hybrid duck. We lucked out on the weather: clear and warm every single day, with rain on the day before and the day after we came back. The beach piles up in huge dunes, including the monster Jockey's Ridge south of Kill Devil Hills, from which come kites and hang gliders. We saw it on a moonlit night, it looked really out of this world, like something from Chesley Bonestell. But it was Earth; we could tell for we saw the vague outline and eyes of a gray fox galloping along the ridge. The food was expensive but good. I would like to come back again, but I don't know if I will get as good weather as we had this past weekend.
This past weekend I made my trip to the Outer Banks. It was a surreal place. For one thing, the thin islands were a linear place. All the places were along essentially a straight place: Kitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hills, Nags Head, Pea Island, Rodanthe, Avon, and Buxton. Everything is up and down Route 12. For another thing, it was warm. It was like a return to summer, with temperatures, both water and air, in the 70s. I swam a bit in the ocean in October. The vegetation was unlike what I usually see. It was flat, with sea oats and the like. We were part of a birding trip, Wings over Water. Therefore, we saw lots of birds, including hyperactive sanderlings moving back and forth on the surf hunting for food, herons and egrets foraging the water for something to eat, graceful pelicans in the air, and ducks of many varieties, including a hybrid duck. We lucked out on the weather: clear and warm every single day, with rain on the day before and the day after we came back. The beach piles up in huge dunes, including the monster Jockey's Ridge south of Kill Devil Hills, from which come kites and hang gliders. We saw it on a moonlit night, it looked really out of this world, like something from Chesley Bonestell. But it was Earth; we could tell for we saw the vague outline and eyes of a gray fox galloping along the ridge. The food was expensive but good. I would like to come back again, but I don't know if I will get as good weather as we had this past weekend.
2002/10/14
Gamma Ray Bursters
At an amateur astronomer's meeting tonight I saw a NOVA video on gamma ray bursters. These are mysterious bursts of radiation, especially gamma rays, coming from some place in the sky that does not usually correspond to any star, galaxy, nebula, or other visible optical instrument. They are so powerful that if one were to occur 100 light years (that's 600 trillion miles) from here, it would wipe out human civilization; it would be like an atom blast everywhere on the Earth simultaneously. So what are they? The theory that came out in the video was that they are caused by really huge stars that collapse into black holes when they die. There are two objections to this argument. One is that usually huge supernovas in which a star (such as a Wolf-Rayet star) could become a black hole usually produce Type 1b or Type 1c supernovas, which are far less powerful than a gamma ray burster. More importantly, if really huge stars that become black holes produce gamma ray bursters ( also called hypernovas) when they die, certainly something like this would have occurred in the 4.6-billion-year history of the earth. That would have wiped out all life. I am alive, and I see all kinds of life around me - people, animals and plants, and the planet is fertile. Therefore, no such explosion could have occurred near here, and that eliminates stars becoming black holes as the cause of gamma-ray bursters. Then what are they? Like many astronomers, I feel I do not know. It is part of the never-ending quest for truth and meaning. Maybe we will know someday.
At an amateur astronomer's meeting tonight I saw a NOVA video on gamma ray bursters. These are mysterious bursts of radiation, especially gamma rays, coming from some place in the sky that does not usually correspond to any star, galaxy, nebula, or other visible optical instrument. They are so powerful that if one were to occur 100 light years (that's 600 trillion miles) from here, it would wipe out human civilization; it would be like an atom blast everywhere on the Earth simultaneously. So what are they? The theory that came out in the video was that they are caused by really huge stars that collapse into black holes when they die. There are two objections to this argument. One is that usually huge supernovas in which a star (such as a Wolf-Rayet star) could become a black hole usually produce Type 1b or Type 1c supernovas, which are far less powerful than a gamma ray burster. More importantly, if really huge stars that become black holes produce gamma ray bursters ( also called hypernovas) when they die, certainly something like this would have occurred in the 4.6-billion-year history of the earth. That would have wiped out all life. I am alive, and I see all kinds of life around me - people, animals and plants, and the planet is fertile. Therefore, no such explosion could have occurred near here, and that eliminates stars becoming black holes as the cause of gamma-ray bursters. Then what are they? Like many astronomers, I feel I do not know. It is part of the never-ending quest for truth and meaning. Maybe we will know someday.
