December 30, 2004

Drag on Education

http://www.lewrockwell.com/reed/reed52.html

Fred Reed is one of my favorite Root Strikers. He hits the essence of education in this linked article, which is only people who wish to be there should be there.

If you are involved in ONRRI - you have to want to be outside, learning by doing. The hoops that we have set up are means of measuring intensity of desire to understand. i wish i had the answers, but the answers that i seek require good data. We cannot recognize the validity of unreferenced opinion.

To grow through education is to learn how to organize thought. Chaos breeds Order - but you have to be able to recognize the pattern, which means you have to look at the data trends. Which means repeating the experiment over and over again in subtly different form. Each teacher ... each class ... one site ... each year ...

5 metrix points for commenting on this page.

December 29, 2004

Stuff - part 3

… Fictional overstructure imposes
Linear reality in a dimensional world
Pushing life in continual chase of
Her own tail, never succeeding
All consuming, regardless of
Cycles and symbioses

Follow the path of a water molecule
To investigate the diversity of life

Models stand to explain
Terms in images we comprehend
But trying to understand
When definitions fluctuate
Parameters of change yesterday
Assumed constants todays
The body inflexible builds
Lemmings follow paths of
Least resistance, assured doom

Quietly pull the plug on illusion
The matrix doesn’t reach armigeddon
Change require thought
Thought requires understanding
Understanding requires consistency
Consistency requires truth
Truth requires reality
Be seen as reality
The curtain of nature pulled back
Reveals paths of greater promise
Than the stuff we take for granted.

© 2004 Lemme Howdt

Science

Science has become a sword, an archaic weapon that is no longer practical for battle in the complex world of today. what passes for science is more applied engineering, with a passion for profit in terms of either wealth or power. preconceived solutions based on predjudiced data can be passed off as fact, because there is no frame of reference of truth to provide context. our purpose need be truth, for its own sake.

science and math are tools to define reality. but today, mutually accommodate facts allow the two sides of any argument to talk past each other. there is no definition of the opposition position. the terms are not defined specifically enough that we can even be assured that we are speaking the same language.

the yeomans work will be in the data collection. we can no longer trust facts that have no specific support data behind them. everybody must start referencing support data and defining the conditions of the collection event to be taken as truth. hard science can not be a tool of soft science - reality is what it is. it is imcumbent on each individual to keep the world spinning in their own sphere. our world is based on natural law, we ignore it at our own peril.

December 27, 2004

Stuff - part 2

... Where is the independence
Where are the heroes we once held dear
When thoreau is civilly disobedient
How can we fold to group think
The mental gymnastics required
Usurped by the talking heads
Blathering nonsense
Pray to the dollar, that it not slip
As euros grow and gold gains
Handwriting on the wall
For all to see and most to ignore

So, where to look when seeking truth
It must be there, somewhere
Waiting to provide a beacon
For those wishing to harvest light

Look inward, search outward
Under rock, in gullies, between streams
Riparia and the mountain tops
Where lichen like and fungi shroom
And silence screams loudly calling
Patterns of biology, structures of chemistry
Gravitational physics, natural law
All there, out there, being and doing …


© 2004 Lemme Howdt

December 25, 2004

Stuff - part 1

Stuff we take for granted
May not remain always so
Accustomed tastes
Like showers in the morning
Or a cup of hot qophy
Music, books, intellegent chat
Hop in the car, jet 2 the store
Disappearing into the void
Of contrasting value

Americans enjoy
Running off at the mouth
Saying words to shock
Howard Stern’s mother
Yet when solace comes
We tend 2 lie 2 ourselves
And tell each other – it’s okay
When it’s not

Now the world checks our lies
Watches us cannabilize each other
Because that’s the way it iz
Round world in a square box
Capitalist mentality of get more stuff
Without regard to yin or yang
No new frontiers left to conquer
Same old games we play …


(c) 2004 lemme howdt

Einstein quote

"The problems in the world today are so enormous they cannot be solved with the level of thinking that created them." A. Einstein

"The problems in the world today are so enormous they cannot be solved with the level of thinking that created them." Einstein

Anagram form.

