Saturday, May 29, 2004
Robonaut will go where humans would be in danger
This story is about a robot that is being developed by a team at NASA. The idea is to have a machine that can do "EVA"s... Extra-Vehicular Activities... which are very dangerous for people. The robot will be primarily controlled directly by people, not self-operating, and is shaped like a human torso so that it can be remote-controlled in a sensible way (if it was shaped like a spider, for instance, people would have a hard time learning to operate it), and so that it can use the tools NASA has on hand in space for astronauts to use.
Read More...
1 Comments:
Test
Sunday, May 23, 2004
Lingua Franca - 17/03/01: The Newspeak of the New Millenium...
Lingua Franca - 17/03/01: The Newspeak of the New Millenium...: "
Saturday 17/03/01
The Newspeak of the New Millenium...
Summary:
At a recent Colloquium on 'the power of the word'
at Churchill College, Cambridge, the plain-speaking
Nigerian writer and human rights campaigner
WOLE SOYINKA attacked the language of political
correctness. "
Saturday 17/03/01
The Newspeak of the New Millenium...
Summary:
At a recent Colloquium on 'the power of the word'
at Churchill College, Cambridge, the plain-speaking
Nigerian writer and human rights campaigner
WOLE SOYINKA attacked the language of political
correctness. "
0 Comments:
CWP Training in SC
After carrying concealed in North Carolina for 3+ years, I moved to SC last December. Recently had a spare $75 to spend on the training for CWP (Concealed Weapon Permit, as it is called here... it was Concealed Carry - Handgun in NC) and went to the 8-hour training last Sunday.
This was a more-thorough day of instruction than the 4-hour course in NC, but I was mystified by a lot of it. One thing that got me... the instructor pointed out that he'd put a lot of work into the instruction manual and would we please not pass it on to people who hadn't been through his course. Sure, but why on earth are the instructors having to write their own manuals? I earn part of my living editing process documentation ("How to" manuals, basically) and I can tell you that most people can't write such documents... it is a different skill than the skill it takes to actually do the job at hand. I found many outright errors and even more just plain confusing and misleading language in his little book. I think that SC should write up a standardized manual that all of the instructors can use; it would help to avoid "instruction drift," and increase the data integrity a LOT.
I felt that the day's instruction could have been finished in 4 hours, but that it was padded to stretch it out to meet the state's "8-hour" requirement.
The instructor's take on instruction was to keep it a bit light and keep people's attention, and IMHO he did a good job of that. I didn't see anyone nodding off, and he had a very humane angle on things; made it clear that carrying a weapon can be an awesome responsibility; talked about his own experiences dealing with the emotional aftermath of being in an armed self-defense situation... I saw people looking a lot more sober afterwards; I think that he really got people's attention.
Sadly, there may have been just a little too much of the "folksy" quality to the day; part of it was like an extended session at a country gun store, with the usual range of opinion taking the place of fact... For instance, he consistently referred to the extractor on a semi-auto as the ejector... I had to point out to him that the two are quite a bit different; he didn't know where the actual ejector was! He also said that if you had a drink with dinner at your house, you'd better hope that you didn't need to defend yourself later that night, because you would be breaking the law to defend yourself with alcohol in your blood... That is just plain not true... I have the SC Law Enforcement Documentation to prove it. It went on an on that way. The main point of what he taught was correct; the details were all over the landscape.
Now, on to the "skills demonstration." I had done spectacularly well (for me) on my NC skills test, keeping all rounds within a six-inch circle on the target, but a combination of no shooting practice for 10 months and some test-jitters lead to me having a less-than stellar day. Out of 50 rounds, shooting at a distance that varied from 3 feet to 30 feet, I kept about 40 rounds inside an 8-inch circle, with the rest wobbling out to the lower right, including one nasty flyer about 18 inches down; I must have been yanking on the trigger something terrible.
On the good side, I passed both the written test and the skills test, and the day was made more comfortable by the instructor and his family being good hosts. The training was held in a heavy equipment barn that was clean and cool; they fed us and did the fingerprinting and paperwork for us. Now, I need to save up another $50 for the actual application fee and send in my paperwork to the SLED and hope that my NC permit wasn't the result of a fluke... ;-)
With some luck, I should have my SC CWP by mid September.