2002/10/12
Star Collision
I have seen some terrifying, apocalyptic images as of late: the burning towers of Planeattack, the destruction of cities in the movies Armageddon and Independence Day, and in numerous artist renditions of the times billions of years in the future when the sun heats up and becomes a red giant, turning the Earth into a lava ball. I saw some more horrifying images yet in the current issue of Scientific American. The 2002 November issue shows what looks like a bright shining yellow lava asteroid about to collide with a dark, reddish Earth. But it was no asteroid. It was the Sun, distorted into the shape of an elongated bird egg by the approach of a white dwarf star from nowhere. Stars are so far apart that the chance of them colliding is remote, but maybe not that remote, as they attract to each other through gravity. The article says that if a white dwarf star, as massive as the Sun but in the volume of an Earth, were to collide with the Sun, it would ignite the entire Sun and blow it up leaving behind a nebula. There is a painting in this article that shows this. These two paintings are among the most striking I have ever seen. They do leave out a few points; for example, the mere approach of the white dwarf would have swung the planets into weird orbits or flung them out altogether, and the Sun is pictured as a normal-colored yellow object, whereas if this were to really happen, the Sun would have been blazingly bright, as it is now, and no reasonable picture could reflect this.
The article does give an "arithmetic" table for saying what happens if stars of different types were to collide. For example, if two red giants collide, they would throw off their outer envelopes and become a pair of white dwarfs. If two main sequence stars (such as the Sun) were to collide, the result would be a bigger main sequence star, and so forth. This gives an arithmetic of sorts. White dwarf + black hole = black hole (with disk). Red supergiant + neutron star = white dwarf + neutron star (with disk) and so forth. This operation is clearly commutative, since, for example, the Sun and a white dwarf are the white dwarf and the Sun. Is it associative? I thought at first yes, since there are ranks of objects and the same things always happen to them; for example, a red giant encountering any kind of star will turn into a white dwarf. However, (red giant + main sequence) + main sequence is not the same as red giant + (main sequence + main sequence), as in the former, one of the main sequence stars would get annihilated by a white dwarf, but in the second this does not happen.
I have seen some terrifying, apocalyptic images as of late: the burning towers of Planeattack, the destruction of cities in the movies Armageddon and Independence Day, and in numerous artist renditions of the times billions of years in the future when the sun heats up and becomes a red giant, turning the Earth into a lava ball. I saw some more horrifying images yet in the current issue of Scientific American. The 2002 November issue shows what looks like a bright shining yellow lava asteroid about to collide with a dark, reddish Earth. But it was no asteroid. It was the Sun, distorted into the shape of an elongated bird egg by the approach of a white dwarf star from nowhere. Stars are so far apart that the chance of them colliding is remote, but maybe not that remote, as they attract to each other through gravity. The article says that if a white dwarf star, as massive as the Sun but in the volume of an Earth, were to collide with the Sun, it would ignite the entire Sun and blow it up leaving behind a nebula. There is a painting in this article that shows this. These two paintings are among the most striking I have ever seen. They do leave out a few points; for example, the mere approach of the white dwarf would have swung the planets into weird orbits or flung them out altogether, and the Sun is pictured as a normal-colored yellow object, whereas if this were to really happen, the Sun would have been blazingly bright, as it is now, and no reasonable picture could reflect this.