Games

I spend time playing games at a fabulous website at www.itsyourturn.com . I was playing chess this morning and my comment was one that i thought i'd universalize. 'we play these games for the enjoyment and to refine our ability to think ahead in complex situations. Life is a lot like chess - and it gets hairier as we live it. ' doctor lenny

Enjoy this Christmas day, whether your believe in the religious or not. Today is a day to imagine whirled peas.

December 24, 2004

Morality

I just read where MDs at the NIH are not receiving whistle-blower protections. Just the fact that we have such a term as whistle-blower is a symptom of the disrepair of modern society. Morality is doing what is right, each and every time, not just when it happens to be convenient. But the wink and nod approach to transgressions has created a don't ask, don't tell secrecy that belittles our constitutional republic. If we want to be able to trust our gubbermint, we have to be able to trust ourselves. That starts with number one - morality is a personal issue. Quit avoiding it and always do the right thing. Expect other people to do the right thing. When they don't, let them know of your dissappointment, then get on with your life.
(And realize that the right thing is relative. lemme)
BTW - anybody else notice that there seems to be a conspiracy to withhold anti-biotics from the public here in Oregon. Perhaps its the AMAs way of telling us that the powers that be don't like our suicide law or our medical marijuana law. Conform, conform, conform. Or we will dissipate you.

December 23, 2004

Gotta Do

Things that must be done -
roll up your sleeves 'n get to work
they don't get done by
watching the weather change
they're just the things
ya gotta do

To learn, there's much ya gotta do
form the basis of sorting information
keep the mind sharp
party tricks, memory games
and knowing how and when to
do a brain data dump

to place in context
disjointed phenomena
via pattern recognition
due to familiarity
with topic, form 'n function

All things are the same
but deviate in the manner
by which their perceived
the interface with reality
fluctuates and vibrates
but never, ever undercuts
the concept of a gotta do

When you avoid the gotta do
eventually dues get paid
the impression forged
by the false reality of pretense
invariably causes loss of face
cause ya didn't do the gotta do

ya gotta do the gotta do for you
because it's a bridge to cross
from there to here to there
the gaps in integrity
lost by avoidance of tasks
impinge the key facets
of the continuum of life

Saving face is a human phenomenon
animals realize mistakes instantly
paying the cost without regret
but we cajole, avoid, and solicit
attempt to escape the mirror
until facing the inevitablity
of rolling up your sleeves
and completing the gotta do

Better late than never
save face and just do
what'cha gotta do.

(c) 2004 lemme howdt

December 21, 2004

Density

sometimes people just cannot grasp a simple concept and they simply melt down in their interpersonal exchange ability. cognitive dissonance leads to a morass where so many 'truths' are fictional accounts manipulated to convey a world persona that is incongruent with reality as we know it. reality is relative and some people are just dense. personal reality is objective and some people are dense. other people are stubborn and ornery. onrri. henri'. howdt.

December 20, 2004

Posts

POST (Pillar of Strength Today)
From Inside our Communities
A Post Takes Charge of Situations
Based on Need for Clarity
Both of Thought and Immediate Action
How Can You Become the Post?
The Anchor of Your Sphere

(c) 2004 Lemme Howdt

December 16, 2004

Curiosity drives me more than any other force in the universe. If the results of an experiment do not add up in terms that i can explain, i get anal about following through and covering every base until i find an answer that makes sense in my framework for the problem.

i also insist on being a generalist in a world of specialists - i want to apply my craft - inorganic chemistry - to everything that can use a sensible explanation. If my friends and colleagues know to recognize the chemistry of a situation and ask me about it - the least i can do is to refer them to the text location where there answer can be found. Usually, it is more convenient for me to acquire an article, or place people in contact with each other.

Some of the middlemen in the supply chain serve a value-added purpose and should not just be clipped from the process during the cost savings shrink. In my last web rendition, i found that people were happy to take advantage of the preliminary free service of engaging my time, but always bailed out when it came to paying for any service. Especially on requests for process information by overseas chemists. They search the literature and the web (use google's new desk-top search engine - wow) and then send requests for information RFIs. I believe the habit developed corporately - Boeing used RFPs (proposals) to mine requests for stealable ideas.

How to make the proper exchanges of value for value when the actual realized value of some services are not apparant will be a serious question for the new economy.

