First Blog

Retirement. This is the golden period of a lifetime of hard work, when one can actually enjoy a few of life's comforts without the confines of everyday work. It is a period celebrated by society.  It is a time of a few good years before death.  You are out of the game, having done what you have done, having said what could be said, and having lived in the active world swirling about you.  It is not a time for youth, just beginning their venture. Yet, many young folks live a portion of the retirement live - the relaxing and doing little but without reflection and with few memories, without goals and without drive.  Text-ing and Twitter-ing do not make a life, past or present, and never will. Current Legislation.  It was considered landmark legislation when a bill was passed and signed to allow the FAA to move around money to avert serious airport delays owing to traffic controller furloughs.   While Congress was giving itself high-fives on a job well done, t he United States cit

I'm not defending the FBI for their conduct of the Boston Marathon bombing.  But, you must admit they did a marvelous job of tracking, identifying and harnessing the Boston Marathon bombers.  This is wonderful.   But the pundits are hard at work - what else are they to do?  They want to blame somebody.  For every tragedy there must be blame assigned.  It does not matter that the bombers were rapidly identified ; it does not matter they were caught in a matter of days ; it does not matter they (the FBI) minimized the subsequent lost of life.  We are at the stage of the classic "blame game" The FBI is now blamed for everything .   Why was there not a follow-up on the Tamerlan Tsarnaev visit to Russia, including the alert offered by Russia?  Why were we not alerted to this single cell plotting their nefarious deeds? Why was he not watched continuously?  N aturally , this case could have been overlooked or discounted by a ineffectual investigator.  That is an internal matt

From the Huffington Post.   The latest Pew research poll has established   that American teenagers aren't doing as poorly on international science tests as adults think.   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/22/american-teens-science-tests_n_3134326.html?utm_hp_ref=@education123   In fact most adult American adults think that teenagers science knowledge are far lower than they actually are.   Indeed,   12 countries had higher scores and nine countries had lower scores.   There were another dozen with scores comparable with Americans.     Even still, only 11% of surveyed adults thought that science should be given a greater emphasis in the schools.   In keeping with our paradigm of the PSA (Polarized States of America) Democrats and Repulicans disagreed significantly on whether there should be a greater emphasis on science.   You got it.  The Democrats thought more, the Republicans thought less,   17% vs 7%.   One question not asked was and it never is:   “With the curricul

This is a continuation of http://used-ideas.blogspot.com/2013/04/thoughts-part-ii.html ·          Your brain .   Your brain is the most deceitful entity you know.   It lies to you.   It purports truths that are false.   It convinces you are tired when you are not.   It tells you to stop when you should go; it tells you to go when you should stop.   In the words of some anonymous writer, "Don't believe everything you think."   All that said it is your adviser, your confidant, your most trusted ally.  But, your brain is just one part of you! ·          The Cheap War .   In the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombing, we must acknowledge we are at war with Extremists, possibly of many types.   But for the perpetrators, it is a cheap war.   They, the bad guys, expend a trifling amount of money.   Estimate grossly the Tsarneav brothers (radicalized Islamic Boston bombers) spent about $25,000 on their little war.   The cost to Boston and the Federal Government now amoun

Continuing from http://used-ideas.blogspot.com/2013/03/thoughts-part-1.html K.  All I here these days on political news is talking points from both the left and the right. On the left there must be solidarity of the President's message. No deviations.  No doubts. No alternatives are allowed.  The rich must pay their fair share; you may have "built" it but the government supplied the schools, roads, and other infrastructure.  Obamacare is clearly controlling and even reducing costs.  We must invest in America.  On the right most talking points concern taxes (i.e. no new ones), the magnitude of the debt, the repeal of Obamacare, the massive regulations, and of course gun control.    There is not one hint, one scintilla of compromise, excepting on immigration reform, a quest issue by both for votes.  L.  We have always had conservatives and liberals.  The one is much like the other, with differences measured slightly in the degrees of the programs they pass. This is why

Someone has past away.  It happens every day.  It is a part of life.  We traditionally give reverence to the dead. While  not exactly liking or admiring them in life we honor their memory in death.  We mourn their passing; we celebrate their achievements.  This is the normal course of events saving the monsters of the day.  Hitler and Stalin are the iconic examples of mass murderer monsters that garner no, absolutely no charity in their passing. Nowadays we have the hagiographers and demonizers of every high-profile passing.  Case-in-point is Margaret Thatcher.  She is gone; her achievements, great or not, are now in the records.  By many accounts, she elevated a deteriorating British economy, though by many others she was the Iron Lady who ran roughshod over smaller nations. Many African nations do not celebrate her life.  Many on the far left deprecate her existence and celebrate her death.  They even rejoice in her passing by holding public rallies.  This seems to be symptomatic