This was a more-thorough day of instruction than the 4-hour course in NC, but I was mystified by a lot of it. One thing that got me... the instructor pointed out that he'd put a lot of work into the instruction manual and would we please not pass it on to people who hadn't been through his course. Sure, but why on earth are the instructors having to write their own manuals? I earn part of my living editing process documentation ("How to" manuals, basically) and I can tell you that most people can't write such documents... it is a different skill than the skill it takes to actually do the job at hand. I found many outright errors and even more just plain confusing and misleading language in his little book. I think that SC should write up a standardized manual that all of the instructors can use; it would help to avoid "instruction drift," and increase the data integrity a LOT.
I felt that the day's instruction could have been finished in 4 hours, but that it was padded to stretch it out to meet the state's "8-hour" requirement.
The instructor's take on instruction was to keep it a bit light and keep people's attention, and IMHO he did a good job of that. I didn't see anyone nodding off, and he had a very humane angle on things; made it clear that carrying a weapon can be an awesome responsibility; talked about his own experiences dealing with the emotional aftermath of being in an armed self-defense situation... I saw people looking a lot more sober afterwards; I think that he really got people's attention.
Sadly, there may have been just a little too much of the "folksy" quality to the day; part of it was like an extended session at a country gun store, with the usual range of opinion taking the place of fact... For instance, he consistently referred to the extractor on a semi-auto as the ejector... I had to point out to him that the two are quite a bit different; he didn't know where the actual ejector was! He also said that if you had a drink with dinner at your house, you'd better hope that you didn't need to defend yourself later that night, because you would be breaking the law to defend yourself with alcohol in your blood... That is just plain not true... I have the SC Law Enforcement Documentation to prove it. It went on an on that way. The main point of what he taught was correct; the details were all over the landscape.
Now, on to the "skills demonstration." I had done spectacularly well (for me) on my NC skills test, keeping all rounds within a six-inch circle on the target, but a combination of no shooting practice for 10 months and some test-jitters lead to me having a less-than stellar day. Out of 50 rounds, shooting at a distance that varied from 3 feet to 30 feet, I kept about 40 rounds inside an 8-inch circle, with the rest wobbling out to the lower right, including one nasty flyer about 18 inches down; I must have been yanking on the trigger something terrible.
On the good side, I passed both the written test and the skills test, and the day was made more comfortable by the instructor and his family being good hosts. The training was held in a heavy equipment barn that was clean and cool; they fed us and did the fingerprinting and paperwork for us. Now, I need to save up another $50 for the actual application fee and send in my paperwork to the SLED and hope that my NC permit wasn't the result of a fluke... ;-)
With some luck, I should have my SC CWP by mid September.
0 Comments:
Saturday, May 22, 2004
Charlotte Observer | 05/22/2004 | Advice to the graduate: Be a healthy skeptic
(I'm posting this whole article because I know that most people won't want to register just to read it...)
Posted on Sat, May. 22, 2004
Advice to the graduate: Be a healthy skeptic
It's the character trait essential for becoming a thinking adult
KAY MCSPADDEN
Special to The Observer
Almost 30 years ago today I graduated from high school. I was third in my class, which isn't particularly impressive in a class of 50. The valedictorian and salutatorian were students more gifted and hardworking than I was, and I don't remember feeling envious of their accomplishments. I was, however, irked that they had the chance to make speeches to the other graduates and the guests while I had to sit mutely in the audience.
The 2004 graduates will probably hear some of the same messages that I heard - to go forth with confidence, to persevere in the face of adversity, to do their best in all things -- good messages, certainly, but not the one I would deliver if I had the chance to stand before them and their parents. Instead, my graduation speech would be a call to embrace the character trait essential for becoming a thinking adult. I would tell every graduate to become a healthy skeptic.
A healthy skeptic is someone who rejects easy certainty and intellectual laziness, who actively questions what he sees and hears and doesn't let anyone usurp his mind. All of us are skeptical about people we distrust -- we question the accuracy of their data and their motives for sharing it. A healthy skeptic also examines what he learns from his friends and from others who seem to reflect his world view. Even more difficult, the healthy skeptic questions himself, not just what he knows and how he knows, but why he believes what he believes.