December 13, 2004

Restoring Equilibrium

Running low
Then lo and behold
Up pops a twist
And sanity cheers
Stopping to visit
Old comrades in arms
While jumping thru hoops
Of anal pacifiers
To beg permission
To medicate ones soul
In the chosen manner
Psychophants
Imposing morality
At the point of a gun
Wonder why
Decaying status exists
All around
Hope springs eternal
Only when
Emotional disposition
Clicks on four cylinders
And the occupation
Of education
Is rewarded with freedom
To achieve the goal
When running low
Up pops another twist
And sanity steps aside
While the system equilibrates
Back to normality


(c) 2004 lemme howdt

December 11, 2004

Who is to judge?

Think hard about this topic, because we rely on strong individuals to pass judgement for the collective of society. But when these judges abuse their powers, it becomes incumbent that we- the people - take back the reigns of power that we loaned to our government. In paring back gubbermint structure (and cost), we must first decide on criteria. So I ask, how do we determine who gets to judge.
Transparency is necessary, as is representation. I have some ideas, but they are for later. For now, I kick out a query and solicit response.

Ten metrix points for the first answer eminating from a 2005 Science Zone participant in each classification - scientist, agent, conduit, teacher and student. The term agent means designated agency researcher or project leader.

Redile theory used the term researcher for agent - a misnomer because of the poor connotation of 'research' in the general community. Research is complicated - but everybody can be an agent - even Maxwell Smart. But why fight K.A.O.S.

December 09, 2004

Truth, for its own sake

"If we are to live well – in both the material and spiritual sense – truth-seeking and truth-telling must be integrated with an awareness that our efforts will always be clouded in uncertainty and the illusions that the Hindus refer to as "maya." Understanding arises from the interplay of the search for truth and a willingness to be comfortable with the uncertainties that increasingly arise from that search. Einstein expressed this relationship well when he observed: "as a circle of light increases, so does the circumference of darkness around it.""

Fascinating article on 'reality'.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/shaffer/shaffer92.html


December 08, 2004

Emotional Rescue

Tiers are built on tears
Hierarchy enforces order
Energy outlets diminish
Lock-step in anti-thought.

Diffuse reflectance
Driven by a little blue pill
Opening eyes 2 injustice
A scale of amazing proportion.

Submittance buried within
Layers of manipulated minds
Structured to defeat thought
With irrellevance.

Media blurb – politically correct
World view a derivative constuct
Based on fictional illumination,
Economic obfuscation.

Hearts define the need for tears
Caring about the life we lead
Striving to remedy injustice
Through the integrity of personality
Based on ability to self-contol
The individual minutae of life.

© 2004 Lemme Howdt

December 07, 2004

Using complexity to simplify science

Anthropomorphism is rampant in the professional biological community. Giving animals (and plants!) thinking human characteristics tends to place too much complexity into nature's operating process. Cause and effect in chemistry is simple - events are governed by their physical proximity to reactive change.

Energy both flows downhill and is conserved – so that when an event occurs, all the energy released has to end up somewhere. Various biological entities store this energy by promoting electrons to higher electronic orbital states, then harvest this energy on demand by attaining a threshold level.

So energy storage is cumulative, resulting in the transfer of energy to a readily accessible cascade of intermediate energy accumulators each time the threshold is reached. Bonds vibrate continuously as the energy absorbed rattles around trying to get to critical mass to begin the cascade.

Change happens when typical energy pathways are blocked – forcing the energy to be stored longer, until a novel threshold is attained and energy is released in a different direction. Current models of living systems do not allow for prediction of this direction (Heisenberg Principle).

As paradigms change – the vision of how to solve the current problem can never be found from within the mindset from which the problem was generated. Perspective requires reevaluating the base assumptions, from time to time.

December 05, 2004

Winning the battle

i believe that my stress level has been demagnified. Self-imposed pressure to excel must be tempered by the realization that the goals are worth working toward, no matter what the level of effort required at a given time. Results are cumulative, not instantaneous.

My realization to destress was that anger was breeding frustration which was breeding anger - there are too many more productive emotions available, than to dwell in anger and frustration. But that seems to be where we end up when drive for monetary resource is the focus of life.

Once the temporary goal has been achieved, creativity will flow and the energy orientation pattern will normalize to a new consistancy. Productive outlets need to be set in advance, so that energy of frustration can be redirected to productive use.

