First Blog

Impossible Problems - Arising from Conflicting Information by Don Allen In this second part of our series on Impossible Problems , (see http://used-ideas.blogspot.com/2013/09/impossible-problems-arising-from.html ) we take up those arising from conflicts and conflicting information, and in some cases too much information.   Nonetheless, people and institutions must make decisions, regardless of the circumstances.   Doing nothing leads to conflicts and problems of another sort. How should one deal with conflicts and/or conflicting information?   Suppose the birth date of some historical figure is in question.   There are solutions offered.   What normally is done is further research followed by a decision on which date to accept.   That done, is the issue resolved?   Indeed not, it well can be that the decision made is incorrect.   In fact, when restricted to the Internet for information sources, consider the paper by Yin, Han, and Yu in which are developed consensus ideas.

You have no radio, no TV, no phone, no text, no Facebook, no YouTube, not to mention no Saturday night event.  What do you do? This is/was the situation of humanity for millennia. What did they do?  If you could read, it might be the Bible or biblical texts.  It might be a text from an altogether small list of available books.  They might be read again and again.  Such works were memorized, re-memorized, and recited to your family or group.  Folks that could not read received information in this way.  For others it was the retelling of stories or legends. Granted, this was not ideal, but it was the only method of communication for countless ages. Human communication is important! This a fact modern society is just now learning. When I grew up, there were few TV channels of interest and then only at select times.  Later in the evening, there were good radio shows. I fondly remember Earl Nighingale on WGN out of Chicago. He was my early source of wisdom and motivation, such as it

Dear Folks, We come, in this moment of indecision and derision, to the matter of our country's longevity, responsibility, and harmony. Republicans - have painted themselves into a corner by demanding some form of accountability on the budget or at least the appearance of doing so. Democrats - have painted themselves in to the corner of being unwilling to negotiate under the pressure of pressing needs and exigencies, or to be unwilling to consider untouchable issues. Caveat:  Part of the Republican problem is their un-unified approach.  The Dems claim they don't know who or what is the negotiating position.  Good points.  The Democrats are seemingly fully unified, and this is a fully suspicious note.  There can be no group so large, yet so committed to a course of action as to differences of which we have not heard. The Tea Party - has painted itself into a corner for fiscal responsibility regardless of consequence. The Far Left - has painted itself into the corner s

Anonymous Lost.   Does anonymity even exist any more?  I prepared a survey for my students on how they are viewing my course so far.  Simple innocuous questions they are.  And it is really anonymous. But will any of them actually believe it is anonymous ?  With so much data piracy, scanning, recording, sneaking and peeking these days, the whole concept of anonymous may be vanishing. This variation on John Milton's (1608-1674) , Paradise Lost is simply an update to modern times.  Clearly paradise has been lost, but it may be that anonymity is (going, going) gone as well.  I use to believe I could live under the radar, thinking whatever I said would be too unimportant for anyone to take note of.  But today with big data and unlimited storage, I feel that whatever I write will be scanned or read with an eye to key words - most revealing about the message. Hopefully, I am remain under the radar with my "nobody" status well in tact. I think the seeds of doubt

An unexpected paradigm shift.   When one reads about a paradigm shift – a change signaling a new way information is interpreted, it is nearly always in reference to a new and more accurate way of thought.   Yet, we see in this country paradigm shifts of another category, those that suggest a decline in outlook, in values, and in prestige.      This paradigm shift is about national, state, local, but particularly student debt. This is a story of unexpected and unintended consequences.    Case-in-point: student loan debt, defaults and their implications.  The new reality…     for many students, there is no debt.   It is an abstract concept not pertaining to regular people, i.e. us.       As though there are not enough fiscal problems facing the US Treasury, we have the following… “ The growing number of students who have defaulted on their federal student loans is troubling ,” U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said. The Department will continue to work with institution