Imagine a world of healthy skeptics. We would continue to look at our enemies with a jaundiced eye, surely, but we would be cautious about simplifying their actions into sound bites such as "they hate us because they hate freedom." When I heard President Bush say this recently about the Iraqi insurgents, my heart sank. What exactly does that mean, that someone hates an abstraction such as freedom? Could some of the Iraqis attacking our troops be motivated by religious fanaticism? Could some of them be fighting because the presence of foreign troops is an offense to their sense of sovereignty? Are some of the insurgents criminals fomenting chaos so that they can profit economically, or could other fighters be interested in carving out a fiefdom of loyalists who will support them in the future after the coalition forces leave them to face each other? Wouldn't we be better off rejecting an easy certainty -- "they hate freedom" -- and adapting our strategies to deal with a more complex situation?
In a world of skeptics, politics wouldn't trump science. The FDA wouldn't bow to pressure to ignore the recommendations of their scientific panel to make emergency contraceptives easier rather than harder to get. The environmentalists who worry about global warming wouldn't be scoffed at by lawmakers who accept campaign contributions from polluters. Treasury Department whistle blowers and terrorist experts wouldn't be squelched or fired. Plagiarized documents touting weapons of mass destruction would undergo genuine scrutiny instead of being used to bolster a particular agenda.
Dissent would be valued as an essential part of sorting out the truth. Discussions would be more raucous debate and less rubber stamping. Censorship would cease to be a concern because people who examine many points of view before drawing conclusions neither want nor need to be protected from information. If we made up our own minds after looking long and hard and skeptically, talk radio would be defunct and political pundits would be out of work.
A world of healthy skeptics would be a world where the charismatic Osama bin Ladens and Charlie Mansons would have little power or influence.
Fraud would be harder to perpetrate on people who refused to be gullible. Liars would be found out sooner.
Lovers might hesitate longer before getting married.
Teachers would stop trying to indoctrinate students. Students would hold themselves more accountable.
Most importantly, we would never have a moment when, asked if we could think of any mistakes we might have made, we would draw a blank.
On the last test that I gave my seniors, I realized that they have become healthy skeptics without hearing any graduation speech from me. In one question I asked them to reflect on their growth this year. What have they learned? How have they changed? What are they taking with them as they leave the nine-month gestation of their senior year?
"I learned to read and write more critically," one student wrote, "but mostly I learned how to think."
Several students wrote that they had learned to listen with an open mind.
"I learned to listen more and talk less."
"I learned that everyone is ignorant, but mostly I've learned that I am, too."
"I've always wondered about that saying that the more you learn, the less you know. Now I understand what that means."
"I know why you have `the unexamined life is not worth living' on your bulletin board. It's what you really wanted us to learn."
It is indeed.
Kay McSpadden
Read the Original
Posted on Sat, May. 22, 2004
Advice to the graduate: Be a healthy skeptic
It's the character trait essential for becoming a thinking adult
KAY MCSPADDEN
Special to The Observer
Almost 30 years ago today I graduated from high school. I was third in my class, which isn't particularly impressive in a class of 50. The valedictorian and salutatorian were students more gifted and hardworking than I was, and I don't remember feeling envious of their accomplishments. I was, however, irked that they had the chance to make speeches to the other graduates and the guests while I had to sit mutely in the audience.
The 2004 graduates will probably hear some of the same messages that I heard - to go forth with confidence, to persevere in the face of adversity, to do their best in all things -- good messages, certainly, but not the one I would deliver if I had the chance to stand before them and their parents. Instead, my graduation speech would be a call to embrace the character trait essential for becoming a thinking adult. I would tell every graduate to become a healthy skeptic.
A healthy skeptic is someone who rejects easy certainty and intellectual laziness, who actively questions what he sees and hears and doesn't let anyone usurp his mind. All of us are skeptical about people we distrust -- we question the accuracy of their data and their motives for sharing it. A healthy skeptic also examines what he learns from his friends and from others who seem to reflect his world view. Even more difficult, the healthy skeptic questions himself, not just what he knows and how he knows, but why he believes what he believes.
Imagine a world of healthy skeptics. We would continue to look at our enemies with a jaundiced eye, surely, but we would be cautious about simplifying their actions into sound bites such as "they hate us because they hate freedom." When I heard President Bush say this recently about the Iraqi insurgents, my heart sank. What exactly does that mean, that someone hates an abstraction such as freedom? Could some of the Iraqis attacking our troops be motivated by religious fanaticism? Could some of them be fighting because the presence of foreign troops is an offense to their sense of sovereignty? Are some of the insurgents criminals fomenting chaos so that they can profit economically, or could other fighters be interested in carving out a fiefdom of loyalists who will support them in the future after the coalition forces leave them to face each other? Wouldn't we be better off rejecting an easy certainty -- "they hate freedom" -- and adapting our strategies to deal with a more complex situation?