Positive affirmations of success work - remind yourself to thank the people that enable sanity in your world. Set your goals to be achievable in the time span that you wish for. Do not leave them open-ended with respect to time - you will never get there.

November 30, 2004

Last blog of the month of November. Let's hope December brings a better climate.

Rat-a-tat-tat

Money grubbing liars
Shuffle hands in MY pocket
rat-a-tat-tat
Start of a revolution
Civil disobediance
rat-a-tat-tat
Hardly civil
Definitely disobedient
rat-a-tat-tat
Private protection
Mafia gubbermint
rat-a-tat-tat
Inflate away
Decadent lifestyles
rat-a-tat-tat
Patience, persistence
Humility, diplomacy
rat-a-tat-tat
First the lawyers
Then the medix
rat-a-tat-tat
Once Franklin claimed
Value is earned
rat-a-tat-tat
Just a shoot em up society
Living at the point of a gun
rat-a-tat-tat

(c) 2004 lemme howdt

November 27, 2004

Somewhere

There is another there out there
and i can get there
Again, i think ...
i was out there
wandering in the garden
where all things made sense
the economic free world.
but you reeled me back,
placed my thoughts
on mundane matters.
take care of my needs
and i'll slip away
to bring back riches
from Columbus' orient.
but only when you unshackle
the chains and the burdens
of artificial reality
now imposed.
(c) 2004 lemme howdt

November 23, 2004

Learning to learn

Spent time yesterday out on the river, taking home-schooled children to the river to observe the Fall Chinook spawning. Five adult vols with the North Umpqua Foundation http://www.northumpqua.org/ and several moms* joined 17 youth aged 4 to 14 relating water quality, bugs, fish and riparian area (the land adjacent to the river) to life. The site was Cow Creek in the South Umpqua - getting kids used to the idea that rotting fish carcasses carry nutrients to the landscape is just part of the overall process of learning about our natural resources. We also visited the site of a train derailment that spilled 4500 gallons of diesel into the river, along with several railcars of lumber.

The kids had some really good questions. Like how much diesel do the booms actually catch? Or what happens to all that wood lying by the stream? Who owns the wood - will it wash down Cow Creek when it starts to rain? (It always rains good in Oregon - November through June) Hope the DEQ and the railroad can provide the public with some answers.

Redile - research directed learning environments - allow youth to enter into learning at their current level of ability. Somewhere between 5th and 8th grade, children lose their natural curiosity and become convinced that science is difficult. We must stop this. Science is an approach to life, not a topic. Never stop asking the questions if you are not satisfied with the answers that you receive.

* Dads - you don't know what you are missing by not taking the time off from work to do things with your children. The kids are where it's at - much more worthy of your time and effort than a boss and a cubicle. Family leave is for building the future - use it and get in touch with your family.

Bonding

People bonding parellels chemical bonding
The depth of mutual attraction
Accomodating personal interest
Covalency to share images
Of a future yet to be created
Free thinking, free radical
Learning to promote integrity
Aligning support with the mission
That people shall reap what they sow
By mimicking the process of life
In context of educating thinkers
To redile Pandora's box of value
Back to truthful reality
At every level transparency
Activation energy supplied internally
By people bonding with people

(c) 2004 lemme howdt

November 20, 2004

Fight Club

Before we see the NBAs response to the unacceptible performance in Detroit last night, I guarentee that they will fine and suspend the wrong perpetrators in the brawl. Artest is a flake, but paying $ to see an event does not entitle the fanatic to become part of the action. Ever ! $ cause tension. big $ cause big tension, especially when $ are tight. Oh, excuse me - the economy is good. Yeah, right. It is good for NBA athletes. And fan's lawyers.
My question is - Can people work out there differences in a controlled violent forum that allows the pressure venting in a societally acceptible form? Most people like violence - allowing the politically correct to ban violence just makes the violence criminal. If physical violence were at least tolerated, people would learn to protect themselves better. Maybe we need to re-invent personal boxing - as a relief valve. (It might have the side effect of creating more wit, if what you say can get your clock cleaned for saying it.)

November 18, 2004

Media

The use of different medias to convey a single message to multiple groups of people should be harnessed for learning community development. The Zone will identify opportunities to embed concepts into various forms of information exchange, so that a consistent picture is developed in all forms of expression.

