Dolor's Rants

Citizenship 2.0

2010-04-08T14:03:00.001-07:00

In my last post, Consequences of Illegal Immigration, I discussed the danger to visitors to our desert southwest from illegal immigrants and drug smugglers. In this post I carry on with the theme with a discussion about citizenship.
Part of this idea was inspired by Robert A. Heinlein and his book “Starship Troopers.” In this book (and subsequent movie), Mr. Heinlein describes a world where citizenship is earned through serving in the military. This is the basis for this post. Great book, and I think Paul Verhoeven did a great job with the movie.
My idea for modifying our current model for citizenship is to create three classes of citizenship--Visitors, Residents, and Citizens—which are bestowed and maintained following certain rules and criteria:
Visitors—this includes seasonal workers, students, business people, and vacationers. Visitors are just that, people who are visiting the country and are not planning on staying permanently. They have access to basic, short-term healthcare and are not allowed to own property. They must check-in on a regular basis and cannot vote.
Residents-people who live here permanently. This includes people who are born here of parents who themselves are residents. Children of Visitors remain Visitors. Residents have better health care and can own homes and do not have to check-in. They cannot vote, though, in national elections, only locals. nor can they hold National offices. They can start businesses, but not run them for long periods of time or own them.
Citizens-The top-of-the-line, Crème-dela-Crème of the population of the US. These are the people who through hard work and service have earned the title of Citizen of the United States. They have highest quality health care. They can hold any office, vote in any elections, own any business. They are the personification of the American Dream. In fact, they are required to keep abreast of the issues and vote in all elections.
Yes, this is the creation of a class-based society—three to be exact—but this is what we need if we want to fix the problems that we are having with illegal immigration. It isn’t easy, in fact what I propose is damn hard, but if done right it will allow people from other countries to come here, work, play, and maybe become citizens.
First, this scheme allows for the tracking of non-citizens via identity cards that are issued to a visitor on their first visit. There are a number of technologies that will allow this. This scheme also allows non-residents to visit here, work here, and be taxed here. There will also be paths upward so that visitors can become residents, then citizens. No more birthrights. No more people coming here and getting lost in the crowd and staying long after their visa expires.
We need to do something. We need our smart people to think outside of the box and worry about more then who is going to vote for them in the next election. We need a solution and we need it now. This post is a challenge. Read it, come up with something better, then write your representative and let them know what you think.

I have had to turn off the comments for this postdue to a persistent spammer who is trying to wear me down. It is unfortunate that he/she is seemingly incapable of posting a meaningful comment that is void of any links to malware/spam sites. Oh well....

del.icio.us tags: government, class, society, citizenship, immigration, illegal immigration, resident, visitor

Consequences of Illegal Immigration

2010-04-04T19:23:00.001-07:00

This past weekend my wife and I visited the Coronado National Forest near Portal, Arizona. While there we came upon an official USDA Forestry Service sign:

We continued on, with a renewed sense of caution, to hike on Trail 280 towards Silver Peak.

On the way home, my wife and I discussed the sign in light of the stories in the news of late detailing recent deaths in this area (Southeastern Arizona and the New Mexico Bootheel) and the call for the deployment of the National Guard and more Border Patrol agents in the area. Keep in mind that this problem is not new and not localized to the Coronado National Forest. We realized that things have escalated to the point where we may actually be endangering our lives by hiking on a trail in a National Forest, in the United States of America; said trail and forest having been created using our tax dollars! Endangered by a bunch of people from another country!
This is so freaking wrong that I need to take a moment to gag.
Lately, it has been tough not to take notice of the death and destruction going on in nearby Ciudad Juarez (less than an hour away by freeway). There is a real fear that it will spill-over into the US border towns. Now we can't even visit the quiet desolation of the southern part of the state of New Mexico or Arizona or Texas because we might be robbed, molested, or, God forbid, killed by someone from another country who is here illegally, or by a drug smuggler.
People in the southwest will soon (and rightly so) develop a siege mentality, and that will not be good.
You have to experience the desolate beauty of the desert to appreciate the loss we are about to experience if something isn't done, and done right now.
Yes, not all immigrants here illegally are evil, bad, or criminals, but enough are, IMHO, that we have to do something, and do it now. Remember, the operative word here is "illegal".
My wife and I are citizens of the United States of America and we should not have to worry about some foreign national in this country illegally shooting us, robbing us, or killing us while we are enjoying time together in the USA. This is why we have the Border Patrol (God bless them), the National Guard (God bless them), and the Department of Homeland Security (God bless them as well). It is high time that the President and Congress protect the citizens who live and recreate along its southern borders by sending the personnel and material necessary to protect us now, then enact the laws and establish the procedures to control the flow of people and elicit materials across the border.
The time is now. Write your elected representatives and demand that they enact legislation to stem the tide of illegal immigration, smuggling, and associated crime along the southwestern borders. Once this is done they need to create a viable system of legal immigration that allows non-criminals in while keeping drugs and criminals out.

del.icio.us tags: illegal immigration, smuggling, drugs, bootheel, boot heel, New Mexico, Arizona, Mexico, border, National Guard, DHS, Security, Border Patrol, Government

Passion

2010-03-29T18:09:00.001-07:00

My wife and I were talking the other day and she asked me what I was passionate about. She has known me for almost nine years and never once did I ever mention a passion. I thought about it for a moment and realized that I have no one, single, driving passion. Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zero.

I got depressed.

Everyone has a passion. There are passionate golfers, needlepointers, quilters, bakers, hamster ranchers, dog breeders, bird watchers, car builders, nerf herders, and Star Trek fans. I, on the other hand, had nothing. As I thought about it I realized that I never had a passion about any single, solitary thing...ever. In fact, I never had a big dream, but that is a different story.

I got more depressed.

We then had a joint epiphany: I am passionate about everything, and I have been this way since I can remember.

I started to feel much better.

I am truly, manically, interested in everything and everything. I have an almost insatiable desire to know about things and how stuff works. As a child I spent hours reading the 1934 Wonder Book of Knowledge over, and over, and over again (especially the section on smelting steel.) The other day I found myself thumbing through a book on cattle ranching, though I have to admit the "Raising Corn" title next to it was calling my name.

So, it isn't that I don't have a single passion, it is that I am passionate about everything.

Odd? Yes.

Depressing? Far from it.

del.icio.us tags: interests, passion, hobbies, desire, knowledge

My Masterpiece

2010-03-21T14:47:00.001-07:00

My father died at the end of 1998 and I took the job of contacting employers, credit card companies, and the like, to tell them of his death and get addresses to which to send death certificates. Since then I have been playing with the idea of putting together some type of guide to help others through this arduous and painful process. My original idea was for a hard cover book, but I know the pitfalls of trying to publish a physical book.

For the last few years, I have been touting the benefits and joys of first Web 2.0 and, now, Social Media. Well, I have put my money where my mouth is by using one of the online publishers--LuLu.com--to publish an e-book:

My book, Worksheets and Checklists - After the Death of a Loved One, is what I call a non-linear book. It contains several introductory pages--title, copyright, dedication, disclaimer, how to use this book, and description--followed by 35 or so worksheets and checklists that one can use when a loved one dies. There are a number of things that need to be done when a person dies--arrange for a funeral, call a lawyer, call the executor--and this book helps you keep track of what has and hasn't been done. The non-linear aspect is that since it is an e-book, you can pull and print any checklist or worksheet you want in whatever order or quantity you desire. It is fully bookmarked and the the description section is fully linked.

I hope you can take a moment to look it over and perhaps recommend it to someone who my find it useful.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

del.icio.us tags: death, deceased, checklist, worksheet, funeral, loved one, friend, family

Don't Hate Me Because I am Large

2010-02-15T19:04:00.000-08:00

Tonight I watched an interesting Cavuto video from foxnews.com that dealt with the Keven Smith/Southwest Airlines controversy:

First, I find it disturbing that Mr. Karolchyk thinks it is acceptable to use hatred to market his Gym. If one looks back in history, one can see example after example of this type of hate mongering and its effect on society. Humanity seems to be constantly on the lookout for a good scapegoat and Mr. Karolchyk is using this tendency to drive the like-mineded to his gym.

On a more civilized note: I think that Southwest Airlines completely fubared the situation by refering to the issue as one of weight. It isn't about weight, it is about spread. What Southwest needs to do is to say that the maximum posterior spread ("spread" defined as the measurement of the person's posterior at its widest point while the person is seated on a hard surface) allowed is such-and-such inches and that persons exceeding this measurement are subject to removal from the plane. This has nothing to do with weight, but it has everything to do with how much room a person takes up in a plane.

The people at Southwest Airlines need to take a moment to realize that they are dealing with people, not cattle, and treating them as paying customers who have feelings. There is hope for Southwest. Mr. Karolchyk...not so much, I'm afraid.

Progress

2009-12-19T17:48:00.001-08:00

According to scientists, humans started out about 100, 000 to 200,00o years ago as hunters and gathers who spent their time finding shelter, gathering food, and keeping the home hearths burning. If you want to see this in action just catch an episode of The Alaska Experiment or Man vs. Wild. Since then our species has developed writing, reading, religion, humor, art, and warfare to fine art forms. We have also gone to the moon, sent robots to other planets, and have gone to the deepest parts of our oceans. Today, 1000 to 2000 centuries from our humble beginnings, we find ourselves struggling to keep food on the table, a roof overhead, and the heat turned on.

This is progress?

del.icio.us tags: home, food, heat, evolution, humanity

Culture Shift

2009-11-04T19:54:00.001-08:00

According to the preamble of the United States Declaration of Independence:

"...that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

Yet, instead of pursuing happiness, we all seem to be trying to get ahead, do better than our parents, keep up with (or surpass) the Jones, and make a $million before age 30. Somehow we have equated the pursuit of Happiness with material gain. Supposedly, the more toys you have, the happier you are.

What if, instead of trying to insure that our children were better off then we are, we try to insure that our kids our happy? What if, instead of trying to accumulate material wealth, we try to just be happy? Imagine the changes this would bring to the world:

The implications of this simple change in thinking are frightening. Think about all the things you do during the day that are done just to allow you to get ahead. How drastically would they change if you emphasis became being happy?

I truly believe that US Society, and for that matter virtually all societies on this planet, would find this simple change to be impossible. The goal of accumulating personal and family wealth is just too ingrained in our psyche to allow for any change.

It is sad to think that so simple a change is so impossible to implement. Just imagine the possibilities if we could pull it off, though.

del.icio.us tags: happiness, wealth, material gain, getting ahead

Creativity

2009-11-03T18:59:00.001-08:00

I look back at my own educational experience and I have to agree with Sir Robinson's position that our educational system has gone down the wrong track and that mix of subjects being taught will not service our kids in these quickly changing times. The big question, now, is how do we fix the system?

Let me put this another way: think of a child as being the basic ingredients for a cake. Sculptors say that the sculpture already exists in the stone and all they are doing is freeing it from the formless block. Similarly, children have the potential of being anything they want to be as long as we--parents, family, and teachers--perform our roles to the best of our abilities. Today, parents have the role of baby sitters who are training the children to pass tests; parents spend more time at work then with the kids in the hope of keeping food on the table and a roof overhead; and family falls by the wayside as lives become more and more complex.

Somehow, we need to come up with a new paradigm where allowing kids to fulfill their potential while facilitating their learning the basic skills of life is of paramount importance. Teachers, parents and families have to become a unified resource from which our children can experience the wonderful richness of life and pass their experiences on to their children for many generations to come.

del.icio.us tags: TED, education, creativity, Sir Ken Robinson, learning, children, teaching, facilitating

Goal Setting

2009-10-16T16:45:00.001-07:00

Somewhere we have lost the ability to properly set goals. Yes, one can say "I want to get rich," but you need more. You need to set out a plan that has both a starting point and an ending point. You need to define rich so that you know when you have reached your goal.

Another example would be the formation of a team. A team needs to know where it is at the start--funds, personnel, facilities, resources--and it needs to know what defines the finish line (the goal.) Too many teams are formed who start working before they know what defines the finish line.

Don't get me wrong, goals can shift and morph as a project progresses. But there has to be a starting goal, so to speak; a spot on the project map that the team must first aim at to get the project rolling.

Every project must have a start and an end. Once these two items are defined, you can then figure out the middle.

del.icio.us tags: project, end points, goals, definition, planning

Root Cause Analysis

2009-10-14T20:16:00.001-07:00

Observation: Health Care is expensive, really expensive.

Observation: All of the current solutions for the health care problem address the availability and high cost of Health Insurance, not the high cost of Health Care.

Why hasn't anyone sat down and figured out why health care is so expensive? If the cost of Health Care came down, then an argument could be made that the cost of Health Insurance would come down while availability would increase.

Think of it this way: you have someone bleeding to death. Do you keep putting on bandages and pumping in more blood, or do you find a way to stop the bleeding? I vote for stopping the bleeding.

So, with rooms and buildings full of supposedly smart people, why has no one looked at why Health Care costs so much?