In a world of skeptics, politics wouldn't trump science. The FDA wouldn't bow to pressure to ignore the recommendations of their scientific panel to make emergency contraceptives easier rather than harder to get. The environmentalists who worry about global warming wouldn't be scoffed at by lawmakers who accept campaign contributions from polluters. Treasury Department whistle blowers and terrorist experts wouldn't be squelched or fired. Plagiarized documents touting weapons of mass destruction would undergo genuine scrutiny instead of being used to bolster a particular agenda.
Dissent would be valued as an essential part of sorting out the truth. Discussions would be more raucous debate and less rubber stamping. Censorship would cease to be a concern because people who examine many points of view before drawing conclusions neither want nor need to be protected from information. If we made up our own minds after looking long and hard and skeptically, talk radio would be defunct and political pundits would be out of work.
A world of healthy skeptics would be a world where the charismatic Osama bin Ladens and Charlie Mansons would have little power or influence.
Fraud would be harder to perpetrate on people who refused to be gullible. Liars would be found out sooner.
Lovers might hesitate longer before getting married.
Teachers would stop trying to indoctrinate students. Students would hold themselves more accountable.
Most importantly, we would never have a moment when, asked if we could think of any mistakes we might have made, we would draw a blank.
On the last test that I gave my seniors, I realized that they have become healthy skeptics without hearing any graduation speech from me. In one question I asked them to reflect on their growth this year. What have they learned? How have they changed? What are they taking with them as they leave the nine-month gestation of their senior year?
"I learned to read and write more critically," one student wrote, "but mostly I learned how to think."
Several students wrote that they had learned to listen with an open mind.
"I learned to listen more and talk less."
"I learned that everyone is ignorant, but mostly I've learned that I am, too."
"I've always wondered about that saying that the more you learn, the less you know. Now I understand what that means."
"I know why you have `the unexamined life is not worth living' on your bulletin board. It's what you really wanted us to learn."
It is indeed.
Kay McSpadden
Read the Original
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Will Google Netscape Microsoft? by Paul Allen
Last November, Google released its Deskbar, which allows you to search the web from your Windows toolbar without using a browser. I use it occasionally; but when I first learned about it I blogged a memo to Larry Page and Sergey Brin with what I thought was a brilliant idea, but probably one that had occured to them long before. I suggested that Google provide a free search tool that would index all your personal email and all the files on your desktop. If they did this two years before Microsoft releases Longhorn, with local and web search integrated into the OS, Google's chances for survival would dramatically increase.
Read More...
Read More...
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Thursday, May 20, 2004
Oil running out in 2025?
After getting the Y2K (remember that?) all wrong, (thank goodness), I'm
hesitant to panic too much about this, but I just watched an article on
CNN, where they interviewed one expert who thought that we'd be
substantially out of oil by 2025. That doesn't seem like all that long
from now. I'll be 65. Will I spend my retirement years fighting through
some Mad Max landscape?
hesitant to panic too much about this, but I just watched an article on
CNN, where they interviewed one expert who thought that we'd be
substantially out of oil by 2025. That doesn't seem like all that long
from now. I'll be 65. Will I spend my retirement years fighting through
some Mad Max landscape?
0 Comments:
Bible Argument Spurs Boiling-Oil Charge
Posted on Thu, May. 20, 2004
Associated Press
EUGENE, Ore. - A woman is accused of pouring boiling oil on her
boyfriend's face in an argument over a Bible verse.
Angela S. Morris, 19, was charged with domestic violence assault and
jailed on $250,000 bail. Her 31-year-old boyfriend, whose name was not
released, was hospitalized with severe burns on his face, neck and chest.
The two were reading the Bible at the boyfriend's apartment May 13 when
Morris went to the kitchen to prepare french fries, police said.
Morris told police that they continued to argue and that her boyfriend
grabbed her from behind. Police said he then went to his bedroom to lie
down. Morris followed and threw the oil on him, police said.