An example - people that collect their news from the internet, assume that everybody is connected to the internet, and fail to deliver their message to non-internet users. Some don't care, but they miss the opportunity to collect information from the non-connected luddites (who are the people that actually do things with their time other than blog on the computer). <thanks lemme>

One thing that people expect is consistency of character - if you develop a role, separate yourself from that role and then see if you can keep the character of the role consistent. Your roles {like writer, data collector, actor, and equipment keeper} can all be different consistent persona, but you the individual do not have to believe all the framework that the characters maintain - except specifically when in that role. Between characters there can be differing opinions. You as individuals have to resolve reality for yourself.

November 17, 2004

Prelim News - the mahatma spake

Ghandi was right - First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. But do the games ever stop, even after you win? Can you ever get back to paying attention to the things that are really important, rather than just defending turf? Inquiring minds want to know.

In 7th grade, Mr. Passaro said - A philosophy is to a person as a rudder is to a boat. Current philosophy doesn't allow an individual to focus on his task to the exclusion of the public interface. Performers on stage with the public have a game face that meets public expectation - but it comes off at private times surrounded by friends and family. Invasion of that space is an invasion of property rights. Yet more public institutions demand that time from real people, who don't have the clout of the name recognition of actors and athletes.

People need latitude to succeed. Luck is when preparation meets opportunity. When those factors come together to create new modes of thinking, we will have progress in the state of the world. We must stop looking for help from outside and look inward.

November 16, 2004

Hmmmmm


How do we know
If what we know
Is what there is to know?
We build constructs
Based on theories
That reality exists
A certain way,
But if that shape
And form differs
Then by what means
Can we pull the plug?
Drain the solvent
Restore the chaos
Permit a novel daily order
Different from
The marching order
Beating the drum
To destroy the muslim faith
Solely because it is different
From the construct
We call home.
How do we know
That what they told us
In school, back when
Is truth enough
To base a belief system
On something so obtuse
As Orwell’s 1984 reality?

(c) 2004 lemme howdt

November 14, 2004

Sports and science

Entered into a conversation with Robert Leroy Wilson on his blog site Independent Country www.independentcountry.blogspot.com. He made a comment about Roger Clemens and sustained career performance. The follow-up got me thinking on sports and science again, but I felt my rant should be on my own site.

Einstein talked about relativity and moving the frame of reference. Our current system lets us leisurely watch sporting games, between well tuned gladiators with scorekeeping and records providing the history of context. As a baseball fanatic, I grew up on a never ending stream of sports information.

At one point in my career, I was at Washington and Jefferson College broadcasting college football over WJCR, the college radio station. I had bagged pre-med because I didn't like the other people in my classes and had to decide between sports and science for a career path. This was Curt Flood era. Who knew that sports would hit the big time and science would lose all respect, including self-respect?

Now, the society is in trouble, because the box we build around us is based on unproductive leisure like sports. However, if we can keep our sports models and apply them in other areas, science, politics, civics ; we can get people thinking again in a novel framework that opens up unlimited options. Cooperative competitions at a community level. Have schools measuring and weighing and comparing options on all sorts of frame of reference.

Werk howdtside da baax! Collect information, sort it and count it. Live it for a few moments and before too long, curiosity becomes a habit. explore Cause and Effect. but don't forget Alice's little white rabbit.

dr lenny

November 11, 2004

shifting time

morning excitement
the great wallet/key search
ever notice how little light
coverage in the early morning
days just prior to time change ...

{ time change, a novel concept -
play with people's internal clock
pretend to shift an hour of daylight
from morning to afternoon (vv)
where it will be appreciated
or depreciated - one or the other.
tell my animals on the farm
that time has changed
they look at you funny
and still expect to be fed }

... daylight savings time
what a silly urban concept.

(c) 2004 lemme howdt

the Mollek Hugh

There are limits to our ability to influence other people's thought. Science, which employs reason, should be useful to people in their day-to-day operations. But because it is sold as being difficult and requires (gasp) abstract thought, most people refuse to attempt science. Instead they write it off as another religion that they don't understand.