Just wondering.

del.icio.us tags: health care, health insurance, high cost, congress, smart people

Teach Me

2009-10-12T19:32:00.001-07:00

In light of the recession, 10% unemployment, and the general suckiness of our overall situation, I thought it is a good time to think about what we should be teaching our children (forget the 3Rs):

Communication skills, both written and verbal
Formulating questions and researching answers
Root cause analysis
Work ethic
Promote curiosity

Every person in this country should leave school with these five basic skills. Reading comes under the first skill as does writing. Math can be learned as needed if they have the second, third and fifth elements in place. Last, but not least, the fourth element will help them get through life in general.

We can't continue to throw money at the problem, nor can we continue to treat education like an assembly line. Parents, family, teachers, and the community must turn the education paradigm on its* ear and start preparing the kids for a future that is bright only if they can make it so.

*Is it "its" or is it "it's"? How do you find out? What is the problem?

del.icio.us tags: education, questions, answers, root, cause, analysis, curiosity, working, ethic, communication, writing, speaking

Energy Generation Part 3

2009-06-10T18:24:00.001-07:00

The big bugaboo in the energy equation is storing it. Our power plants can generate electricity 24x7, but we have no good way to store it. What we need is some device or material that can store massive amounts of energy safely, yet weighs little, can be recharged both quickly and many times over, is easy and cheap to manufacture and is safe for the environment. Today, the Holy Grail of energy is the cheap, light weight, and safe battery that can be used to power anything from cell phones to cars. Whomever comes up with the ultimate battery will be rich beyond all dreams of avarice.

Technorati tags: energy, storage, battery, electricity

del.icio.us tags: energy, storage, battery, electricity

The Moon - A Sign of Our Times

2009-01-10T20:13:00.001-08:00

I was reading through some Flickr discussions threads, yesterday, when I came across one started by someone who was having trouble with photographing a full moon. Intrigued, I grabbed my DSLR (digital single lens reflex) camera, went out onto the landing, and took some shots of the full moon that was overhead. I then took the camera back into the house, connected to my computer, downloaded the pictures to the computer, cropped and adjusted one of them using Photo Shop, then uploaded it to my flickr account. Once uploaded I was able to post the picture as part of a reply to the original post. All of this took less then ten minutes.

This is the definition, the sign you might say, of our times: instant gratification. Just a few years ago it would have taken me days or weeks to go from camera to printed image unless I had access to a darkroom, and even then it would have taken hours to develop, print, and scan the photo. What took weeks, days, or hours, now takes minutes.

This need for instant gratification permeates every aspect of our culture: food, entertainment, education, jobs, housing, investment; you name it, we want it now. Pick a problem our society is having and we can probably trace it to the need for instant gratification. The housing bubble--flip a house and make a bundle in 60 days. The credit crunch--I want a <place name of item here> and I don't want to save for it, so I buy it on credit even if I can't afford it. Kids are entering the job market with the expectation of starting at $100k/year. Students care more about passing then learning and have no compunction against cheating as long as they graduate on time.

I think that the current woes being faced by all of us are good things in that they are forcing us to slow down and think about things and about the future. Instead of thinking of just the now, we are being forced to think about tomorrow, next week, next month, and even next year. In the short run this will be very painful, but in the long run this will be a very good thing.

del.icio.us tags: photography, economy, psychology, finance

Technorati tags: photography, economy, psychology, finance

Did You Know? 3.0

2009-01-06T20:07:00.001-08:00

Call it the effect of globalization and the information age, or perhaps it should be called the effect of the march of technological age on humanity, but whatever you call it things today are changing a heck of a lot faster then they did when we were children. This film points out some frightening facts about what we are facing and what our children are facing on several fronts, two of which are education and information.

Education-

Early in the film the following statement is made:

"We are currently preparing students for jobs that don't exist using technologies that haven't been invented in order to solve problems we don't even know are problems yet."

To me this means that we are currently teaching our kids the wrong stuff. Instead of frowning on general purpose Bachelor degrees, we should embrace the General Purpose Bachelor degree by teaching students how to survive in the current world and how to adapt to an ever (and quickly) changing present. Bachelor degrees should be much more generalized and students in those programs should learn a great deal more about life--balancing a checkbook, how to type, how to cook, how to learn, how to do research, how to survive in a job market that could radically change in a moment--while Master and Ph. D. should be specialized. This way anyone with a Bachelor's should be prepared to move into a Master's program then a Ph. D. program, and be able to change majors on a moments notice. The role of the bachelor degree becomes the paper and binding of the book while the advanced degrees become chapters.

Information-

From later in the film:

"The amount of new technical information is doubling every 2 years. For students starting a 4 year technical degree this means that half of what they learn in their first year of study will be outdated by their third year of study."

The problem is that our students aren't being taught how to effectively find information, nor are they inclined to even look for it if they do. Instead, many just spend their time looking for sources they can plagiarize. We need to start early and instill in our students the basic skills of finding information in the Internet era, the desire to find information (curiosity), and the ethics properly vet and use information.

Conclusion-

The world is evolving around us at a staggering pace. Since the early part of this Century we have seen the rise of Web 2.0 technologies including Blogging, social networking, Wikis, video sharing, photo sharing, and collaborative computing. Not all of us are keeping up, though. For example, the other day I read a post on Flickr.com where the poster stated that they had never heard of a blog, and when explained to them they wondered why anyone would want to blog! Yet this poster was fine with posting photos and collaborating with other Flickr users via discussion groups.

We need to better prepare our kids for today, which will give them half a chance to cope with tomorrow. We, on the other hand, really need to catch up with technology so that we have half a chance of keeping up with the rest of the world.

Watch the film, open your eyes, and learn, learn, learn!

Technorati tags: education, information, web 2.0, globalization, information revolution

del.icio.us tags: education, information, web 2.0, globalization, information revolution

Economic "Kick in the Pants" Stimulus

2008-11-09T08:51:00.001-08:00

I don't know about you but I am sick of "trickle down" economics and the idea that prosperity will eventually make it to those of us who work for a living. The idea is way to much like eating at the end of a conveyor belt--the pickings are thin down at the end of the line.

How about we try something real radical for an economic stimulus package, something that is direct, to the point, and really off the wall? How about we give ever American household a check for $25,000 tax-free? What would that do for the economy?

I did some calculations and I figure that this would cost us something like $3 billion, which will probably be what we will pay for the current AIG bailout, the current bank bailout, the future US automaker bailout, and the future US credit card lender bailout. But, unlike those bailouts, the money won't go to rewarding billionaire CEOs and multinational corporations, instead it will go directly into our pockets from whence it will go to pay-off bills, buy stuff, go into savings, and into investments. And it is big enough to make a real, honest-to-God difference!

So, forget about piddling checks for $100 here or a $1000 there. Instead, the government should go for broke and put a large chunk of money into the pockets of the people who need it most: the American People.

Write your government today and tell them that you want a Kick-in-the-Pants stimulus package and you want it now!

Technorati tags: government, economy, economic, stimulus, package, Obama, President, Democrats, republicans, money.

Disposable Society

2008-10-15T14:32:00.001-07:00

Our society has now evolved into one who's basic paradigm is made up production, consumption, and growth with little thought to disposal, reuse, and steady-state, thus it is unbalanced and prone to failure. This explains what is occurring at this moment with the world financial market.

Prior to the current Bursting of the Bubble everyone in the financial world was concerned with growth: growth in sales, growth in profit, growth in production, growth, growth, growth. Every book I have read on starting a business talks about the financial plan where you map out how the company grows over the next one, two, and five years. I have never seen a plan that talked about growing to a certain point then remaining at a specific rate of sales. Nor have I ever seen a plan that talks about obsolescence and recycling of products (unless the business is a recycling business.) Most businesses would seem to want to wash their hands of a product once it sells unless there is a way to make even more money after the sale, for example inkjet printers which could be given away for free when you factor in the profits that could be realized through sales of inkjet cartridges and paper.

Back in the day a house, or car, or stove were bought with the thought that they would be used for decades or more. A house was a place to live, raise children, and retire in. A car was bough and maintained with the thought that it had to last the owner for many years. Appliances were literally used until they disintegrated. Most items were bought based on quality and value for for the price. People were willing to wait and save up until they had enough money to buy things with cash.

Today, it is so very different. Houses are bought as investments that are fixed-up and sold within a few months. Cars are bought every couple of years as are appliances. Business has responded by making stuff that will last a short time but which can be manufactured by the millions. The disposable society is in running at full steam.

Can this paradigm last much longer? I doubt it. The amount of oil is finite as is water, trees, and most raw materials. On the flip side there is the problem of what to do with the trash generated. Landfills are in short supply and recycling is only in its infancy where it will remain unless someone comes with some really good ideas.

In my humble opinion, the current paradigm our society subscribes to can be summed up as:

Unlimited Growth
Unconstrained consumption
Disposable Mentality
Belief in unlimited resources

This is truly a recipe for disaster.

Technorati tags: business, economy, recycling, disaster, paradigm

del.icio.us tags: business, economy, recycling, disaster, paradigm

Nerinossa

2008-07-23T19:32:00.000-07:00

I just trashed a comment made by a Blogger user named "nerinossa" that consisted of a partial quote from the blog post they were commenting on. Nerinossa's Blogger profile is set to private so I can't contact them about the odd comment, so I did a web search on the name "nerinossa." What I found was similar comments--i.e. partial quotes from the commented blog--on about a half-dozen blogs. Is it just a case of nerinossa not knowing how to use the Blogger comment interface, is the interface malfunctioning, or is nerinossa some type of new spam bot being tested on us poor bloggers? Nerinossa, if you can hear me, let us know who and what you are.

A Patent Mess

2008-07-18T11:25:00.000-07:00

The current system of patents and copyrights is completely and utterly broken, and as such need to be abolished.

That's right folks, in this age of the Internet, digital media, rampant greed, and stifled creativity, we need to get rid of patents and copyrights completely and utterly. There is no fix, no repair, and certainly no tweak that can turn the current system into something even resembling fair or even usable, so I say we just get rid of both systems.

"But wait! What about people making copies of my work or using my ideas without my permission?" you say with paranoiac fear? "So what?" I reply with calm aplomb. The current system doesn't protect you from that happening. It only gives you recourse if it does happen and you find out about it. The real problem lies in the enforcement of the system and the abuses of the system:

DRM - Digital Rights Management assumes that everyone is a crook who is out to steal music. Based on that assumption, the rights holders feel free to use whatever means necessary to stop that abuse including loading root-kits on computer hard drives and making it mandatory that users use "certain" players to play particular music (e.g. iTunes.) All these methods do is cheese-off the consumer which only exacerbates the problem of lack of sales.
Patent Trolls - Patent trolls are companies that buy-up vague patents for the express purpose of enforcing outrageous licensing fees under the threat of patent court litigation. According to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, there are several hundred patents that cover e-commerce and surfing the Internet. That's right folks, you could be infringing on someones patent if you surf the Internet!
Music Clearances - Let's say you want to use a certain piece of music as the lead-in to your podcast. Do you know how many different licenses you need to obtain from the copyright holders--performer, publisher, writer, lyricist, owners, etc.--before you can legally play the piece, even a short clip of it? The mind boggles at the complexity.

We just need to stop the insanity and this can only be done by getting rid of patents and copyrights. Writing, sculpture, and music are art and should be treated as such. Patents were originally designed to allow for innovation. Today, both concepts have been corrupted to the point where they are no longer recognizable. Congress needs to stop the insanity by abolishing both patents and copyrights. We need to pull the plug and we need to do it now.

Tags: patents, copyrights

Energy Generation Part 2

2008-07-11T12:40:00.001-07:00

I like to think that we have four primary methods of converting energy: chemical, physical, solar and nuclear, each of which has one or more attributes that make it less then desirable:

Chemical - conversion of chemical energy into kinetic, thermal, or electrical energy. Problems include pollution and the limited supply of fuel. Recently, sugar-based ethanol has been in the news as an alternative to oil. Even though ethanol is a renewable resource, it still causes pollution, it only contains half the energy density of gasoline, and the jury is still out over whether or not it can be produced for less energy then it stores. Another contender is the fuel cell. Fuel cells, on the other hand produce no pollution, but one wonders whether the production of fuel (hydrogen) is efficient enough to be offset by the output (a problem similar to that faced by ethanol.) One other thing that we must keep in mind: fossil fuels are used to produce more then just energy. Plastics, fertilizers, paint and a variety of other materials are produced from oil, natural gas, and coal, so running out of fossil fuels means much more then having to find a new energy fuel.

Physical - Wind and hydroelectric fit into this category. Wind turbines only generate when the wind blows and hydroelectric can damage downstream ecosystems.

Solar - conversion of sunlight into electricity either directly--as with solar cells--or indirectly--as with solar-powered boilers. These only work when the sun shines.

Nuclear - conversion, either direct or indirect, of mass (through fission or fusion) into electricity or thermal energy or both. That's right folks, conversion of mass into energy and you can see it at your nearest nuke plant. The biggest problem with nuclear is what to do with the highly toxic and long-lived waste.

This is what we have and and they all have problems. We need to fix the problems or come up with a new and better method of converting energy. Unfortunately, time is running out. Are we smart enough and have the will to find a better way?