The article does give an "arithmetic" table for saying what happens if stars of different types were to collide. For example, if two red giants collide, they would throw off their outer envelopes and become a pair of white dwarfs. If two main sequence stars (such as the Sun) were to collide, the result would be a bigger main sequence star, and so forth. This gives an arithmetic of sorts. White dwarf + black hole = black hole (with disk). Red supergiant + neutron star = white dwarf + neutron star (with disk) and so forth. This operation is clearly commutative, since, for example, the Sun and a white dwarf are the white dwarf and the Sun. Is it associative? I thought at first yes, since there are ranks of objects and the same things always happen to them; for example, a red giant encountering any kind of star will turn into a white dwarf. However, (red giant + main sequence) + main sequence is not the same as red giant + (main sequence + main sequence), as in the former, one of the main sequence stars would get annihilated by a white dwarf, but in the second this does not happen.
2002/10/11
The Silliness of Evil
The word "evil" is used more often than it used to be. Evil hijackers, axis of evil, Saddam is evil and so forth. I really don't believe there is such a thing as evil, and I believe that more often or not it means what the "other guys" are. The word has even got a connotation of being comical. There's Evil Kneivel, for instance. "Evil Empire" has a silly sound to it, as in "Press Button to Destroy Evil Empire". Synonyms for "Evil" also sound silly, for example, wicked, sin (as in "sinful chocolate"), and misdeed. By far the silliest is the German word böse . I saw one web site, for example, say "Simpson ist böse". The word sounds funny to me, perhaps because when I learned it, it was in a story about children and their parents. When the parents get angry with their children, the story refers to the parents as "böse". So I came to regard the word as similar to "mad" in English, but the difference is that to say someone is angry, informally, in English you say that they are crazy ("mad"), whereas in German you say that they are evil ("böse"). So I suppose Brits and Americans go crazy when they get angry, and Germans become evil. The whole idea of evil is crazy anyway.
The word "evil" is used more often than it used to be. Evil hijackers, axis of evil, Saddam is evil and so forth. I really don't believe there is such a thing as evil, and I believe that more often or not it means what the "other guys" are. The word has even got a connotation of being comical. There's Evil Kneivel, for instance. "Evil Empire" has a silly sound to it, as in "Press Button to Destroy Evil Empire". Synonyms for "Evil" also sound silly, for example, wicked, sin (as in "sinful chocolate"), and misdeed. By far the silliest is the German word böse . I saw one web site, for example, say "Simpson ist böse". The word sounds funny to me, perhaps because when I learned it, it was in a story about children and their parents. When the parents get angry with their children, the story refers to the parents as "böse". So I came to regard the word as similar to "mad" in English, but the difference is that to say someone is angry, informally, in English you say that they are crazy ("mad"), whereas in German you say that they are evil ("böse"). So I suppose Brits and Americans go crazy when they get angry, and Germans become evil. The whole idea of evil is crazy anyway.
Columbus Day
Columbus Day is coming up. This holiday was celebrated on October 12 when I was young, but, like many other holidays, it was moved to Mondays; in particular, the second Monday of October. I don't regard it as an important holiday, especially when many see it as a symbol of colonialism instead of the discovery of the New World. Nevertheless, attendance was low at my workplace today, and we were let out an hour early. This shows that even minor holidays are increasing in importance as of late. I feel the 10 major US holidays rank like this in importance:
1. Yule (December 25)
2. Thanksgiving (4th Thursday in November)
3. New Year's Day (January 1)
4. Independence Day (July 4)
5. Memorial Day (last Monday in May)
6. Labor Day (first Monday in September)
7. Martin Luther King Day (third Monday in January)
8. Veterans' Day (November 11)
9. Presidents' Day (third Monday in February)
10. Columbus Day (October 12)
Columbus Day is coming up. This holiday was celebrated on October 12 when I was young, but, like many other holidays, it was moved to Mondays; in particular, the second Monday of October. I don't regard it as an important holiday, especially when many see it as a symbol of colonialism instead of the discovery of the New World. Nevertheless, attendance was low at my workplace today, and we were let out an hour early. This shows that even minor holidays are increasing in importance as of late. I feel the 10 major US holidays rank like this in importance:
1. Yule (December 25)
2. Thanksgiving (4th Thursday in November)
3. New Year's Day (January 1)
4. Independence Day (July 4)
5. Memorial Day (last Monday in May)
6. Labor Day (first Monday in September)
7. Martin Luther King Day (third Monday in January)
8. Veterans' Day (November 11)
9. Presidents' Day (third Monday in February)
10. Columbus Day (October 12)
Which President was the Best?