Math does not have to be confusing. Even though math is the discretionary language of science, the ideas still have to fit conceptually. Balls and stick models provide a distorted image of chemistry, in that they neglect the wave in favor of an all particle model.

- scientific gibberish -

{ One can assimilate the flow of electrons using onomonopoeia, the assigning of human intent, to explain the concept of an orbital shell dictating the molecular chemistry. Understanding the difference between ionic interactions of electrostatic, non-energy bearing association and covalent sharing of electon pairs for mutual molecular satisfaction is the key to relating spacial biochemistry. }

A cartoon featuring the mollek Hugh will introduce basic concepts of chemistry. Hugh will be a regular contributor to the howdtfield. Hugh will appear in many forms - size will be important, as well as facial form. Unfortunately, the blog site does not have a convenient drawing program, so you will have to wait to be pleased to meet Hugh.

November 09, 2004

Wierd alphabetedness

Sometimes i wonder how much truth there is to bumper sticker sayings. Like - whoever dies with the most toys wins. Perhaps people should not be so afraid of confronting their own mortality. everybody dies - get used to it. Let's stop throwing money at doctors that simply prolong life without restoring the quality.

Create new spellings of words - every letter that has an alternate pronunciation gets changed - complexities may be shortened to phonic - original letters replaced for emphasis.

through = thru
metrix = metrics
howdt = out
qophy = coffee

some letters have no alternatives - el, ar, en, em

try this one : zkul luvard knox

Stop stop

Uniforms scare me
They take people
And conform them
Into dictators
Give a cop a rule
And watch the breadth
He takes to regulate
Other people’s lives

Lawmakers are dottering fools
Turn people into law breakers
Rules are thinking stops
Places to look ahead for trouble
Yield signs on the road of life
Not stop signs
Stop prevents all progress
Stop ruins mental imagry
Stop breaks momentum
Stop beats people up
Stop is violence enforced
Stop telling me what to do!

Amazing how jurisdiction
Ultimately lies with the people
The government overlay is callous
Equally looting bread from our tables
To feed a profit machine
Run currently on autopilot
By the drone of bureaucrats
And their stop signs


(c) 2004 lemme howdt

November 06, 2004

PDER

Perception
Deception
Exception
Reception
Prescription
Description
Transcription
Rescription
Purview
De View
Exview
Review
Purpose
Expose
Depose
Repose S

(c) 2004 lemme howdt

November 05, 2004

Battling the System

Schizophrenic world
Overfocused on consumption
We go, we stop: we go, we stop
Chugging along at crawl pace
Because sprinting cannot be sustained
Yet followers slowly appear
Drift off again until infrastructure
Is built on more than shifting sand
Walls made of more than playing cards
Games people play to feel
Self-important – when, really,
They don’t have very much of a clue
Yet perseverance
Adherence toward the goal
Mischievous desire
To empower a muscle
The brain
… do not drain your brain
by believing the pap smeared
by the media across the mind numbed
faces of the supposed adult population …
Spirits soar when the challenge
Of meeting the unknown is entertained,
Yet battling external demons in human form
Is enough to suck the livelihood from a vampire


(c) 2004 lemme howdt

November 02, 2004

A fitting poem for election day

Election prediction - every sitting congressman running for reelection wins. The rules are set by the sharks, so that only sharks can play. Franking privilege alone is huge. Oink.

Locally - Akse nearly pulls off an upset. Every point she gets over 38% is backlash and over 45% is campaign. Awesome run local campaign - made a race out of a May walkover. - Note - prelim results have Kittleman 56%-44%


Novel Concept

The ground
Shakes,
Swells,
Opens up
And swallows
Government
As a whole.
In the wake
Of absence
Anarchy
Reaches out.
People
Must fend
For themselves.
Collusion
Betwixt
Local entities
Vying
For control.
Support
Handed to those
Willing to do.
Rewards
Both moral
And ethical
Come to those
With patience
2 Persevere
4 Right (as concept)
Fixed by
Natural law.
As energy,
Motive Power,
Diffuses
Amongst the hands
Of a populace
Rolling up
Sleeves
Toward restoring
Mass Balance


(c) 2004 lemme howdt

Last note - anyone have anything that really works on migrane headaches?