Technorati tags: energy crisis, petroleum, nuclear energy, solar energy, wind energy, hydroelectric, ethanol

Energy - Generation Part 1

2008-07-11T11:59:00.001-07:00

According to the Law of Conservation of Mass-Energy, the total amount of mass and energy in the universe is a constant. In other words you can convert mass into energy or energy into mass, but you cannot destroy or create either. Thus, when we talk about energy generation, we are actually talking about converting one form of energy into another, for example: stored chemical energy into electricity.

The problem with the current paradigm is that we are converting a lot of non-renewable chemical energy, in the form of oil, into a lot of wasted electrical and kinetic energy (by which I mean moving vehicles.)

The planet Earth is being bathed in massive amounts of energy in the form of sunlight. Millennia ago this sunlight was converted into oil, natural gas, and coal, but this conversion process has stopped and we are "burning" through our available supplies at a frightening rate. No matter if we find more reserves of fossil fuels, or if we find more efficient ways of converting them, the problem remains that there is only so much fossil fuel on this planet and no new reserves of it are being created.

Somehow, we have to find an efficient, clean, and environmentally friendly way of converting the sunlight hitting the Earth into a clean and environmentally friendly form of energy that can be used to light buildings, run cars, and do all of the other tasks that fossil fuels perform for us on a daily basis.

Are we smart enough and have the will to come up with a solution?

Technorati tags: energy crisis, petroleum

Energy System - Paradigm

2008-06-19T20:12:00.001-07:00

The first thing we need to do is look at energy as a system and not just fuel. Our system has four parts:

Generation
Storage
Transmission
Utilization

Generation - conversion of fuel into some type of usable energy. This could be the generation of electricity, conversion of stored energy into motion (burning gasoline to make a car go, for example), or conversion of fuel into heat ( gas furnace, for example. The main thing is that you are changing stored energy into something usable.

Storage - if you are not going to immediately use the energy you have generated, then you need to store it. Batteries, lakes and basements filled with drums of water are examples.

Transmission - If you are not generating the energy near the point of use then you will have to get the energy from generator to point of use. Power lines, hydraulic hoses, and fan belts are examples.

Utilization - once you have the energy, how are you going to use it? how much of it is used to do the job and how much is wasted or used elsewhere in the system.

The main point to take away from this is that the energy crisis isn't just fuel. It is a problem with the whole system and to cure the crisis we have to develop/invent a new and better system.

Technorati tags: energy crisis, paradigm, system, energy

Energy - Introduction

2008-06-19T19:43:00.001-07:00

If you haven't noticed yet, I use this blog to work-out ideas that the wife and I come up with when we go on road trips. Today's rant has to do with the Energy Paradigm and the need to radically shift it.

The current paradigm is centered on the burning of fossil fuels to generate energy in the form of electricity or some type of motion (e.g. cars, trucks, planes, ships, etc.) Fossil fuels, such as gasoline and diesel fuel, are great for vehicles because they are stable, full of energy, and relatively easy to refine from crude oil. Coal, on the other hand, is better suited for stationary conversion into electricity.

What about wind, nuclear, solar, or biofuels? Wind and solar are great for generating electricity in that you are feeding off an existing, renewable source of energy. The problem, though, is that the availability is erratic, and there is no way to effectively us it for directly powering vehicles. Nuclear is fraught with problems due to toxic waste products and biofuels need to be tweaked more so that the net energy produced is consistently positive (more energy produced then used to produce.)

Why not just stick with fossil fuels? Two words: finite supply. There is a finite supply of oil and coal on this planet and once it is gone, it is gone. The same is true for coal. Another problem is the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Already we are at 2% global concentration and the number is rising. Eventually, it will reach 4% at which point some scientist speculate all hell will break loose.

So, what is a group of highly motivated, highly intelligent Americans to do? We need to develop an energy system (yes, system) that is as easy to use as petrochemical, limitless as solar, doesn't produce carbon dioxide (like fossil fuels do) or toxic waste products (like nuclear does), and which can be used to power houses, cars, factories, and everything else that we use energy for.

Are we up to the challenge?

Technorati tags: energy, fossil fuels, nuclear energy, solar, wind

Our Sputnik and Our JFK

2008-06-19T19:24:00.001-07:00

Sputnik put the fear of God (and the Russians) in us when it launched on October 4, 1957. On that day NASA and the space race were born.

On May 25, 1961, John F. Kennedy challenged America to "before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him back safely to the earth.". On July 20, 1969, this task was accomplished when we landed two men on the moon and returned them and their companion safely to earth in Apollo 11.

How did we do this? In such a short span of years we went from sending a chimp into sub-orbit to having men walk on the moon. How could we accomplish this Herculean feat?

Inspiration and good old American Spunk. We, as a people, rose to the challenge. JFK said: "make it happen" and NASA engineers, the cream of the crop, got the job done.

Today, our Sputnik is the energy crisis and its evil sibling, global warming. Our Herculean task? Developing a source of energy that is plentiful, clean, renewable, and not based on carbon. The big question: who will be our JFK? Who will inspire us to reach the greatness as we did with the space race?

And will we be able to meet that challenge?

Technorati tags: energy, JFK, Kennedy, NASA, Space Race, Sputnik, oil, crisis

Risotto

2008-05-28T19:10:00.001-07:00

Anyone who watches Hell's Kitchen (I have seen every episode) knows that Chef Ramsey has certain basic dishes that he expects the chefs to be able to make with their eyes closed--risotto, beef Wellington, and chocolate souffle--yet every season it seems that not one chef can do any of these. It is as if none of the seasons 2-4 chefs ever watched season 1.

I think that anyone who plans to audition for Hell's Kitchen should watch seasons 1-4, and definitely practice the risotto, the Beef Wellington, and the Chocolate Souffle.

Technorati tags: Hell's Kitchen, cooking, preparation, practice

Beware the Wind

2008-05-28T18:43:00.001-07:00

I just read an article that reports that we are fast approaching a record for number of tornadoes for a given year with at least 110 deaths and over 1100 tornadoes so far. Just over a year ago the town of Greensburg, Kansas, was obliterated by an EF5 tornado. As I write this the eastern half of New Mexico (19 counties) is under a tornado watch. Living above ground is becoming an iffy proposition.

This brings up an interesting question: why aren't we building more homes underground, especially in areas that are prone to tornado hits. For example, why are they not rebuilding Greensburg and other tornado-ravaged towns with sub-surface or semi-sub-surface buildings? Why resort to hiding in a bathtub or running out to a storm shelter (assuming you have one) when you have only minutes worth of warning? Yes, many affected houses have basements, but many do not, and keep in mind that a number of people killed in Greensburg, and in recent events, were hiding in basements.

To my way of thinking it makes no sense to engineer a house to withstand debris hits in the 200-300 mph range when you can just put the whole house out of the firing line. Why withstand when you can avoid.

Any town that is facing the arduous task of rebuilding after a tornado hit should realistically look at building below grade. Building below grade improves the house owners chances of avoiding rebuilding in the future while saving lives in the present.

Technorati tags: tornado, wind, housing, rebuilding, disaster

Petrol 2

2008-05-22T19:11:00.001-07:00

We all realize that petroleum is a limited resource, right?

Just checking.

Technorati tags: Petroleum, economics, business

Losing our way

2008-05-22T19:08:00.001-07:00

I think our current problems started when:

Houses went from being homes to investments.
Companies went from making money by manufacturing things that they patented to making money enforcing the patents that they had bought.
People started making buying decisions based soley upon price.
Minimum wage was confused with living wage.
People stopped learning about how the economy works.
The price of a car is less then the cost to make it.
Workers want high wages yet want to pay the lowest possible price for goods.
We decided to move manufacturing offshore, decided to become a service-based economy, yet have no idea what good service actually means.

We can do so much better. We need another Sputnik.

Technorati tags: economy, sputnik, woes

Petrol

2008-05-22T18:54:00.001-07:00

Today oil closed at slightly more then $130 a barrel and everyone is worried about the effect it will have on the price of gasoline. Unfortunately, there are other things that we should be worried about:

Plastics.
Anything made from plastics.
Surgery (think of all those plastic tubes they stick in you).
Lubricants.
Anything manufactured using machines that use lubricants.
Fertilizer.
Food.
Roads.
Electricity.
Airline tickets.
Bus fares due to fuel costs, parts costs and lubricant costs.
Shipping costs due to fuel costs, parts costs and lubricant costs.
Packaging costs (what do you think Styrofoam peanuts are made from?
Paint.
Printed materials (presses need lubricants.)

The list goes on and on.

Petroleum is used for far more things then just fuel, and when petroleum costs more so does anything it is used for.

Technorati tags: petrolum, oil, price, manufacturing, reality

Brain Pump

2008-04-28T18:58:00.001-07:00

For the last ten months I have been working as a computer programmer/team leader and I have to say that I have never worked my brain harder. I mean that from the bottom of my heart, my brain has been pumped from day one and the process is not likely to slacken anytime soon. It is as if I sit down at my desk and a brain turbo kicks in and doesn't kick off until nine hours later.

On the surface, what I do sounds simple: I maintain existing human-machine interface (HMI) displays and develop new HMI displays on an as-needed basis. What is stimulating is that some of the software is over a decade old, some of it has be written by literally dozens of programmers over the years, and some of it has not been used until now. That's right, decade-old software that hasn't seen the light of day. This is a scientific programmer's dream: figure out what is wrong and fix it in time for the next roll-out--brain stimulation at Warp Factor 10.

More importantly is the human side of the equation--my coworkers. In my humble opinion, I work with some of the most talented and experienced programmers on this planet. Collectively, they probably have a couple of centuries or more of work experience and many of them have been working at this job for twenty years or more. The neat thing is that to a person they are happy to help you with any problem you have.

The main thing is that this environment is collaborative to the extreme. In my past jobs I have had to deal with a lot of ego, much of which was extremely destructive to the working environment. My current environment, on the other hand, is the opposite extreme in that it is incredibly collaborative. The difference between the two types of environment is mind boggling in the extreme.

I like coming home exhausted with by brain pumped. I think that this country would be much better off if more of its industry and research was done such that the workers came home feeling like I do.

Technorati tags: working, jobs, programming, collaboration, career

Cure All

2008-04-28T18:37:00.001-07:00

Ah, it feels good to write another rant. I write these things because I have something to get off of my chest and a blog is a great way to do that and share my insights with the world.

Today's rant has to do with canned corn--that's right, canned corn-- and how it is a metaphor for curiosity and learning.

Have you ever picked up a can of corn and wondered how it was made? Who planted the corn in the first place? How was it picked? How did it get to the factory? How did it get into the can? How did it end up in your hand?

The above paragraph basically describes how my brain works at any given moment. This is why I am a fan of shows like "How It's Made", "Modern Marvels", "Ax Men", "Deadliest Catch", and the classic "Secret Life of Machines". These series, and others like them, filled a need of mine, a need to know how and why things worked the way they do.

I think that we, humanity, is starting to lose this curiosity. I think that it is being crushed by factors such as trying to get ahead, keeping our heads above water, making financial headway, instant messaging, e-mail, coping, $4/gallon gasoline, terrorism, and 24-hour workdays. In other words, we are spending too much time surviving and not enough time wondering.

Somehow, we need to start look outside of ourselves and start asking questions about the world around us. Perhaps, while asking questions about our world we may learn about each other's lives, each other's cultures, and each other, and in the process, we may learn how to get along and not kill each other.

Remember, the journey on the Road to Enlightenment starts with a single question.

Technorati tags: Zen, enlightenment, curiosity, opinion, observation, question

Three More Videos

2008-02-19T19:16:00.001-08:00

Making these short, episodic series is a very fun and rewarding experience. I hope you enjoy watching them as much as we enjoy making them.

YouTube - Fishing in the Stream of Consciousness - Episode 2

YouTube - Parents of the Bride - Episode 5

YouTube - Parents of the Bride - Episode 4

Technorati Tags: web series, shorts, commentary

Bookselling

2008-02-17T17:13:00.001-08:00

A recent blog post by Brian Cassidy (via a Book Patrol post) has a neophyte bookseller reminiscing about his first year by posting 18 things he has learned about bookselling over the first year in business. After failing in the business in a year and a half, I have two simple observations:

Run away!
Run very far away!

To paraphrase the Bard: "Bitterness is a dish best served amongst friends..."

Technorati Tags: bookselling business

More from the Minds of Jo and Frank

2008-02-08T19:56:00.001-08:00

It is truly amazing what you can do with an inexpensive MiniDV camera with a FireWire connection:

YouTube - Fishing in the Stream of Consciousness - Intro

YouTube - Commentary on Management - Introduction

Technorati Tags: YouTube, Commentary, web series, management, business, stream of consciousness

The Videos Keep on Coming!

2008-02-06T20:29:00.001-08:00

Jo and I are indulging my hobby of filmmaking by making a Web series about planning our daughter's Wedding. Here are the next two installments:

YouTube - Parents of the Bride - Episode 2

YouTube - Parents of the Bride - Episode 3

It is truly what you can create using a minimum of hardware and software. We hope you enjoy watching them as much as we enjoy making them.