Today Jimmy Carter received the Nobel Peace Prize. It was well deserved. Jimmy Carter lived much of his life seeking peace everywhere, with the Camp David accords, Haiti, and numerous other places. In my opinion he was the best President in my lifetime. Here is my ranking of the men who served as our President in my lifetime:
1. Jimmy Carter. High regard for people and peace.
2. John F. Kennedy. Started an optimistic new age: Camelot
3. Harry Truman. Was able to say what he meant.
4. Gerald Ford. Served as well as he could for a president that was not elected.
5. Bill Clinton. Able to achieve things with people, but his amorous pursuits did him in.
6. Lyndon Johnson. Developed the Great Society, but the Vietnam War was our biggest failure.
7. George H. W. Bush (father). Won a war but could not bring around the economy.
8. Ronald Reagan. Symbolizes optimism but also "moral majority" and Iran-Contra.
9. George W. Bush (son). Angered world with non-involvement in anti-racism and ecological concerns, too martiocratic.
10. Richard Nixon. Opened China but Watergate was the worst scandal in our history.
Today Jimmy Carter received the Nobel Peace Prize. It was well deserved. Jimmy Carter lived much of his life seeking peace everywhere, with the Camp David accords, Haiti, and numerous other places. In my opinion he was the best President in my lifetime. Here is my ranking of the men who served as our President in my lifetime:
1. Jimmy Carter. High regard for people and peace.
2. John F. Kennedy. Started an optimistic new age: Camelot
3. Harry Truman. Was able to say what he meant.
4. Gerald Ford. Served as well as he could for a president that was not elected.
5. Bill Clinton. Able to achieve things with people, but his amorous pursuits did him in.
6. Lyndon Johnson. Developed the Great Society, but the Vietnam War was our biggest failure.
7. George H. W. Bush (father). Won a war but could not bring around the economy.
8. Ronald Reagan. Symbolizes optimism but also "moral majority" and Iran-Contra.
9. George W. Bush (son). Angered world with non-involvement in anti-racism and ecological concerns, too martiocratic.
10. Richard Nixon. Opened China but Watergate was the worst scandal in our history.
2002/10/10
To Anacreon in Heaven
Toastmaster Table Topics become blog topics. That's an easy transition. The one from today's meeting is "To Anacreon in Heaven". I was called upon to explain if anyone under the age of 50 knows the words to the Star Spangled Banner. [Warning: this hyperlink plays music.] I don't think it has anything to do with age. Most people know the words to the first verse but not the other verses. They were written by Francis Scott Key, and reflects the relief and joy that people found when they saw, throughout all the fighting at night, that the US Flag was tattered, but still flying over the fort. It seems to have been trivialized in our society to the extent where the last two words seem to be "play ball!"; perhaps we should reread the verses and ponder over their meaning.
Many people don't know the origin of the music. It was once a drinking song! "To Anacreon in Heaven" was sung in bars in colonial America in the 1700s. The range of the music is wide, an octave and a half. Not many of us have that kind of vocal range. It was purposely written that way, along with pompous and provocative words, to test the ability of people to sing it when half drunk. It begins "To Anacreon in Heaven, where he sat in full glee…" and the first verse terminates with "The Myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's Vine", referring to the ancient Roman god of wine and merriment. So next time we hear that anthem play, think of the drinking song which underlies it.