October 31, 2004

Sports as a metaphor on life

With baseball done and basketball starting, football is in the death march of mid-season. How many people can relate their life in terms of the sporting events burned in our memories. My life has been jaded by being an 11-year old rooting for Tom Seaver, Tug McGraw and the miracle Mets in 1969. Ya gotta believe

Now, Dr. Lenny is a free-agent. I cut the tether on my last contract and go forth boldly into the world on a quest to bring science to the status of sports. People need to follow (ie watch) science and see what those folks are actually doing. Science today is badly broken, partly because most people find it too difficult to think about. Only because they believe what they are told.

If you can calculate batting average and ERA, you can do science. Science is asking simple questions and pursuing the answers. It's thinking about things before you believe them. It's seeing that the numbers match the performance - just like sports.

If the Red Sox can win a World Series, then the average person can think about science, and life.
Opening soon at howdt.com will be the howdtfield, with commentary from right field, left field, and the middle infield synthesis. Science, sports and life.

October 29, 2004

community

http://www.strike-the-root.com/4/massoud/massoud2.html

A new community can spontaneously generate when it achieves a critical mass of matter and energy, plus some spark to set off the mixture. The dynamics depend on the goals - at a basic level, survival of the community may be the only goal. Rules that govern need to provide side-boards - the underlying philosophy needs to be fundamental to the system function. Query - does evey effect have a logical cause?

October 28, 2004

ootfray oopslay

As rosanne rosannadanna used to say, its always somethin. Escaped into the wilds of the pacific northwest to pick chantrelle mushrooms with doctor bugaboo and creepy claude. The topic was deep ecology and living systems, with the philosophy of Fritjof Capra being poked and prodded for discussion. The triage of form, process and matter require creative genius to bring it together in an adaptive system that works for all contributors. Cooperators have to see immediate benefit potential, which can be realized on demand. But the key is to allow the investment to grow, to leave the pot ripe for development and spin out the most productive aspects to generate employment opportunities. True environmental advocates are not necessarily tree-hugging fruit loops, some of the best enviros are the farmers, ranchers, loggers and woodlot owners that run the day-to-day operations of managing land. Start wearing different hats, seeing thru different eyes and thinking with curiosity. If you want to really learn, show up at a public meeting and ask pertinent questions. You might be surprised at how you get answers.
(my apologies to my tree-hugging friends - comments are made with love and skill and meant to make you get up off your ass and comment.)(Claude's nickname was donated by a DHS junior in last spring's water zone.)

October 27, 2004

Life, in game terms

Life, in Game Terms

Enthusiasm ebbing
Reality dawns
The ride will soon be over
Power plays
Depend on bluff and bluster
Folding not an option
Opponent drawing
To an infrastructure supported
Inside straight
The deck is stacked
The game is rigged
But the means to play
Still rests in control
Of a simple chess piece
Once a pawn achieves
Knight or Bishop status
In the external community
Building value via
Plans to establish castles
(Attempting not to get rooked)
Reaching the seventh rank
Bypassing en passant
Near to the pinnacles
Yet no choice to be king
Upon reaching the eighth
Just another tool
Enabling the downfall
Of the opposition's flag

(c) 2004 lemme howdt

Science and Sorting, sorta

Sorting is one of the most important science tasks. Everybody knows how to sort - the laundry all ends up in different drawers - so the concept is universal. Good sorting technique is essential to good science, yet people never really train to sort.

Your brain acts like a file to keep your life sorted. Computers are also set up like filing cabinets. Set up your system to be able to find documents later, by using footers on documents, placing date codes in file names and identifying keywords. The better you understand where you would put things, the easier it is to retrieve them. They go to the logical slot. Your system, Your logic.

As a packrat, I rarely throw anything away. My hard copy files are cross-referenced, but I do not routinely generate hard copies of interim documents. A new tool from Google, a desktop search program, is in beta testing to solve this info retrieval problem. Another tool that I use is Save This - a tool button in my favorites that catalogs document URLs for quick retrieval. It also has share capabilities, so I do not have to e-mail columns.

So - to sum up, if you organize your system to find the knowledge that you have dumped from your brain, then you can be more effective in sorting through your stored information. Effective sorting makes for good science.