Technorati Tags: wedding, planning, bride, parents

The Last Few Weeks in Review

2008-01-31T20:33:00.001-08:00

Work is crazy busy but I love every minute of it. On the home front I have cut a new video which is the introductory episode of one of three short episodic series that Jo and I are producing:

YouTube - Parents of the Bride - Introduction

My entry for the "Trailer for The Nines" contest has experienced a sudden explosion of interest. In the last two weeks it went from 600 views to over 12,000 at last count:

YouTube - Trailer for The Nines

Lastly, a career-related firm has expressed interest in using my video resume on an upcoming broadcast show segment. I will keep you posted:

YouTube - Video Resume - Technical

Technorati Tags: video, resume, trailer, the nines, talk show

West Coast Swing

2007-12-28T15:26:00.001-08:00

My daughter, Stevie Youngand her dance partner, Will Carlton, have put together several instructional West Coast Swing DVDs. Their latest, Jack & Jill Tips & Tricks has an interesting section, Tips, where they discuss fashion, hygiene, and decorum as they pertain to the world of West Coast Swing dance competitions. Below is a clip from the DVD that I turned into a sort of public service announcement. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did putting it together.

del.icio.us Tags: west, coast, swing, dance

Technorati Tags: west, coast, swing, dance

Baseball

2007-12-15T14:15:00.001-08:00

We propose the following as a possible solution to the steroid problem that is infecting the sport of Baseball:

Change the foul zone so that it includes the area outside of the outfield fence. This means that any ball hit outside of the infield/outfield area is foul. No more homers unless the hitter can run the bases on his own in the time allotted by the fielding of the ball by the opposing team.

What this does:

No more emphasis on pure, raw hitting power.
No more emphasis on homers.
Now, hitting becomes a skill in that you have to land the ball within a defined boundary.
Now, the game becomes one of strategy and cunning as hitters must actually aim their hits to maximize the ball return time (which equates to more chance for runners to make it home.)

Baseball needs to be a game of skill and strategy, which in turn negates the need for performance enhancing drugs. Eliminating the homer will facilitate this change.

Technorati Tags: baseball, steroids, skill

del.icio.us Tags: baseball, skill, steroids

Sputnik

2007-10-04T18:57:00.001-07:00

50 years ago today the space age was born from the launch of a small shiny satellite--Sputnik. This two foot diameter, 183 pound, polished aluminum sphere catapulted the United States and the Soviet Union into a space race that climaxed with the first human to step on the moon and which has led us to where we are now with cell phones, personal computers, flat-screen TVs, robots on mars, and a working space station. All of this from a beeping metal ball.

What I find more interesting, though, is what Sputnik tell us about ourselves as a country. Sputnik was literally a slap to the face of the United States, a gauntlet thrown down in front of us by a country that we thought was incapable of the type of technology that was necessary to launch something like Sputnik into orbit. Heck, we couldn't do it, how could they?

Throughout our history as a country, the US really shines when it has someone to compete against. During the Revolutionary War it was the British, during the Texas Revolution it was the Mexicans, and during World War II it was the Axis. We don't do so well if the enemy is less well defined (Korean War, Vietnam War, today's war in Iraq.) It seems that we need a real, definably adversary to compete against, for our country to rally against, be it economically, technologically, or militarily.

We have lost our way in a manner of speaking. We have no defined adversary, only faceless terrorists and faceless corporations. Competition is being bred out of us. Our children no longer compete on the playground. Being better then everyone else is frowned upon. We all want to be equal and uniform.

Like in the science fiction stories of the 60's where we manufactured alien threats, we need a rallying point that we can use to bring back our competitiveness and our need to compete. Like a recent article stated:

"We need another Sputnik"

Technorati Tags: space, sputnik, competition, America, World

What part of "illegal" do you not understand?

2007-10-01T18:55:00.001-07:00

An article in today's Wall Street Journal caught my eye today:

Firms Brace for Crackdown on Illegal Labor

Ok, what part of "illegal labor" do we not understand? Forget the drama, forget the politics, and just think for a moment about firms that incorporate the hiring of illegal or undocumented workers into their business plans. If you can't survive without using illegal and/or undocumented workers, then perhaps you really need to rethink the whole business thing. It is like saying that your business can't survive without polluting the environment or stealing cable--both of which are illegal--so the government needs to do something to fix it so that you can survive, but in the meantime you should be able to continue doing things illegally.

No wonder our kids are confused.

Technorati Tags: immigration, business

Boxes

2007-09-27T17:14:00.001-07:00

After losing a movie trailer competition, I had an epiphany that people fall into three distinct categories when it comes to the proverbial box:

Technicians - those who diligently work within the box.
Engineers - those who build the box.
Artists - those who strive to push the limits of the box and, perhaps, go beyond it.

I am a perfect example of a technician - I demand that the parameters of the box be defined and I strive to work within this "parameter" space. This also explains why I keep losing these competitions. You see, competitions such as the one I just lost are designed for artists by artists with the intent of seeing how far outside the box you can go.

Now, this doesn't mean I am going to give up filmmaking. It means that I will channel my energies in directions that better fit my technician-bent.

Technorati Tags: filmmaking

Another Flagrant Plug

2007-09-23T16:40:00.001-07:00

Just a reminder that I have two blogs--this one and Of Geeks and Artists--that I am currently maintaining. Of Geeks and Artists has to do with my efforts at becoming a filmmaker and the collision between the worlds of the Geek and the Artist that I see on my journey.

Anyway, I just posted on Geeks a blurb about my entry in the Trailer for the Nines contest (more on that in the Geeks post.) Here is the entry:

YouTube - Trailer for The Nines

Technorati Tags: thenines, filmmaking, trailer, contest

Kansas Towns Revisited

2007-09-21T20:31:00.001-07:00

Back in January 2006, I wrote a post titled "Kansas Small Towns are Shrinking" which details the loss of population that small towns are experiencing--out-migration as it is called. At the time my wife and I were living in a small Kansas town where we owned a bookstore. Recently, someone left an anonymous comment on that post that stated:

"Anonymous said...

I'm from a small town, myself. The past few years, I've become increasingly interested in my home town, and its fate. My search for ideas has brought me to places like this.

I think there are too many people who don't think about small towns, and the possible impact of the death of small towns. Agriculture has been one of the backbones of this country. If the small towns disappear, what happens to agriculture? I'm not convinced that the so-called corporate farm can make up for the loss of the small town. And, I just plain hate to think of my own small town, along with its neighbors, disappearing.

I do appreciate whatever discussions "out there" I can find. I am determined to find answers. If there are other people who have already found answers, I would very much be interested in hearing them."

Here is my response:

From bitter experience I can tell you that the hardest part of saving or revitalizing rural small town America is convincing the small towns that they are in trouble. I would say that 99% of the task is actually getting the populace of a small town to realize that it is in trouble. I think that in many cases the town would have to be in bankruptcy before you could even begin to convince them that there is a problem.

Assuming that you have untied this Gordian knot, the next step is to revitalize the town. To do this you need one or more non-agricultural industries or businesses to come in and take up residence. In fact, you may want to even consider going back to the idea of a company town (like the old steel towns or mining towns.) But to bring in business, you need to bring in people (the fresh blood also dilutes the closed-society tendencies of a greatly related population.) Bringing in people, though requires jobs, which requires business. Can you say: Catch-22?

And yes, this last part, in my humble opinion, is 100-times easier then convincing the town that it needs help.

I wish you luck on your quest.

Technorati Tags: small, town, rural, out-migration

Make Mexico the 51st State - Revisited

2007-08-28T20:06:00.001-07:00

The news has been filled of late with reports on the crackdown on illegal aliens who are living and working in the United States without benefit of proper paperwork. It seems that whole towns have been laid waste after ICE has come in and arrested dozens of undocumented workers. Economies have suffered as well as the workers themselves.

There are a number of industries (hotel, farming, and construction come to mind) that would have a hard time functioning without the help of undocumented workers and some critics of the immigration crackdown think that stricter enforcement of the the current immigration laws could have a negative effect on some economies. Yet, one must keep in mind that these people are here illegally and are breaking one or more laws.

Making Mexico the 51st state would mean that all of the Mexican nationals living here illegally would become American citizens, thus eliminating the majority of the illegal alien problem. Statehood would also eliminate the need for a border fence. Mexico would no longer be a haven for criminals, and our land border with countries south of us would become much smaller.

In my humble opinion, making Mexico the 51st state is even a better idea now.

Technorati Tags: Mexico, statehood, immigration

More Trouble from China

2007-08-21T20:05:00.001-07:00

The news today is filled with news that Wal-Mart has quietly pulled two different brands of chicken jerky dog treats off of the stores' shelves.

Two questions: 1) when will we be able to trust our food and our pets' food again, and 2) why did it take over three weeks for this information to get out to the public (reports are that the stuff was pulled on 27 July)?

It is as if the public is being systematically de-humanized by industry both here and overseas. Personally, I find this trend both disturbing and unacceptable. It is this sort of "sweep it under the rug"-type of behavior that will persuade me to immediately stop shopping at any establishment that thinks my health or the health of my family (including pets) is less important then their bottom line.

As John Merrick put it: "I am not an animal! I am a human being!" and I think it high time that business and the rest of the world comes to grip with the concept.

Technorati tags: pets, food, people, humanity

Hobbies and Clutter

2007-08-19T10:36:00.001-07:00

If you have a hobby which involves creating something, then:

You create things.
You save the things you create because they have sentimental value.
You create more things, since it is your hobby.
Things accumulate, increasing the clutter index for your living space.

To stop this vicious cycle, you need to either get a non-create-things hobby or you need to get rid of things as fast as you create them. Take, for example, radio controlled airplanes:

Build them,
Fly them,
Crash them,
Go to step 1.

As long as you refrain from building more of them then what you will lose through steps 2 and 3, you will be able to enjoy both building them and flying them. The key, here, is step 3--Crash them.

This philosophy needs to be applied to any "create things"-type of hobby so as to not build-up clutter. Either give things away as gifts or make sure that they are systematically consumed at the same rate as they are created.

One of the simpler rules of life.

Technorati tags: organization, clutter

The Third Consequence

2007-08-15T05:45:00.001-07:00

Way back in 2005 I blogged about the consequences of consumers demand for lower and lower-cost goods. Today, we have an example of the third consequence of this demand: unsafe goods being put into the hands of our children.

So, how much much of a discount is worth your health or the health of your child?

Technorati tags: recalls, economics

Lake Lucerno Selenite

2007-07-29T09:00:00.000-07:00

My wife, Jo, and I went on a fieldtrip to Lake Lucerno, an alkali lake that is the part of the source of the white sand of Whites Sands National Monument located in southern New Mexico. Here is a picture of one of the smaller crystals that can be found (they can be four foot long or longer):

Note that the ground is littered with hundreds, if not thousands, of crystals of all sizes.

Is a Disaster-Related Windfall Really News?

2007-05-29T19:27:00.001-07:00

I just finished reading an article --Tornado a windfall for Merchants--in our local newspaper that left me feeling, well, uneasy. The article is just a straight-forward report on the increase in sales that local businesses are experiencing due to the recent tornado that destroyed the nearby town of Greensburg, Kansas. Yes, it is to be expected that towns near the disaster area will experience increases in revenue streams as relief agencies, contractors, and government entities set-up shop and start the process of rebuilding. And, no, there are no reports of any price gouging or profiteering--something that everyone involved should be proud of. Still, the article left me feeling uneasy.

First off, I think my main problem is that the tornado that wiped-out Greensburg could have meandered a little to the East and easily taken out our town. Just a little jink to the right and Pratt would have been so much kindling. For me the destruction is just a little too close.

I think another problem I may have is that no one seems to be thinking too deeply about the future impact this disaster is going to have on the town. A recent article in our local newspaper suggests that upwards to 20% of the 1100 Greensburg households affected by the tornado may elect to relocate to Pratt. What short- and long-term effects will this relocation have on the new Pratt High School, a school that was designed with a shrinking enrollment in mind? What long-term effect will this relocation have on the housing market? Is anyone looking at the future past next week or next month?

Yes, the tornado has resulted in a windfall for this city and its merchants, but that is today. What affect will it have tomorrow?

Technorati tags: Pratt, Greensburg, Kansas, tornado, disaster

Postcards

2007-05-11T19:45:00.001-07:00

While driving back to Pratt from Cimarron along US50--and viewing the damage caused by last Friday's tornado--the wife and I started to talk about the best way to alert folks to bad weather. You see, a lot of people here live on widely spaced farms and many do not have TVs, computers, or land line telephones. So, how do you get the word out to the maximum number of people? What we came up with is that you can use electronic postcards.

A surprising number of people have cell phones, even people who don't use a lot of technology. But calling all the cell phone numbers in the affected area won't work very well since some users will be on travel while a number of visitors to the area will be missed. What would be nice is if you could send a message to every cellular device that connected to a given tower regardless of carrier or phone number--similar, in effect, to a UDP message sent to all devices attached to a given network.

We have absolutely no idea whether the current technology or protocols allow for a tower-wide distribution of messages. If it does then the system could map out which towers cover the area affected by the storm or disaster and then send out a general alert to all devices, probably in the form of both voice and text messages.

You will still miss some people, but the number of people who get the message should be a considerable increase over current methods.