April 8, 2013: Margaret Thatcher has departed.  Wonderful to her supporters and despised by others, she  now rests upon her contributions.  Is there a lesson learned?  Maybe.  Looking at British leaders for the last while, we've seen a few monumental figures with vision and resolve.  Thatcher is among them. So also was Churchill and Gladstone. They are rare. Indeed they are the exception. Between Churchill and Thatcher there was no one, and after Margaret there has been almost no one. Maybe Blair, though he was caught up in the past and present.  Articulate though he was and is, he did not command the world stage as did others.  England's leaders have been populated and punctuated by true visionaries, and then replaced by unmemorable leaders and losers.  This has been the nature of British affairs. In the US, we have seen Reagan, Roosevelt, and Lincoln - and in between, what?  Affairs in the US are about the same. Yet, the same obtains for other world leading countries.  In

A question has been put forth as to whether there is some system(s) in this universe more complex than the human mind.  The particular construct one author proposed is "Knowledge Management," whatever that is.  With the recent popularity of data mining, we can surely conceive of objects involving data far more complex that is the human brain.  But it is the human brain that provides the guidance for data mining, and for determining findings.  So, data mining is out of contention as more complex than the brain.The trick will be getting outside of the brain, and herein lies the problem. Let's go general... To consider the complexity of the universe vs. the complexity of the human brain leads us to a paradox of sorts.  First, we have the universe and all its machinations.  Then we have the human brain, and all it can conceive.  However, for us and to us, the complexity of the universe,is in complete concordance with the complexity of the human brain.  We cannot conceive

Banking is a subject I know little about.  Trust is a subject I've studied.  Confidence is a subject I do know.  What we have on the table is an issue involving confidence and trust in the Banks of Cyprus. Of late the banks in Cyprus have been closed due to the serious financial conditions in this island country. Cyprus is broke, far extended in credit, and well beyond ability for repayment without serious public pain.  At first there was to be a sur-tax on all bank accounts, then on all accounts greater than a specified amount. And so on as this has evolved.  Currently, people cannot really access their money at all. Sure, we see street demonstrations by the citizens objecting to about everything.  But later, when they return home, they must plan for their possible futures.  What will they plan?  Who will they trust?  In what is their confidence? The bank?  The government?  The EZ?   All of these? What this implies is that, in the blink of an eye, the confidence or trust in

Dateline, 3/25/13: The Strongsville, OH teachers on strike for higher wages. They have been on strike for several weeks. Students are being taught by substitutes.  The District's active goal is to make a deal with the teachers.   A bargaining session is scheduled for tomorrow (Tuesday, March 26, 2013) morning.*  According to Superintendent John Krupinski on the requested demand, his answer was short and to the point: "It's unsustainable and unaffordable."  True or not true?  Let's take a look.  I don't see what the fuss is all about in Strongsville, OH.  The unions are protecting their constituency, namely their members.  When all is said, the students are their product, and the school building is their factory. When has any union going on strike worried about their product or the factory for that matter.  Go union!  As long as they are producing a product of competitive excellence, they should go for the gold, the benefits, the job security, the

A. Waste your time! Lots of it.  Some of my most productive moments have come when I was wasting time. B. Rules of Email. Does someone read your email?  The answer is yes.  For most of us it amounts to an application of data mining by dedicated robots by dedicated servers, but serving whom? 1. Never publish anything on email you don't want the world to see. Never publish to friends or family items you do not wish others to see. 2. Never publish anything that has racist, sexual, or political overtones. 3. Publish only plain commentary such as daily business to family or friends. 4. Publish only political stuff that has no personal connection with your affairs. C. Information corrupts integrity; it justifies inspection; it validates commercial gain; it indemnifies politicians.  Information provides the predictive analytics of our time. D. Suicide terrorists are nothing more than contract killers with an ecclesiastical contract and having an arbitrary target. E. Tax looph

This past week I visited Washington DC as part of an NSF grant.  It was all about creating more science, technology, engineering, and math majors.  Acronym: STEM.  This NSF STEP toward the STEM advocacy program is successful, and the grantees and grant administrators are highly motivated.  The meeting was excellent.  New ideas were presented; old ideas were reaffirmed; alternative ideas were presented.  It is acknowledged that more STEM majors are wanted and are needed.  For the USA, this is correct.  Make no doubt. The foundational question was how to get them? As usual, the keynote speaker cited the well known facts that USA students do poorly, actually very poorly, on international exams in these subjects, particularly math.  So, these sad facts loomed in the background. In short, the basics question was:  How do we get more people to pursue STEM degrees? Remarkably, there is no clear consensus on how this may be achieved.  The NSF project directors wanted us to report out