October 25, 2004

Spinning

World turning with Orwellian spin
Order of the day: Doubletalk from Minitrue
Ashcroft's psycho yarns
Beleagered people respond
Fourth generational warfare
Protecting the homeland
Securing population centers
From all apparent and perceived harm
Soon our streets are occupied
By blue-helmeted soldiers
As rockets whiz thru
Striking a vehicle with minor
Colligative damage (only two
children dead) this time
Flood the labor markets
Outsource the presidency to india
Common strategy seems to be
Ostrich - head in the sand
Anything we do not choose to see
Cannot be real - only WMD
Which we can never see, are real
And jumpin George in his jump suit
Claims victory over a tactic
The other George - Orwell -
Spins rapidly in his grave

(c) 2004 - lemme howdt

Depths of Societal Interaction

I am currently working on developing a sense of what bonds people together. At the basic level, we have the strongest bonds with family and friends. Friends have different depth level profiles - there are the inner circle, the share and occaisonal dinner level, the go out on weekend outings together friends, and the at least one good deep conversation type. The depth of a friendship might be judged by how well you can ask questions about the status of the family. Certainly, common outside interests are necessary for good friendships.

When you have personal relationships, you leave yourself open to disappointment, when the other persons cannot keep up with personal standards of ethics and morality. When public and personal lives cross, then there are some distinctly sticky ethical issues. If you live your occupation, as I do, outlookers see motives as self-serving. They are - the better I do as a consultant, the more successful I will be in accomplishing my work goals. But my measure of success is non-monetary; I measure success based on on-the-ground improvement in the approach toward natural resource extraction.

Our society must stop charging blindly into the future. However, the precautionary principle approach offered from some quarters is economically devastating - it sways the pendulum back to 'no effective management criteria' and penalizes attempts at innovation. Management criteria must include reality based data - collected without bias - that forms the basis for asking 'is this better?'. Currently, we reduce information to quantitative measures that demonstrate progress, as defined in terms of those measures. We need to define some new metrix - ancillary units of activity that provide support for resolution of the hypothesis - a means that tell us that we are in fact addressing the right questions.

More on this topic in a later post -

October 24, 2004

Rant against the medix

How does the medical profession get privileged status. Death is one of those things that nobody has figured out how to avoid - so why do they do everything to the limit of ones purse strings to extend existance. Shouldn't we develop a hospice environment. Nobody asked for MDs to play gatekeeper to the pharma world - and natural remedies should be encouraged rather than prosecuted. The clowns really need a refresher in basic biochemistry. And who came up with the idea that cost savings could be achieved by inserting insurance companies between doctors and patients. The whole system is broken - let people pass when they can't afford the care. We do not have an inate right to health care. (Only an inane right) Grrrrr

October 23, 2004

Resource Building

From time to time, my colleague Lemme Howdt will entertain with his radical poetry. Please be careful not to feed his cynicism too greatly, as it goes to his head. Having no hair, most everything that pleases doctor lenny is based in his gut.

Resource Building

Swift Water runs fast
Sweeping away Anxiety
Under an ever-present Cloak
of Cognitive Dissonance
Unfiltered Information
Buried below Layers
Leads to Conclusions
Owls are not What they seem
Stewards of the Resource
have little Time for dollar Games
Value accrues from Work
Knowledge vests from Time
spent Accumulating, first Hand
Eyes, Ears, Hands, Minds
Engaged in a Practice
Measurement
Such that when the Time comes
Some will know how to Lead

(c) 2004 Lemme Howdt

October 22, 2004

That didn't work, but this one did!

How is it that the most simple things can be made most complex? Life is very simple - breathe in, breathe out. As Dori says, Just keep swiming...
Science is a seriously unknown commodity these days. The press like to have dueling data - each group brings their own and whoever yells the loudest wins. No thanx.
My intent is to blog anything and everything with a science spin. The zone will eventually be connected to a website, where more journalistic type postings will housed.
So the rules of this blog are - screw the rules. Say anything, just think about what you say and what others say. I'm sure that I'll have lots to say. Afetr all, it only took me about 2 weeks to figure out how to blog.
BTW - a Luddite is a person that disdains technology. As a scientist, I like placing technology into other peoples hands and pushing things to their limits. We'll see how long it takes to blog to the outer limits. With respects to Rod Serling, welcome to The Zone.

The Luddite learns to Blog

October 13, 2004

Testing

This is the first blog.