Technorati tags: tornado, disaster, notification

Aftermath Elsewhere

2007-05-11T16:10:00.000-07:00

Greensburg, Kansas was not the only place hit by the tornadoes that night. Another area was Macksville, Kansas, about 40 miles to the northeast of Greensburg. Though the tornado passed to the east of the town, there are reports that at least two homes were destroyed. Here are some pictures from US Highway 50, just east of Macksville, where the tornado crossed the road shortly after destroying Greensburg and just missing downtown Macksville:

South side of US50, just east of Macksville, where the tornado crossed the road shortly after destroying Greensburg, KS and just missed Macksville, KS on the Night of May 4th, 2007

North side of US50, a little further east. These trees were snapped like toothpicks.

Looking ESE along US50. Not the object circled in red. It is a piece of what looks like a storage silo. There are pieces of corrugated steel--silo pieces?--embedded in the north-side fence for about the next half-mile.

Technorati tags: Greensburg, Macksville, Kansas, tornado

Prayers

2007-05-06T06:40:00.001-07:00

For the last 36 hours we have been watching storm after storm and tornado after tornado pass to the northwest of our little county. We watched, from not too afar, as Greensburg, St. John, Macksville and others were hit by incredibly violent weather, all the time knowing that a small change in pattern could bring devastation to our little town.

We have been to Greensburg and talked with its citizens. We have walked its streets, visited its shops, and enjoyed a street fair they had not too long ago.

Our prayers for those affected are that much more intense as we think back to the time we spent their come to the realization of how easily it could have been us.

Technorati tags: Greensburg, tornado, weather, kansas

Tornado

2007-05-05T11:09:00.001-07:00

We are still reeling here from the disaster that occurred last night in Greensburg, Kansas (which is only 30 miles east of us here in Pratt.) Aerial views of the town show devestation as far as the eye can see and, according to published reports, the Greensburg city adminsitrator says that "Greensburg has suffered 100 percent damage." Our hearts and prayers go out to the residents of the city and those in other towns that were affected by last night's storms.

Technorati tags: tornado, weather, greensburg, kansas, disaster

Plagiarism

2007-04-19T16:13:00.001-07:00

I just finished reading an excellent piece on washingtonpost.com that discusses the death of the research paper. The article brings up a valid point: the Internet has made plagiarism so easy that research papers and term papers are virtually useless as learning tools, unless you count finding stuff to plagiarize as "learning." In my humble opinion, this is only the tip of the iceberg, an iceberg that is being made visible by the Internet, not caused by it.

To me, education (going to school, doing homework, getting a diploma, or a degree) is preparation for the real world--it is a way of developing tools which you can use later on in life. In other words, elementary, middle, and high school are stepping stones to higher education (trade schools, colleges, universities, internships, and journeyman programs, to name a few.) But it doesn't end there. Higher education then becomes a stepping stone for a career, a vocation, a lifestyle. Think "journey," not "destination."

It seems that the vast majority of people do not share this viewpoint. Instead, they are "destination-oriented" and, so, are not adverse to using short-cuts, and workarounds. To many, the path is meaningless--only the goal is meaningful.

In this light, plagiarism, and cheating in general, can be viewed as a symptom--if a good grade is all that counts, then how you get that good grade is irrelevant. If keeping college students in class is the goal, and not their learning the subject, then giving them good grades, irregardless of actual performance, is perfectly acceptable.

So, you see, rampant plagiarism is a symptom of a problem, a really big problem. The Internet is not a cause. It is, at best, a torch which shows us the true extent of the damage.

To quote Pogo: "We have met the enemy, and they are us."

del.icio.us tags: plagiarism, writing, education

Identity 2.0

2007-04-17T17:50:00.001-07:00

Milt passed me this jewel and I think I really need to share it with you:

http://www.identity20.com/media/WEB2_2005/

Dick Hardt talks about Identity in the Web 2.0 world. His talk is basically what I was trying to address in my last blog post.

Technorati tags: identity, web2.0

del.icio.us tags: identity, web2.0

Back-O-The-Envelope

2007-04-17T15:37:00.001-07:00

In my last post ((Non-)Anonymity(?)) I talked about the difficulties involved with determining the actual identity of a commenter or blogger. Is there anything we can do about this problem using the framework that is currently in use? Let me throw out some ideas:

Set-up (on a site by site basis) a system where a commenter must request an ID and password. The request must include a physical snail-mail address where the information can be sent to. Once the commenter has the information, they can log in and change their password.
Pros - A real, physical address is a much more substantial then a free e-mail address.
Cons - This takes a lot of time and it must be done for each site.
Establish an identity service (or services) that verifies that a person is who they say they are. The service can issue the user a license, which could be requested by the blog on which the commenter wants to comment on. No ID, no comment.
Pros - It allows people to do one-stop identity verification. It opens-up new opportunities for entrepreneurs.
Cons - It will cost somebody some amount of money.

The purpose of this exercise is to find an elegant solution to a perceived problem. I never liked the idea of band-aids as final solutions.

Any ideas out there in the blogosphere?

Technorati tags: civility, blogging

del.icio.us tags: civility, blogging

Imus

2007-04-12T14:54:00.001-07:00

Just got this from the Wall Street Journal:

"CBS fired Don Imus from his radio show, the final blow for the broadcaster amid a mounting controversy over racist remarks he made about the Rutgers University women's basketball team on his program. A flood of advertisers pulled their ads from Imus's radio and TV programs under mounting public pressure."

Understand this: I do not condone the remarks made by Don Imus. I think that they were insensitive, and frankly, dumb. But, his firing raises an important question:

Does this mean that anyone who makes disparaging remarks about someone based upon race, creed, or color, must be fired? Or is it just people who make disparaging remarks of people who are of a different race, creed, or color?

If you watch movies, television, or see live comedy, you will see many cases of remarks that are not offensive if traded between people of similar heritage, yet very offensive if traded between people of dissimilar heritage or background.

Has someone published a guide that covers what remarks are or are not appropriate when exchanged in public? It would make things a lot less confusing.

Frank

Technorati tags: civility, Imus

(Non-)Anonymity(?)

2007-04-12T14:17:00.001-07:00

A lot of people, myself included, have been talking about not allowing anonymous commenting--the thought being that a valid e-mail address would give some semblence of personal responsibility. Does this help anything, really?

How do you know if it is me writing this blog post?

I, Frank Carey, am a human being with specific DNA, finger prints, blood type, and other characteristics that make me a unique individual member of the human race.

Dolor Ipsum is a cyberspace representation which is used by a human being to post blog entries, comments, and send e-mail. In some ways it, Dolor, can be looked at as a one-dimensional avatar used to facilitate Web 2.0 communication.

Ideally, I use Dolor to communicate with people on the Web. The big question is: How do you link Dolor back to me, or for that matter, any specific human being? Think about this for a moment.

Dolor is accessed via a Web terminal (PC, Mac, WebTV, or some other Internet appliance.) A human types something on the terminal's keyboard, which then changes the keystrokes into electronic signals. These signals eventually become messages, comments, blog posts, and other types of Web data.

So, we have a path, a chain of custody so to speak, that stretches from the Web communication (post, comment, email) all the way back to the keyboard that generated it. So, how do we tie a specific person to that keyboard and the communication in question? We have to somehow determine who used the keyboard to generate the communication. I don't think we can after the fact, at least not with any certainty, and not with technology commonly in use today.

Now, one could image some type of device that read biometric data--fingerprint, voiceprint, DNA--that could then be used to imprint any communication sent from that terminal. Devices such as this probably do exist, but unless they are put into universal use (along with software that can read the information, then imprint the communications) there will be no way to insure non-anonymity.

Oh, and how long do you think it would take before electronic identity theft became commonplace?

So, until we figure a way to tie someone physically to an electonic message, how do you really know its me writing this blog?

Frank (?)

Technorati tags: civility, blogging

A "Bit" of Thought

2007-04-11T14:31:00.001-07:00

A thought: What if incivility is partially caused by our inability to see life in grayscale?

Take a situation where someone does something that could possible offend you. Now, do you you think in terms of "take offense"/ "do not take offense" or do you think in terms of a sliding scale? If you think in terms of "take offense"/ "do not take offense" then you have two choices, thus you have a better chance of just deciding without further input. On the other hand, a sliding scale may encourage you to think about a response longer, possibly even encouraging you to gather more information.

Children, at least to me, seem to start-off life by looking at the world in binary terms--yes/no, black/white, thick/thin. Eventually, many will grow up and see that the world is actually a palette of grays, perhaps even colors, and that no answer is absolute. There is good answers and not-so-good answers and sometimes the best you can do is OK.

Think about it: we are social animals that, prior to the invention of writing, communicated primarily face-to-face so that we could see/hear/touch/smell/and maybe even taste the person we are communicating with. Writing changed all that. Now, we can communicate through a proxy called writing. This proxy lacks the subtle nuances that allow us to see life and each other in a spectrum. Perhaps Web 2.0 needs a bit more humanity on our part?

Just thinking out loud, folks.

Technorati tags: civility, Web2.0

del.icio.us tags: civility, Web2.0

Law of Unintended Consequences

2007-04-10T11:54:00.001-07:00

In my previous post (and a recent post on my other blog, Of Geeks and Artists,) I mention that I moderate comments on all of my blogs. This seems to be a key point in some of the other attempts at bringing forth order from the chaos that is the blogosphere. Well, I just realized that the Law of Unintended Consequences could rear its ugly head with regards to this approach:

Assume that one of my posts gets 100 comments a day (don't I wish!) which I need to moderate if I am to strictly follow my own guidelines. Assume that it takes one minute to moderate one comment. One minute multiplied by one hundred posts gives me one hundred minutes, or one hour and forty minutes of non-stop moderating. Only 480 comments would take a whole 8-hour day to moderate! Now, 480 may seem like a lot of comments, but if you maintain, lets say, 10 blogs, then that is only 48 comments a day.

I wonder if anyone has thought about this as they write their codes and rules? What do you think?

del.icio.us tags: Civility, blogging

Technorati tags: blogging, civility

My Personal Code of Blogging Ethics

2007-04-09T20:33:00.001-07:00

Here it is for all the world to see:

Human decency
Common sense
The Golden Rule
The dictionary is your friend
The writing style guide is your friend
I don't need no stinking badges

Frank Carey
Spring 2007

Technorati tags: civility, blogging

del.icio.us tags: civility, blogging

Who is using who?

2007-03-29T07:59:00.000-07:00

During my normal morning perusal of RSS feeds, I found a reference to this gem:

Absolutely pure genius.

Technorati tags: Web2.0

Web Peeves

2007-03-06T11:04:00.001-08:00

I have been doing a lot of Web-based research of late and I have come up with a short list of small peeves:

Offering MS Word-formatted doc files for downloads - Assuming that everyone uses, or can even read, MS Word formatted files is silly. Personally, I think PDF is the way to go, especially with the prevalence of low-cost alternatives to Adobe Acrobat for generating them. Since I use MS Word, I don't have a problem opening them, but I do worry about viruses.
Not offering downloadable product literature - This is especially true for manufacturers. I really believe that owner's manuals and spec sheets should be readily available for download--as PDF files!!
Lack of customer service contact information - I am not talking about technical service, here, but customer service. If a company sells something, then it should have a method for customers to contact them in the event that they have a complaint about or kudos for said product.
No site search function or site map - Sometimes a customer needs to go from A to D by skipping B and C, and this is impossible without a site search function or a site map.
Blogs, vlogs, and podcasts that have turned-off comments - The center piece of Web 2.0 is discourse, and you can't have discourse when you turn-off comments. Yes, I know that there are a lot of barbarians out there, barbarians who like to leave long, flaming comments or spam, but we need to get past that and get the discourse going.
Spam-filled discussions - a lot of the discussion boards I frequent are getting inundated with spam, and the moderators are doing nothing about it. Yes, moderation takes a lot of work, but there is no free lunch. Police-up those boards!

Web 2.0 has the promise of creating a world-wide discussion. The shake-out period is coming to a close, so it is time to straighten-up the room and settle-in for the long haul.

Technorati tags: rant, web2.0

del.icio.us tags: rant, web2.0

Co-Existence

2007-03-02T13:12:00.001-08:00

Ah, spring: A time for storms and a time for rebirth. Unfortunately, today’s installment has nothing to do with spring or rebirth. Instead, it has to do with the current controversy involving evolution vs. creationism and science vs. religion in general.

First, a little personal background: On the science side, I have a Master of Science degree in Physics and have worked in science/engineering-related industry since 1989. On the religious side, I have been raised Catholic and I consider myself a Christian. Oh, I am also completely confused by the current evolution vs. creationism controversy because I have no problem with the Theory of Evolution, nor do I have a problem with creationism—In fact, the two exist harmoniously in my little world.

Ah, I can hear the knives being sharpened on both sides as they prepare to forcibly argue their viewpoints. Put them away for I am fine and happy in my little world where logic and faith harmoniously co-exist. Perhaps a short explanation is in order.

Creationism—God created the Universe and everything it contains including humans. As a Christian, I have faith that this is true. I also believe that He (I use “He” because I was raised that way. You use whatever pronoun makes you happy) gave us the capacity to think so that we can figure out how He did it.

Evolution—Makes sense, but as a scientist I am willing to discard the theory if data is gathered that supports discarding it. A theory is only good until someone disproves it--that is why it’s called a theory.

To me, religion and science need to be kept separate because religion has to be based on faith while science has to be based on fact. You can’t have data to support your belief in God and you can’t have faith that a scientific theory is true. The two must be kept separate.