Toastmaster Table Topics become blog topics. That's an easy transition. The one from today's meeting is "To Anacreon in Heaven". I was called upon to explain if anyone under the age of 50 knows the words to the Star Spangled Banner. [Warning: this hyperlink plays music.] I don't think it has anything to do with age. Most people know the words to the first verse but not the other verses. They were written by Francis Scott Key, and reflects the relief and joy that people found when they saw, throughout all the fighting at night, that the US Flag was tattered, but still flying over the fort. It seems to have been trivialized in our society to the extent where the last two words seem to be "play ball!"; perhaps we should reread the verses and ponder over their meaning.
Many people don't know the origin of the music. It was once a drinking song! "To Anacreon in Heaven" was sung in bars in colonial America in the 1700s. The range of the music is wide, an octave and a half. Not many of us have that kind of vocal range. It was purposely written that way, along with pompous and provocative words, to test the ability of people to sing it when half drunk. It begins "To Anacreon in Heaven, where he sat in full glee…" and the first verse terminates with "The Myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's Vine", referring to the ancient Roman god of wine and merriment. So next time we hear that anthem play, think of the drinking song which underlies it.
2002/10/07
Quaoar
Everyone knows that Pluto is a planet, or is it? It is so much smaller than the smallest planet Mercury. If Pluto is a softball, then Mercury is a soccer (or foot) ball. But it is so much larger than anything else. Not any more. Pluto is now known to be a Kuiper Belt object, a collection of large asteroids beyond the orbit of Neptune. Other Kuiper Belt objects are known; for example, Pluto's own satellite Charon. There are others, such as Varuna and Ixion. These two worlds are slightly bigger than Ceres, the largest Mars-Jupiter asteroid. Just recently another Kuiper Belt object was discovered to be even larger than Varuna and Ixion; it was named Quaoar and it is 777 miles across, or about the size of the Great Lakes region in the USA and Canada. This is so large compared to Pluto that it is hard to claim that Pluto is a planet. One would then have to call Quaoar a planet; then one would have to call Varuna and Ceres planets, and so forth until we have thousands of planets. It is easier to call Pluto not a planet but a huge asteroid; the biggest in the Kuiper Belt, although what would happen to the claim of Pluto being a planet if a Kuiper Belt object bigger than Pluto were found?
By the way: Quaoar. It is pronounced sort of like you have a speech impediment: kua-o-are. Where did it come from?it differs from quasar in just a single letter. It is from Los Angeles county Native American myth; a good description, from, is: "Their only god who came down from heaven; and, after reducing chaos to order, out the world on the back of seven giants. He then created the lower animals,” and then mankind." I think they mean "cut the world". But the quotation, from www.angelfire.com/journal/cathbodua/Gods/Qgods.html, shows a progression from chaos to order, the opposite of Coyote's direction; Coyote introduced disorder when he scattered the stars all over the place. As such, then, this asteroid represents order, something that Kuiper Belt objects don't seem to have.
Everyone knows that Pluto is a planet, or is it? It is so much smaller than the smallest planet Mercury. If Pluto is a softball, then Mercury is a soccer (or foot) ball. But it is so much larger than anything else. Not any more. Pluto is now known to be a Kuiper Belt object, a collection of large asteroids beyond the orbit of Neptune. Other Kuiper Belt objects are known; for example, Pluto's own satellite Charon. There are others, such as Varuna and Ixion. These two worlds are slightly bigger than Ceres, the largest Mars-Jupiter asteroid. Just recently another Kuiper Belt object was discovered to be even larger than Varuna and Ixion; it was named Quaoar and it is 777 miles across, or about the size of the Great Lakes region in the USA and Canada. This is so large compared to Pluto that it is hard to claim that Pluto is a planet. One would then have to call Quaoar a planet; then one would have to call Varuna and Ceres planets, and so forth until we have thousands of planets. It is easier to call Pluto not a planet but a huge asteroid; the biggest in the Kuiper Belt, although what would happen to the claim of Pluto being a planet if a Kuiper Belt object bigger than Pluto were found?
