First Blog

Imagine your mind has a built in search engine, not unlike Bing or Google. Wouldn't that be great? You just set it to work and presto, up comes a number of hits on whatever you search. Guess what, it does! The number of hits is small in most cases, large in others, but significantly null in all too many, especially for searches distant in time. Like all search engines, your engine has limitations of capacity. This implies you have lots of information, carefully filed away in your brain, but essentially inaccessible. It has become unsearchable and unremembered. Google, et .al., can merely add more servers to increase capacity. You cannot. The question we pose here is: how can we find this "lost" information. The method we propose is called relational recall . Sounds mysterious?  It really isn't.  But, this is something the digital search engines cannot do. As such, they are limited to text searches. They cannot feel what you feel much less know what you feel or desir

We are talking about the future of education on this planet.  It may be worth a few moments' consideration. ------------ Can Online Education Work?  Well, can it?  We are discussing here the future of education on this planet.  Here are a few notes about online learning that may be of interest.  I know the faculty is generally dead-against it, but it is coming , maybe like a plague, maybe like salvation. 'Tis a juggernaut.   It is incumbent upon schools and colleges to make it work.  Administrators think of dollars, faculty think of self-interest.  Compromise is needed. -------------- Online education is here, and it is here to stay.  Many issues, particularly costs, mandate continuance of this new venue.  I'm for it, make no doubt.  But we must be at least a little critical.  So, I mention a few factors, mostly technical with the title, "What is wrong with online education?"  Here are a few factors that speak against the purely online format, bare an

Many of our presidents were trained in or used math at some point in their careers. An interesting note is that when someone has a productive disposition toward math, i.e. sees the value of and confidence in using mathematics to resolve problems they will use it to resolve many problems, not apparently related to math. It becomes a way of thinking. In this short note we look at some of the US presidents so disposed. Mathematical training was of course an important part of the curriculum as taught to many of our earlier presidents. They were schooled in algebra and geometry. Calculus is another matter. Let's look at some of them. George Washington George Washington (1732-1799) was early in his career a surveyor. The mathematics of surveying includes foremost the techniques of planar measurement. These include the right triangle, oblique angles and triangles, azimuth, angles, bearing, bearing intersections, distance intersections, coordinate geometry, law of sines

The Two Generals What is so utterly unbelievable about the Generals Petraeus and Allen is their apparent naivety.  Here they are experts at secure communications.  Here they are intelligent and capable military officers.  What could ever overcome them to believe that any communications on the open net is secure and undiscoverable?  These firms actually do a lot of data mining, well beyond most of our comprehension.  (Just use your favorite search engine on any topic.  You will get thousands of hits.  Imagine the computing power this requires.   During the nights when few are hitting on searches, these servers do not rest. )  Anything appearing interesting is flagged. Even I know this. This is why it is good advice never post anything of any salacious, sensitive, or derogatory nature through these messengers.  But if you must... Use a messenger that supports encryption, such as PGP (Pretty Good Privacy), very difficult, no incredibly difficult, to decrypt.  Make certain your mess

Paths to Greatness Abraham Lincoln and George Washington, two of our greatest politicians and leaders, share many qualities, though were vastly different in personality, temperament, and background. What makes one great seem to have quite a number of osculations, while others aspects seem relatively unimportant. We look at only a few. Touch Points. Both were surveyors in their younger days. This illustrates a considerable facility with basic math. Both were presidents, often ranked #1 and #2 for their impact and excellence. Both prosecuted long and costly wars for the higher social goals of political and social liberation. Both took terrific risks to achieve their goals, Washington as a battlefield commander; Lincoln as a commander in chief. Both wars are landmarks of American history. Both dealt successfully with conspiring subordinates seeking power, militarily and politically. Both understood fully the importance of the political nature of war as the sister of its acknowl

Tent Cities?  I think not.   On the TV, they are called Tent Cities. These are massive compounds supplied with basic necessities of living, commons kitchens, bedding, lavatories, showers, and the like. But they resemble in so many ways nothing less than refugee camps - a far more pejorative term. The original twin spirits of hope and helping from the early days will dissolve. Camps will be ruled by depression and despair for many. Then the bad stuff will begin.  Imagine that, refugee camps in the USA! Definition . From Wikipedia we read: Refugee camps are generally set up in an impromptu fashion and designed to meet basic human needs for only a short time. Some refugee camps are dirty and unhygienic. Often they are describe as shelters for those displaced by war, political, or religion. But they also exist for pestilence, and in a wide sense a natural weather disaster could be so considered. With hundreds of thousands without power and tens of thousands with destroyed homes, thes

When it comes to possessions in this world, we can identify (at least) three things working... 1. Things to want to have.   Wealth, security, a nice car and home, freedoms to live, freedom to worship.   Who can deny anyone wanting to have these?   These are your needs. 2. Things you want to get.   Happiness, joy, love, peace are included. We all want these, but maybe not have them yet. 3. Things you want to get but not have.   The girl/boy next door, the next promotion, or the chairmanship of something big.   Name your own.   It is our headlong scramble for the third that causes us unlimited problems, conflicts, mis-directions, competition, and unhappiness.   You work for them, you strive for them, you hope for them. Then you get them, and become profoundly disappointed after they arrive.