Yes, there are times when the two clash, and it is those times that test a person’s soul. No one ever said that life is easy. For me I usually found myself with several non-optimum paths I could take which is when I turned to faith.

I really do have faith that God has created a universe with a very specific framework, a framework that he wants us to discover for ourselves. This framework may or may not contain evolution, but it is up to us to keep looking for the answers, which can only be done by asking questions.

Technorati tags: science, religion, evolution, creationism

del.icio.us tags: blog, debate, creationism, evolution

del.icio.us as a tool for social discourse

2007-01-23T11:05:00.001-08:00

As they describe themselves on their "About" page:

"del.icio.us is a social bookmarking website -- the primary use of del.icio.us is to store your bookmarks online, which allows you to access the same bookmarks from any computer and add bookmarks from anywhere, too."

I have found myself using del.icio.us a lot lately as I have been collecting a lot of information about my "hobbies"--literacy, filmmaking, publishing, etc. Until recently, I have not made use of the "Comments" section of the bookmarks, but now I am and I find myself using them as I would the comments on blogs. Now, I realize that the only people who would see these comments are people who happen to find my bookmarks or people who use the RSS feeds (c.f. filmmaking) for the tags I assign to those book marks, but I find it interesting that del.icio.us could become more then just a repository of bookmarks. It could become a tool for social discourse as more people use the "Comment" functionality.

Technorati tags: del.icio.us, blogging

CEOs For Hire

2007-01-05T18:02:00.001-08:00

It is time for all good people to take the reins and bring sanity back to the world of business. Over and over we are seeing news stories about CEOs, with the blessings of their Boards of Directors, dragging companies into oblivion while being rewarded with multi-million dollar severance packages. We, the American customer/employee/shareholder, must take a stand, and stand we do.

My wife and I formally offer our services as a CEO team for any company that needs talent and wants change. We will work for a flat salary plus whatever an employee would normally get for benefits. We will work for one year, after which we will sit down with the Board of Directors to discuss what will happen next. No special severance packages and no special fringe benefits. Our thought is that a combined salary ten times the highest salary paid in the company, but capped at $1,000,000, would be fair compensation. This would have saved Home depot something like $300,000,000 or so, probably with better results (we are extremely confident people.)

This is no joke. If you are interested or know a company who is, e-mail us and we can start discussions.

Tags: CEO

Basic Human Interaction

2006-12-31T15:03:00.001-08:00

Many posts ago, I asked what were the basic skills needed by our kids to survive in the World. I thought that reading, writing, math, cooking, and the ability to research information were good starts. After much thought and discussion, I think I missed one--basic human interaction as defined by our culture, i.e. social skills. Somewhere along the line we have stopped teaching our kids even the absolute minimum social skills required to get along in life, and they are paying for this omission.

Now, I am not talking about formal etiquette, such as where do the forks and spoons go in a formal place setting, nor am I talking about all of the pomp and circumstance associated with a formal cotillion. I am talking about the absolute basics such as:

How to properly enter someone's office,
How to introduce yourself to someone,
How to respond to a courtesy,
How to properly interact with someone during a job interview or a college interview,
Why formality is important and essential to a healthy job environment,
How to formally interact with someone you just met.

From what I have seen in my travels, parents and teachers have stopped teaching these skills or have eliminated the environment where these skills are nurtured and passed-on.

Why are these skills important? Because they act as a basis for how kids interact with others in society both now, when they are children, and later in life when they become adults. By not teaching and reinforcing a simple set of "ground rules" or manners, we are putting our children at a serious disadvantage.

My wife put it succinctly: We stopped teaching the kids the simple truth of "Do Unto Others as You Would Want Them to Do Unto You."

Another problem area is "respect needs to be earned." I say that every single one of us should be respected for being a living, breathing human being. Respect for accomplishment, for leadership, for endeavor, yes, they should be earned, but every one of us should automatically be respected for being a sentient human being.

If we just start by teaching our kids that one simple idea we will put them on a road to enlightenment that will allow all of us to reap untold benefits.

Tags: civility

Systems

2006-12-20T09:41:00.000-08:00

The consumer is the end link of a long supply chain and the price the consumer pays for an item reflects the costs incurred and profit made by each link before them. Each business in the supply chain incurs labor, raw material, and business costs which are passed on to the next link in the chain. If the business wants to stay in business they must also incur some profit. All this ads up to the final price the consumer pays at the checkout.

This is why companies’ do things like send work off-shore, hire illegal aliens, and use the cheapest materials possible—low cost. If consumers insist on the cheapest steaks and Wal-Mart prices, then they are to blame for the problems we have with immigration and jobs going overseas.

We need to approach the problems of job loss, out-migration, and cheap prices not as a set of individual problems, but as part of a vast web that we call the economy. Tweak the web here and you disrupt some part of the web over there. Deport a thousand illegals and the price of steak goes up in Detroit. Think of the Butterfly Effect: the wing beat of a butterfly in Brazil can cause a hurricane to form in the Bahamas.

The United States economy is a SYSTEM and we need to start dealing with it as such.

Tags: rant, immigration

New Blogs

2006-11-19T08:54:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to let you know that I am expanding my own personal blogosphere with the introduction of two new blogs--Of Geeks and Artists and Critique Your Film--both of which are centered around filmmaking.

Of Geeks and Artists deals with my efforts to create short movies (1-3 minutes in length) for cellphones and PDAs using a video-equipped camera. The challenges in shooting the movies are the low resolution of the shots--176X144 and 128X96 pixels, both at 15 frames per second-- and their short duration--15 seconds maximum. The challenge of writing scripts for this genre is both the resolution and the extremely short length of the films--1-3 minutes--which is driven by both the storage capacity of the phones and short attention spans of the viewers. In my humble opinion, these short films are the wave of the future and I want to be on the leading edge of that wave.

Critique Your Film is another filmmaking-centric blog, but this one--and its associated website and business: Critique Your Film--deals with a critical facet of filmmaking that many filmmakers may leave out:critique of their film before the post-production editing process is finished. Many film scribes know the value of sending out their screenplays to paid reviewers who go over their screenplay with a fine-tooth comb. looking for problems and errors. These paid reviewers then send back a report which the scribe can use to fine-tune their screenplay. Many filmmakers will show their final product to pre-screening groups, but this means that major work will have to be done to change the film if it flops with the group (i.e. film, sound, dialog, music, etc.) Wouldn't it be easier to review the film at the point where it is to be locked down and sent off for sound, music, titles, etc.? An added feature is that we are not professional critics. We are plain folk who love movies and who represent your final audience--the paying public.

I hope you enjoy reading both blogs as much as I enjoy writing them. Leave a comment or drop me a line.

Tags: filmmaking, cellphone, critique

What's Up With That?

2006-11-12T19:19:00.000-08:00

A few minutes ago I tried to post to another of my Blogger blogs and I repeatedly got an error message even though the post was finally published. I then went to del.icio.us to add a link and it wouldn't let me sign-in. I then went to Technorati to ping about my blog post and technorati won't let me sign-in.

I hope that the people at Blogger, del.icio.us, and technorati realize how frustrating this is to us poor, unsung and unpaid bloggers.

Tags: rant, blogger, technorati, del.icio.us

Votin' Day

2006-11-07T09:22:00.000-08:00

As I voted today I was reminded of what I think are the two greatest political thriller films of the 20th Century--The Manchurian Candidate (1962) and Seven Days in May (1964)--both of which dealt with extreme ways of changing the political climate of our country.

All I had to do to affect change was make an informed decision and mark a box. No spies. No armies. Just a brain and a pencil.

Now, how cool is that?

Tags: politics, rant, filmmaking

Mexico as 51st State - Again!

2006-11-02T15:50:00.000-08:00

I just read an article that tells about the effects of illegal immigration is having on a small Pennsylvania town and the efforts by the town's mayor to combat the problem.

I have said it once and I will say it again: make Mexico the 51st state and give all of the citizens all of the rights and responsibilities associated with statehood.

Tags: rant, immigration

Make It Easy II

2006-09-20T04:08:00.000-07:00

I just read an interesting article on msnbc.com (What is the worth of words? by Michael Rogers) which starts:

"Educational doomsayers are again up in arms at a new adult literacy study showing that less than 5 percent of college graduates can read a complex book and extrapolate from it.

The obsessive measurement of long-form literacy is once more being used to flail an education trend that is in fact going in just the right direction. Today’s young people are not able to read and understand long stretches of text simply because in most cases they won’t ever need to do so."

Ah, the "why do I need to learn algebra if I will never use it?" argument used by countless school-age children as they try to get out of doing math homework. Mr. Rogers goes on to describe who needs to read, who doesn't need to read, and why, but I think he misses a much larger point--America is starting to really embrace the easy path. It use to be that as a nation our motto was: "If the going gets tough, the tough get going." Today, our motto seems to be: "If the going gets tough, find an easier path." We have seen this before, this tendency to make the task easier rather then the student stronger or smarter, and I think that it is as bad an idea as any I have seen.

For the record I disagree with anyone who wants to go the routes described by Mr. Rogers and others--we must find better ways to teach our kids the fundamental skills of reading, writing, and arithmetic. The rest of the world is starting to pass us by and we cannot hope to compete in the world marketplace if the majority of our population is functionally illiterate. It is our duty not to squander our God-given intelligence by giving-in to this "make it easier" trend.

We need to keep looking for a way to better teach our kids, not just make it easier.

Dolor

Tags: rant, education, literacy

Pictures

2006-09-01T07:19:00.000-07:00

Many famous photographs have been controversial, but today, tools such as Photoshop have made doctoring them seemingly as easy as pie. Now we have Iraq looking worse then it is, Katie looking thinner, and now Rosie is on the same diet. Has "A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words" become "A Picture Tells a Thousand Lies?" Is there a fix for this or are we doomed to condeming every picture we see as a probable lie?

Tags: manipulation, news, photography

Beta Blogger

2006-08-18T08:23:00.000-07:00

I just moved over to the new beta-version of Blogger and everything seems to work fine. I was able to move both of my blogs over without problem. The last thing to check is the functionality of the web-based editor and it seems to be working as well.

Dolor

Give Credit Where It Is Due

2006-08-14T16:41:00.000-07:00

How hard is it to conceive that God could create a natural framework based upon evolution?

How hard is it to conceive that God created a universe where things happen for a reason?

How hard is it to conceive that God gave man curiosity so that humankind had an impetus to grow closer to its creator?

Why do we seem bent on putting arbitrary limitations on our creator?

Why is it so hard for both the religious and the secular to see that religion and science can coexist, and in fact, compliment each other synergistically?

Why can't we comprehend a world that is at best an infinite number of shades of gray?

Tags: creationism, evolution, society

When the Going Gets Tough...Make It Easier!

2006-07-20T13:55:00.000-07:00

I just read an article on dailypress.com--On Parenting: Simpler spelling would shelter kids from reality--that convinces me that the American Civilization as we know it, is coming to a swift end. We have gone from a nation of pioneering innovators to a bunch of whiners who, when faced with adversity, will do anything to make things easier instead of striving to persevere. Gee, Johnny can't spell, so what do we do? Instead of teaching Johnny to spell, we we want to change the rules so that Johnny can spell at his present level. If his level drops, then we drop the level of the language rather than trying to raise Johnny’s reading level. No more goals; no more striving for greatness; just Johnny having problems comprehending two-syllable words.

Why has this occurred? We have made things much too easy and easy usually leads to shortcuts. Look at the book publishing industry. There are literally thousands of people who are publishing books using vanity publishers to put out books without the services of editors, typesetters, interior designers, or even proofreaders, and it shows. I have seen dozens of vanity published works that have more errors (spelling, grammar and, yes, structure) per page than my 3rd grade teacher would have found acceptable, which is probably due to them relying solely on their word processor's spell and grammar checker. Does anyone realize that spell checkers can make mistakes, especially if some misspelled words get into the user dictionary? And how many would-be authors know what the term "river" refers to when applied to a printed page?

People! It is time for authors to publish books that are as close to perfection (spelling, grammatically, and structurally) as possible. It is also time that the American people start reading again because that is where you learn the language and expand your vocabulary: by reading. Find a word you are unfamiliar with, then crack-open a dictionary and do a little research. Our society decays when our language decays. Please, don't let that happen to us.

Dolor

Tags: education, literacy, society

Launch!

2006-07-04T12:54:00.000-07:00

I watched Discovery launch today and it it reminded me of events long past:

Watching Apollo I dying on the pad and not understanding why.

Watching Apollo XI triumphing on the Moon, and the pride of being an American.

Watching Challenger and Columbia dying and wondering if the cost was too high.

Looking back at all of the successes and failures of NASA and knowing that the sacrifices were not in vain because mankind has gained so much from both the successes and failures.

Most importantly, I watched Discovery launch today with my heart in my throat and a sense of pride I have not felt in a long while.

Good luck Discovery, and God's speed.

Tags: NASA, space shuttle, Discovery

Thoughts to Ponder

2006-06-28T11:39:00.000-07:00

Here are some thoughts that we are pondering at home while I fix dinner:

Using data from the Pratt, Kansas page at city-data.com , I calculate that the city of Pratt has a pool of about 110+/-15 unemployed workers for employers to draw from (assuming an overall worker pool of 3,300 and an unemployment rate of 3%). This is a really small pool and it explains why I keep hearing about local businesses being unable to find workers.