By the way: Quaoar. It is pronounced sort of like you have a speech impediment: kua-o-are. Where did it come from?it differs from quasar in just a single letter. It is from Los Angeles county Native American myth; a good description, from, is: "Their only god who came down from heaven; and, after reducing chaos to order, out the world on the back of seven giants. He then created the lower animals,” and then mankind." I think they mean "cut the world". But the quotation, from www.angelfire.com/journal/cathbodua/Gods/Qgods.html, shows a progression from chaos to order, the opposite of Coyote's direction; Coyote introduced disorder when he scattered the stars all over the place. As such, then, this asteroid represents order, something that Kuiper Belt objects don't seem to have.
Brakes
Today I took my van in to have the brakes repaired. They are soft and you press the pedal to the floor before they take hold. The repair place replaced the master cylinder and fixed some brake pads. The problem returned so I took it back. They said there was nothing wrong with it. Huhhh?? I drove it; I did not really believe it, but if you can't get someone to repair something because that person does not think it needs repair, there is not much you can do. It got bad enough so I felt I had to take it in. So I did, this time to the dealer. They bled the lines and said that when a master cylinder is installed the lines need to be bled in a special way. I wonder if the first place knew this. I hope it is repaired, now. I am a little concerned that they corrected the symptom without finding the cause. What caused the air to get into the brake system? If they simply bleed the lines, the cause will get the air back into the system. I hope it is ready because I have a long trip coming
Today I took my van in to have the brakes repaired. They are soft and you press the pedal to the floor before they take hold. The repair place replaced the master cylinder and fixed some brake pads. The problem returned so I took it back. They said there was nothing wrong with it. Huhhh?? I drove it; I did not really believe it, but if you can't get someone to repair something because that person does not think it needs repair, there is not much you can do. It got bad enough so I felt I had to take it in. So I did, this time to the dealer. They bled the lines and said that when a master cylinder is installed the lines need to be bled in a special way. I wonder if the first place knew this. I hope it is repaired, now. I am a little concerned that they corrected the symptom without finding the cause. What caused the air to get into the brake system? If they simply bleed the lines, the cause will get the air back into the system. I hope it is ready because I have a long trip coming
2002/10/05
Wiccan Invocations
I heard in the paper that Chesterfield County, Virginia rejected a Wiccan priestess' request to perform invocations for them. This shows that Chesterfield County's officials don't bother to find out what Wicca stands for or what Wiccans believe. They have this old image of witches on brooms. The county attorney, says, "Wicca is neo-pagan and invokes polytheistic, pre-Christian deities" and for that reason he rejected the Wiccan's request. He should not reject Wicca for what it is but should consider what Wicca does and what Wiccans do. Further, what if I object to a non-pagan, monotheistic Christian deity? I would find an invocation to such a deity offensive to me.
I think Chesterfield County should either reconsider its decision and allow the Wiccan to give invocations in Chesterfield County, or do away with invocations altogether. It is hard to do an invocation without breaking the principle of separation of church and state stated in the First Amendment.
Further, I feel that the Richmond Times-Dispatch this time has disgraced itself with its report of the incident. "Chesterfield gives witch the broom." That shows that the people on the staff of this newspaper have brooms in their brains. They are imprisoned by the witch stereotype. They should have simply said "Chesterfield rejects Wiccan's invocation request".
Sputnik
2002 October 5 was the 45th anniversary of the launching by the Soviet Union of Sputnik I. I was 11 years old when this occurred. I was in the living room of my parents' house, and they were watching TV. All of a sudden a special alert came on the black-and-white TV. The "Russians" had launched an Earth-orbiting satellite in orbit called Sputnik I and it was giving off a beeping sound: beep, beep, beep... The first thing I said was "shoot it down", for we were all trained to hate the Soviets and their Communist form of government. But my father said that they won't do that because the satellite will do good for everyone.