Associated Press
EUGENE, Ore. - A woman is accused of pouring boiling oil on her
boyfriend's face in an argument over a Bible verse.
Angela S. Morris, 19, was charged with domestic violence assault and
jailed on $250,000 bail. Her 31-year-old boyfriend, whose name was not
released, was hospitalized with severe burns on his face, neck and chest.
The two were reading the Bible at the boyfriend's apartment May 13 when
Morris went to the kitchen to prepare french fries, police said.
Morris told police that they continued to argue and that her boyfriend
grabbed her from behind. Police said he then went to his bedroom to lie
down. Morris followed and threw the oil on him, police said.
0 Comments:
Wednesday, May 19, 2004
FOUND Magazine
I haven't looked at this site for a long while, but when I first discovered it, I was really taken by the subject matter and by the good "production values" if you will. I plan to read through it again this week, and I'll post more opinions then.
FOUND Magazine
FOUND Magazine
0 Comments:
Wednesday, May 12, 2004
Orkut
Okay, Google is driving me nuts. First I salivate over Gmail, finally
getting in during the third or fourth wave of beta testers, and now I
stumble over a reference to a new in-testing "social networking"
service called Orkut. I'm such a dweeb that I _at once_ want to join
the Borg Collective (blog collective?) but... the way the system is
set up, you have to be invited to join by someone who knows you. Since
I disconnected from my old Pagan world back in '93 or so, I really
haven't had many friends. So... I'll have to depend on someone from
those days who might still remember me fondly (hah) or someone I met
during the years when I was active in HTML discussions... or, finally,
someone from Wachovia. The chance of someone I know _also_ being a
member of Orkut _and_ reading this blog... well... I might as well go
spend some money on the SC lottery. Just about as much of a chance.
getting in during the third or fourth wave of beta testers, and now I
stumble over a reference to a new in-testing "social networking"
service called Orkut. I'm such a dweeb that I _at once_ want to join
the Borg Collective (blog collective?) but... the way the system is
set up, you have to be invited to join by someone who knows you. Since
I disconnected from my old Pagan world back in '93 or so, I really
haven't had many friends. So... I'll have to depend on someone from
those days who might still remember me fondly (hah) or someone I met
during the years when I was active in HTML discussions... or, finally,
someone from Wachovia. The chance of someone I know _also_ being a
member of Orkut _and_ reading this blog... well... I might as well go
spend some money on the SC lottery. Just about as much of a chance.
Swimming
Moving to this development means that I finally have access to a pool. I went for my first swim today, and had a blast, but the strain on my neck caused a flare-up of my neck pain, and I'm hurting now. A combination of pain meds and my rice-filled neck warmer is keeping me vertical and not too unhappy, but I'm planning to start drinking as soon as we get back from our weekly shopping trip. Ouch.
0 Comments:
Concealed Carry Class
I had my CCH (concealed carry ...handgun) permit in North Carolina for
several years. This Sunday I'll be going in for my South Carolina CCW
class; I should have my permit in late August if all goes well.
several years. This Sunday I'll be going in for my South Carolina CCW
class; I should have my permit in late August if all goes well.
Email-to-blog...
I never thought much about it, but with the increasingly tight network
security at work, and my seeming inability to actually get around to
visiting the Blogger site to write new posts, this (new?) feature
seems good; while exploring the updated Blogger site, I found that
they now allow you to post to your blog just by sending an email. Oh,
and it seems that they now offer comments for non-paying members. If
so, I'll probably delete the Comment This comment system I was using.
security at work, and my seeming inability to actually get around to
visiting the Blogger site to write new posts, this (new?) feature
seems good; while exploring the updated Blogger site, I found that
they now allow you to post to your blog just by sending an email. Oh,
and it seems that they now offer comments for non-paying members. If
so, I'll probably delete the Comment This comment system I was using.
Obligatory circular reference... Blogger.com is updated
I use Blogger to write this page. The auto-archiving and neat-o templates made it my choice over doing the HTML manually (although, I admit to tweaking the templates ever so slightly). At any rate, I recommend the Blogger system, and wanted to note that the Blogger site has gotten a design refresh. I liked the older, sorta-funky look, but the new one is very clean.
Visit Blogger...
Visit Blogger...
0 Comments:
Wednesday, May 05, 2004
Is This a Trend?
I'm going to have to start watching for this in the news, now...