In a just-published report from Network Kansas--Town Hall Meetings Feedback Report June 2006--several themes were put forward. One that we felt was particularly important was "There needs to be a cultural "attitude adjustment" regarding youth staying and/or coming back to live in rural Kansas." According to the report: "There was consensus across town hall meetings concerning two points. 1: At some point, if the opportunity arises, children will or do consider returning to their hometown to work and live; and 2: Communities should consider ways to recruit workers and entrepreneurs who previously lived in the area because they are more likely to stay once they return." These two points reinforce the idea that small rural towns in general, and Pratt in particular, need to make an effort to recruit our youth to return home. How about a new promotional campaign, “Come home to Pratt, we’ll live the porch light burnin’”

In the same report another theme put forward was: "Communities find it difficult to find employees who have the proper technical training and, in some cases, have that good old fashioned work ethic." According to the report: "The discussion regarding work ethic centered on societal issues. There was a sense that there was not a lot that could be done by organizations to stem this problem..." I have heard the "lack of work ethic" idea put forward by several business people here in town, so the perception does exist. I wonder, though, if part of the problem is due to the miniscule available labor pool (see point 1, above.)

Again, using data from the Pratt, Kansas page at city-data.com, I calculate that the city would need to build from 700 to 1000 new domiciles between now and 2010 to house the 2,600 new souls that would need to move here to get our population up to 10,000. To get to these numbers would require from 3.85 to 5.49 housing units be built per week. That is a lot of homes or a really big apartment complex.

What do you think?

Tags: rural, town meeting, kansas

Hearth and Home

2006-06-23T20:01:00.000-07:00

Last night I had an interesting discussion with the wife about how the trend of outmigration [1] [4] seen in many rural Midwest counties could be reversed by twenty-somethings having quarterlife crises [2][3]. We have come to the conclusion that the phenomenon of the quarterlife crisis may actually be a mechanism for reversing the outmigration trend—a problem fixes a problem. What an interesting thought.

Outmigration
The National Association of Counties Fact Sheet on the New Homestead Act of 2003 describes the outmigration problem facing rural counties in the US [4]:

“Outmigration poses a significant threat to rural counties across the United
States. This problem is particularly acute in the nation’s heartland-from the Dakotas to North Texas, and from the Rocky Mountains to the mouth of the Missouri River-where nearly 70 percent of rural counties on the Great Plains have seen their population shrink by an average of one third.”

“The downward cycle of outmigration is a slow devolutionary process that begins with decreasing job opportunities in rural communities. With dim prospects for work, skilled professionals
and youth flee to prosperous metropolitan areas. Following their departure, birth rates begin to decline to the point where death rates exceed them. With a smaller tax base and fewer customers, government services, civic organizations and businesses begin to contract or shut down. Everyday staples of life, such as churches, schools and businesses are affected. This cycle is complete when public investment decreases and skilled workers and young people are left with few job opportunities.”

Reference [1] details the flow of population in and out of counties throughout the continental United States.

Quarterlife Crisis
From her book “Conquering Your Quarterlife Crisis,” Alexandra Robbins describes the phenomenon of the quarterlife crisis [2]:

“Many of us in our 20s and 30s go through a period that leaves us feeling panicked or directionless. For some of us, the challenges of this time become so overwhelming that we may seriously second-guess our abilities, intensely question our lives, or crush our own self-esteem with our doubts.”

“Throughout our years in school, we had specific people to turn to for help and guidance: teachers, advisers, counselors, coaches, parents. But once we graduate and grapple with real-world issues, we don’t have someone readily available to tell us, “I’ve been there. Here’s how I got through it.” And because of the ever-widening generation gap, our parents’ experiences in many areas aren’t necessarily relevant anymore.”

Today’s twenty-somethings are ill-equipped for life. The scant eighteen years they had living at home is not nearly enough time to prepare for the real world—a world of the internet, virtual reality, 80 hour workweeks, cell phones, identity theft, a war, terror, and most importantly, uncertainty.

Synergy
So, we have towns that are drying up due to the out-flowing of their youth and youth that find that they may have left the nest way too early. The solution seems simple enough: invite the kids back into the nest. There needs to be a concerted effort by small, rural, outmigration-plagued towns to bring back the prodigal youth. This needs to be done both on a family level and a community level.

The returning youth bring with them knowledge, experience and a new set of viewpoints developed during their time elsewhere. Many will bring families which will further refill the population. They will become reestablished in their hometowns which in turn will grow the employee base. Some of these youth will build new businesses and revitalize established ones. The town gains on many levels.

For those who are suffering a quarterlife crisis, the benefits are obvious. Living with the parents will allow them breathing space to pay bills and re-evaluate life. For many there is a feeling of safety associated with being with the family and in familiar surroundings.

Now this won’t work with everyone or in every situation, but the idea deserves consideration. Our daughter lives with us and I think that we, her and us, have all benefited from her return. Families in small towns, and the small towns themselves, need to explore ways to bring back their youth, especially ones suffering from a quarterlife crisis. It may be one of those all too rare win-win situations.

References
1. Johnson, Kenneth, “Demographic Trends in Rural and Small Town America,” Reports on Rural America, Carsey Institute, University of New Hampshire, Volume 1 Number 1, 2006
2. Robbins, Alexandra, “Conquering Your Quarterlife Crisis,” Sample chapter on website.
3. Robbins, Alexandra, “Quarterlife Crisis statistics,” Sample data on website.
4. National Association of Counties, “New Homestead Act of 2003 Fact Sheet”

Tags: rural, outmigration, quarterlife crisis

Matrix Ping Pong

2006-06-18T17:52:00.000-07:00

I saw this clip years ago at the height of the Matrix movie craze. It is from a Japanese game show and it shows a number of people manually recreating the Timetrack visual effect that was developed by Digital Air. It is a fine example of life imitating art.

Enjoy

Don't Publish Rubbish!

2006-06-17T04:56:00.000-07:00

LuLu.com, brainchild of Bob Young, co-founder of Red Hat, is a book printing site that allows you to upload your work and print it for no up-front fee—you only pay when a book is ordered. I think that this is a great idea and a boon for any would-be author. Just think: no more having to buy and store 2000 copies of your book in the hope of selling them.

The problem with this route, though, is that all of the jobs of the publisher now falls on the author—proofreading, editing, cover art, interior design and typography—and many authors seem to overlook many or all of these important tasks. I can’t begin to count the number of self-published books that I have seen that were filled with typographic errors, grammatical goofs, and headache-inducing typesetting.

It never ceases to amaze me that people will spend years writing a book only to spend days putting it together for printing. I think I will gag if I hear one more author-wannabe saying that the structure isn’t important as long as the story is good. This is either laziness on the part of the author or a genuine lack of understanding of what needs to be done to properly publish a book. If it takes an author two years to write a book, shouldn’t they either take the time to learn the business and prepare their work for publishing, or spend the money to hire people to do it for them? In my book(pun intended!) that is time and money well spent.

Tags: rant, publishing

Victim of Technology-Not!

2006-06-04T13:17:00.000-07:00

In the Western Front section of the June 3rd edition of the Hutchinson News, Jim Snyder wrote a piece titled “Victim of technology” where he puts forward the idea that

“The preponderance of the problems we have in the United States are rooted in the fact that we have embraced technology and ignored the old, tried and proven KISS principle - Keep It Simple Stupid - which is the empirical principle that most systems will work best if they are kept simple rather than made complex.”

Complexity and technology are not synonymous. According to the The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition, technology, by definition, is

“The application of science, especially to industrial or commercial objectives.”

Science and engineering come up with new facts and ideas about the world around us. Technology takes those ideas and creates physical tools that can be used to perform tasks. Our problems lie with how we use those tools to perform those tasks, not with the tools themselves.

Mr. Snyder goes on:

“Prime examples of all this are our high-tech automobiles that require computers and technicians to isolate and repair problems that in the past those with average mechanical ability could fix with a pair of pliers and some bailing wire.”

I remember fixing cars when I was younger and there were a lot of jobs that required wrenches, screwdrivers, spanners, feeler gauges and timing lights. Even the earliest cars required the use of precision tools to fabricate parts and more specialized tools to assemble and fix them. My point is that technology can be a stick used to pull termites from a hill or a Space Shuttle, both of which can be used and misused.

I have to agree with Mr. Snyder that we have made many things seemingly too complex. As Scotty said in Star Trek III – The Search for Spock: “The more they overthink the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain.” The problem, though, lies with the user, not the tools.

Tags: rant, technology

Make Mexico the 51st State

2006-06-04T13:15:00.000-07:00

In the Western Front section of the June 3rd edition of The Hutchinson News, John Start asked the question “What are the objections to adopting Mexico as the 51st state of our United States?” I can’t think of any. In fact, my wife and I think that this is the greatest idea since the invention of sliced bread.

Think about how much money we spend yearly on the Border Patrol, fences and enforcement of our immigration policies--$billions. If we made Mexico a state of the Union, we would save that money while incresing our tax base, and we would have one less haven for U.S. criminals to flock to. We could treat Mexico like we treat any other state.

Mexico wins as well: all of the Mexican people would have the freedoms, privileges and responsibilities associated with being a citizen of the U.S. They would have to pay taxes, they would have to be paid minimum wage, they could vote, they can worry about the economy, and worry about jobs. Their schools would have to meet the same standards as ours do today. Mexican factories would have to follow the same safety and ecological requirements that US business do today. Thus all Mexican people, not just those willing to move to the US, would benefits from cleaner air, safer working places and better schools.

Yes, it would be tough to do, and I’m sure there would be some cost up-front, but the long-term benefits would be well worth the trouble. In the long run we would probably actually save money if you look at the time and effort currently being expended on discussing immigration and border issues rather than dealing with other national problems.

After annexing Mexico and making it a state, the next big question would be who is next? Canada? Cuba? I like the idea of Cuba being next. Lots of people from Cuba want to come here to work and make a better life, so why don’t we do it for all Cubans? Make Cuba the 52nd state.

I like it: World peace through U.S. statehood. An idea that is way past due.

Tags: rant, immigration

Reading for Your Mind

2006-06-04T07:00:00.000-07:00

Reading for Your Mind’s Health

There is an ongoing discussion as to whether people are reading less today than say 10 years ago. The idea is that aliteracy (being able to read, but choosing not to) in America is on the rise as more and more citizens choose to spend their leisure time doing things other then reading. Just Google “aliteracy” and you will find thousands of sites that discuss the problem.
Today’s blog, though, is not about aliteracy. Instead, it is about the mental side-effects of not reading. According to an article (which my wife found while doing her morning read of the online news sources) on MSN Encarta about “What Effect Reading Has on Our Minds” by Martha Brockenbrough, “Reading makes you smarter, and the more reading you do, the better.” So, by electing not to read, a person chooses not to benefit from these positive effects of reading. Thus, by not teaching our students to effectively read we are putting them at a disadvantage when they compete against those who can and do read.

I asked in a previous blog: what basic skills do we need to teach our children? It is obvious that reading and the skills needed to enjoy reading should definitely make the list.

Tags: education, reading

Podcast Music

2006-05-28T17:30:00.000-07:00

This morning, the wife and I were discussing an article in the paper about the latest lawsuit involving the music industry: the RIAA is suing XM Satellite Radio. This news got us thinking that the music industry has missed the boat with respect to Web 2.0 opportunities.

First off, I am not a lawyer, but I am a podcaster and I have looked into music licensing issues with regards to podcasting. What I have found is a morass of licenses, fees and unintelligible definitions such that I have given up any hope of using mainstream music in any podcast. Instead, I am actively looking for unsigned musicians and composers to produce music for my needs. This is where the mainstream media has missed the boat: podcasts are the wave of the future and, in my humble opinion, a marketing goldmine for any media company, band or musician. The current licensing morass just makes legit podcasters look to independent music sources, bypassing the media companies completely. I have no idea what effect the RIAA lawsuits are having on illegal music sharing, but I do know that it is pushing people like me away from using media companies altogether.

This is a real good time to be an independent, unsigned musician. Instead of having to cut demo CDs and sending them off to agents and producers, you can e-mail them podcasters who can use them in their podcasts. Yes, a few songs may become so popular that you could never sell them, but you can look at them as loss-leaders that act to draw in customers and create a following for your work. It is truly a win-win proposition for both the podcaster and the musician—the podcaster has material to work with that didn’t require an arm and a leg to obtain and the musician has the opportunity to have their music reach possibly millions of ears. In their book, “Podcast Solutions,” Michael W. Geoghegan and Dan Klass sum it up perfectly: “The right artists will be anxious to get exposure on podcasts” and I, for one, will be happy to give that exposure to them.

Tags: podcasting, music

How Nerdy Am I?

2006-05-25T21:17:00.000-07:00

My wife wife was surprised that my score is this low. Go figure.

A textbook case of failure - Can America Compete?