But it was a shock to people. Headlines persisted for some time after the launch of Sputnik. People became afraid that they may develop continental missiles capable of sending nuclear warheads to the United States. In some ways this event resembles Planeattack, the terrorist attacks of 2001 September 11, in that both events were jolting reminders that our country was no longer secure within its borders. Interest everywhere in mathematics, science, and engineering skyrocketed. This increased interest in the sciences and space led to the US space programs and Kennedy's moon challenge, which was successfully met in 1969.
And Sputnik ushered in humanity into the Space Age, into a world where we casually use satellites for such things as locating your place (GPS), cellular telephones, and cable television broadcasts. It was our first step into space.
Virginia Association of Astronomy Societies
I attended this conference in Ashland, Virginia today and heard several good talks, including one wherein the presenter showed how a picture in a darkened room can show up rather easily in today's CCD equipment. It was followed by a picnic and skywatch near Ashland in which I located several interesting objects in my telescope. I regard this is a summertime conference, since the temperatures were in the upper 80s. It may be the last day of summer. Highs in the low 70s are called for next week.
I heard in the paper that Chesterfield County, Virginia rejected a Wiccan priestess' request to perform invocations for them. This shows that Chesterfield County's officials don't bother to find out what Wicca stands for or what Wiccans believe. They have this old image of witches on brooms. The county attorney, says, "Wicca is neo-pagan and invokes polytheistic, pre-Christian deities" and for that reason he rejected the Wiccan's request. He should not reject Wicca for what it is but should consider what Wicca does and what Wiccans do. Further, what if I object to a non-pagan, monotheistic Christian deity? I would find an invocation to such a deity offensive to me.
I think Chesterfield County should either reconsider its decision and allow the Wiccan to give invocations in Chesterfield County, or do away with invocations altogether. It is hard to do an invocation without breaking the principle of separation of church and state stated in the First Amendment.
Further, I feel that the Richmond Times-Dispatch this time has disgraced itself with its report of the incident. "Chesterfield gives witch the broom." That shows that the people on the staff of this newspaper have brooms in their brains. They are imprisoned by the witch stereotype. They should have simply said "Chesterfield rejects Wiccan's invocation request".
Sputnik
2002 October 5 was the 45th anniversary of the launching by the Soviet Union of Sputnik I. I was 11 years old when this occurred. I was in the living room of my parents' house, and they were watching TV. All of a sudden a special alert came on the black-and-white TV. The "Russians" had launched an Earth-orbiting satellite in orbit called Sputnik I and it was giving off a beeping sound: beep, beep, beep... The first thing I said was "shoot it down", for we were all trained to hate the Soviets and their Communist form of government. But my father said that they won't do that because the satellite will do good for everyone.
But it was a shock to people. Headlines persisted for some time after the launch of Sputnik. People became afraid that they may develop continental missiles capable of sending nuclear warheads to the United States. In some ways this event resembles Planeattack, the terrorist attacks of 2001 September 11, in that both events were jolting reminders that our country was no longer secure within its borders. Interest everywhere in mathematics, science, and engineering skyrocketed. This increased interest in the sciences and space led to the US space programs and Kennedy's moon challenge, which was successfully met in 1969.
And Sputnik ushered in humanity into the Space Age, into a world where we casually use satellites for such things as locating your place (GPS), cellular telephones, and cable television broadcasts. It was our first step into space.
Virginia Association of Astronomy Societies
I attended this conference in Ashland, Virginia today and heard several good talks, including one wherein the presenter showed how a picture in a darkened room can show up rather easily in today's CCD equipment. It was followed by a picnic and skywatch near Ashland in which I located several interesting objects in my telescope. I regard this is a summertime conference, since the temperatures were in the upper 80s. It may be the last day of summer. Highs in the low 70s are called for next week.
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