2006-05-16T14:16:00.000-07:00

My wife forwarded me an interesting article she found on MSNBC.com--A textbook case of failure - Can America Compete?--which discusses the deficiencies of today's public school textbooks. Normally, I would fly off on some long-winded diatribe, but not today. Today, I have but two questions for those millions of people who are a whole lot smarter than I am:

What basic skills do our children need to learn so that they can thrive in today's world?
(This is an easy one, just look back at your own life.)
How can we most effectively teach our children these skills in the eighteen or so years it takes for them to grow into adulthood?

Let's flex those creative muscles!

Tags: education

Report from the Front - Redux

2006-05-09T13:10:00.000-07:00

Ok, downloading the film "Report from the Front" is a little time consuming. To help those who just want to see the film, I have uploaded it to Ifilm.com. Here it is in embedded form:

Enjoy and let me know what you think.

Report from the Front – the Director’s Cut
Spring 2006
Length: 5m:47s
Starring: Bryan Welsby and Rebekah Dryden
Written by: Frank Carey
Directed by: Frank Carey
Director of Photography: Will Hayes
Assistant Director: Jake Rogers
Consultant: Jason Bailey
Made for: Nuts & Bolts of Amateur Filmmaking, Wichita Center for the Arts.
Copyright 2006 All rights reserved.

Tags: filmmaking

Report from the Front

2006-05-07T18:57:00.000-07:00

Earlier this year I had the opportunity to write and direct a short film—Report from the Front—as part of class in guerilla filmmaking, taught by Wichita filmmaker Jason Bailey. The movie is about five minutes long. Will Hayes and Jake Rogers were the other members of the team that worked on this production.

To see what kind of things you can do with no budget and a very tight time schedule, check out Report from the Front. You can download the Windows Media version (26 MB) here or the QuickTime version (75 MB) here (these files are big, so I suggest that you use right-click and “Save Target as…” to download them to your hard drive before playing them.) The version contained in these files is slightly different from the final version we cut--I played with the closing credits and some of the lighting effects for the cutaways.

Report from the Front – the Director’s Cut (
Spring 2006
Length: 5m:47s
Starring: Bryan Welsby and Rebekah Dryden
Written by: Frank Carey
Directed by: Frank Carey
Director of Photography: Will Hayes
Assistant Director: Jake Rogers
Consultant: Jason Bailey
Made for: Nuts & Bolts of Amateur Filmmaking, Wichita Center for the Arts.
Copyright 2006 All rights reserved.

Tags: filmmaking

Clouds

2006-05-04T06:39:00.000-07:00

Since moving to Pratt I have noticed some really beautiful cloud formations that form when a storm passes by. I took this picture a couple of nights ago as a storm passed to the south of us.

Tags: weather, pratt, kansas

Multi-Touch Interaction Research

2006-05-01T06:24:00.000-07:00

While browsing through the geek section (Science & Technology) of YouTube, I came across this gem of a video: Multi-Touch Interaction Research:

which details research into multiple-input touch screen techology being done at the Media Research Lab at NYU. The possible applications of this techology are staggering.

Tags: technology, touch screen, creativity, computers

Creativity in and Increasingly Easy World

2006-04-27T20:01:00.000-07:00

I just read an interesting article on the Web titled: The Sundance Odds Get Even Longer, which tells about the odds of an independent filmmaker getting their film seen by the public. Basically, as technology makes it easier for the common man to film and edit motion pictures, the motion pictures are made and submitted to festivals and distributors. As the number of submissions rise, the percentage of films accepted drops, thus decreasing the odds of success. It is like having the number of fish in a lake quintuple in size in a short time--a lot more fish are going to go hungry.

The same problem is occurring in other fields of the arts especially books and music. Technology has made it easy for anyone to produce a book or even a musical piece. A large number of these people want to make money writing and composing, but the marketplace is finite in size, so the success rate drops as the number of players increases--more hungry fish.

So, what can or should be done about this? In my humble opinion: absolutely nothing. Filmmakers, writers and musicians just need to realize that it is a tough world out there and that they are competing with thousands of other filmmakers, writers and musicians for a piece of the consumers small (and dwindling) amount of disposable cash and, even more importantly, disposable time.

I truly believe that anyone who wants to create art has the God-given right to do so. They just have to be realistic about their chances of making money in the process.

Tags: filmmaking, art, creativity, realistic expectations

Media Simplex

2006-04-11T20:09:00.000-07:00

Here is a suggested media distribution paradigm shift for blogs, podcasts, vlogs and short films: unapologetic product and product ad placement. Let me explain.

Right now, the whole world of media and media distribution is going chaotic as the people producing content (the aforementioned blogs, podcasts, vlogs and short films) are trying to figure out a way to make money, usually by using site advertising, subscriptions or secondary channel sales (logo-wear, books and sidelines.) A good example of this is a blogsite that has Google AdSense ads or products being sold by CafePress. Now, what if you actually imbedded the advertising in the media itself? For example, take a podcast and put a small (the length would be dependent on the length of the ‘cast) intermission in the middle of it. Inside this intermission put in an advertisement. Being that the ad is in the middle of the actual ‘cast means that the commercial will be in the middle of every copy of the ‘cast (assuming that someone doesn’t modify the cast, a modification which could be in violation of the licensing the ‘cast is being distributed under.) Thus, the more the ‘cast is copied; the more ears will hear the ad.

This works for blogs-put a banner or text ad in the middle of each post—as well as vlogs and short films. Advertising in vlogs and short films can be increased by using product placement within the piece as long as it doesn’t deter from the story.

One can take this paradigm in all sorts of directions:

Blogs – all blogs written in a given time period will contain a client’s ad copy. The time period and the minimum number of blogs produced in said time period can be agreed upon by client and blogger.

Podcasts – intermission ads will appear in podcast for an agreed-to amount of time and then swapped out for new ads. Thus the same podcast can be circulating on the Web with different ads depending on when the podcast was mixed or re-mixed.

Vlogs and short films – as with podcasts, the intermission ads can change, but the “placed” products will remain for the life of the film (though it would be possible to insert different products in cutaways and noddies.)

The bottom line here is that revenues from the media come not from sales of the media itself, but from the sales of advertising in the media. Licensing becomes a non-issue since copying and redistribution by third-parties becomes desirable—they become the distributors. Heck, they could even try to sell the media, but no one would buy it since it is already available for free.

So, the media producers win by getting paid to produce product and having their product reach millions of consumers. The consumer wins by not having to directly pay for the media product. The advertisers win by having a way of reaching large markets for relatively low price.

This idea works. We just need to sit down and iron out the details.

Tags: advertising, paradigm shift, revenue, web2.0

A New Direction and a New Question

2006-04-05T16:40:00.000-07:00

I have decided to change the direction of the blog to one of civic responsibility--point of fact, my civic responsibility. From the events of the last few weeks leading up to yesterday's election, I think it is time that I start being a more responsible citizen by asking my government questions. I think I will start on a local level.

My first question of the local government (or any citizen who thinks they know the answer) is this: Mayor Borho mentioned that the plan is for Pratt (pop. ~6400) to grow to a population of 10,000 in the next five (5) years. How is this supposed to occur?

Facts, figures and details would be most appreciated. Speculation and personal attacks are discouraged.

Tags: Pratt, Kansas, civic responsibility

Unofficial Election Results

2006-04-05T16:17:00.000-07:00

The election is over and Ms. Borho has won. The unofficial count:

Borho-831
Thome-209

Total Votes-1040
Total Eligible Voters-4290
(Source: Pratt Tribune)

Not bad for an off-year election, one with only one official candidate. Even though he lost, Raymond Thome garnered a sizable tally of about 20% of the total vote. I think that this number may be indicative of the mood a sizable chunk of the electorate is in. The City leaders should take note of this.

Tags: Pratt, Kansas, election

Realistic Expectations

2006-03-31T15:44:00.000-08:00

In just a few days the citizens of Pratt will decide on who will occupy the single commission seat that is up for grabs. In today’s Pratt Tribune there is an article which talks about the two candidates and there their viewpoints. A statement about the incumbent, Mayor Glenna Borho, immediately drew my attention:

“Borho wants to see more economic development in Pratt with an increase in manufacturing and service related jobs. She wants the population of Pratt to grow to 10,000 within the next five years to help spread out the tax burden.”

The first sentence tells me that retail is dead since she doesn’t mention an increase in retail-related jobs. I wish someone would have told me this before I opened the bookstore. Ah, such is life.

It is the second sentence that concerns me, this growth in population to 10,000. I have seen this number before in a city planning document, so it isn’t just the honorable mayor who came up with this number. Instead, it seems that this number is a sort of Holy Grail for those who run things here. My problem with this number is that the census statistics illustrate that nothing is being done to reach this lofty goal.

According to data obtained from the USDA/ERS site, Pratt County’s population dropped 0.57% from 1990-2000 and dropped 2.18% from 2000-2003. Yes, I said dropped and the problem got worse in the first three years of the new millennia. To get to a population of 10,000 in the next five years would require an increase in population of 56% over those five years!

Pratt, along with a lot of other small, rural towns, needs to come up with a coherent, viable and realistic plan for the future and we need to do it now. At a population of ~6,400 (and dropping) we don’t really have much time.

Tags: Pratt, Kansas, election, population growth, small towns

Election Day

2006-03-26T18:05:00.000-08:00

In a little over a week, Prattans (Prattians?) will be given the opportunity to vote for a city commissioner who, up until just recently, was running uncontested. Now, we have a write-in candidate who wants us to vote out the incumbent and voting him in. The problem is that he isn’t offering any details on what and how he would do if elected and that is the subject of this blog: the lack of information in the Age of Information.

Our write-in candidate wants me to vote for him, which is all well and good, except I can find little information about him on the web except for what looks like a press release, some articles (one online here) printed in the local paper, none of which tell anything about the candidate himself. He may be a great candidate or he may not, but I don’t have enough information to tell.

In this age of Web 2.0 nothing is easier then setting up a website or a blog. Registering a domain name and signing up for a web hosting account is extremely easy and relatively inexpensive. There are oodles of people out there who would love to help design and upload a site, some even for free. Blogging is even easier. There is absolutely no excuse for any candidate for office not to immediately set up an informational website and a blog where the electorate can go to find out about the candidate.

Is this too much to ask for?

Tags: Pratt, Kansas, election, voters, website, blog

Appreciation

2006-03-24T19:55:00.000-08:00

I had an epiphany today while shopping in an Independence, Missouri Wal-Mart: Pratt is a really nice place to live.

You see, I am in Independence attending the City Slicker Stomp clogging workshop along with my family. Anyway, I was in Wal-Mart and I found myself in the computer section looking at CD burners and external hard drives when I realized that everything was behind locked sliding windows. Every modem, every USB hub and every PCI card was under lock and key. Compare this to the Pratt Wal-Mart where all of this stuff is sitting out in the open.

The family and I really like living in Pratt and this is an example of why.

Tags: Pratt, Kansas

A Lot of Little Stories

2006-03-12T15:11:00.000-08:00

Once owning a bookstore has ruined me when it comes to writing a book. When my wife and I were researching the idea of opening a bookstore, we immersed ourselves in all things associated with publishing. During our research we found out how easy it was to publish a book using a subsidy publisher, especially if one skipped the parts dealing with design, layout, typesetting and editing. We also found out how difficult it is to sell a self-published or subsidy-published fiction book in today’s market. Add to this the fact that I truly do not have the spare time to devote to such a project as writing a novel and you will come to the same conclusion I did: no novel writing in the foreseeable future.

I have found what I think is a better venue: a series of really short stories published to my blog for the entire world to see and by short I mean less then 1000 words. These stories could be chapters of a serialized story or they could stand alone. At some point, if there is enough interest, I could collect them and publish them as a physical or electronic book. In the interim, if there is interest, I could finance the project using Google Adsense advertising, or even sell banner ads on my blog.

And it doesn’t stop with written stories. I could experiment with scriptwriting for old time radio-style podcasts, or even short, no-budget films that I could post on the web as vlogs. And all of this is made possible by Web 2.0 technology.

The two primary keys to success using this idea are short-length and making money off of secondary channels. Short length plays into the idea that people just don’t have time to read a 100,000-page tome, but they do have time to read a 1,000-word short story, listen to a 10-minute podcast or watch a 5-minute film. An example of secondary channel profits is an inkjet cartridge. A printer manufacturer can loose money on sales of printers but turn a vast profit selling the consumable cartridge. In our case secondary channel profits would come from advertising, physical book sales, sideline sales and public speaking fees. Give away the food but sell the utensils.

This paradigm fills the needs of both author and consumer: the author gets her/his fame, recognition and possible monetary reward while the consumer will actually have time to consume. Hopefully this creates a win-win situation for all concerned.

I really like this idea. Stay tuned for further developments.

Tags: writing, filmmaking, short stories

Obsidian Encrusted Ant Hill

2006-03-11T19:13:00.000-08:00

As I work on another rant, I thought I would share with you another photo I took on my travels in New Mexico.

Here is an ant hill on BLM (Bureau of Land Mangement) Land near Grants, New Mexico (we are not sure what kind of ants they were since this photo was taken in winter.) The black particles are small pieces of obsidian (volcanic glass) brought up from underground by the ants. Obsidian pieces up to the size of golf balls litter the area(c.f. here for information on obsidian in this area.) We have also seen ant hills covered with small pieces of jasper and other minerals.