August 31, 2005

Watch em grow

When we first met the cubs in march, they looked like photo one. Now, these guys are the same size as my teenager. Samson is a full grown Bengal Tiger, where-as Kiera, Zina and Diesel are Siberian Tigers. Photo weights - 45lbs, 125 lbs, 450 lbs






Cat Heaven

Just returned from Cave Junction - got to spend quiet time with the tiger cubs twice - for an hour each time. I added to the collections of howdtstanding pictures - which I'll dribble out in the next few days in a shameless attempt to draw viewership in Doctor Lenny's Bloggosphere - The Zone

August 29, 2005

Lemme's look

Hodari, Hodari
Loan me your look
The picture you see
Is a photo i
took

August 28, 2005

Relationship

Are you talkin
XXXXX to me?
XXXXX at me?
XX or with me?
Sure seems
XXXX like you
XXXXX are set
XXXXX already
So that as i
XXXXXX reply
XXxX eruptions
XXXof fury arise
Was it that i
XXXX don't agree
XXXX don't notice
that draws wrath
Are you talkin
XXXXX with me?
XXXXXX to me?
or over my head?

Cui bono

I was running through a series of blogs by my favorite journalists and Steve Yates' It's Happening Here has a new post on the democrappic partE's ideas of education reform. Entirely bass ackwards - rewarding bad behaviors by throwing money at administrative programs and teachers unions, while chaining bored kids into board desks in classrooms for longer periods of time and much more testing. If only schools rewarded the best teachers with the freedom to teach and the opportunity to achieve high pay without shifting to administration. The real question is - who is best served by having a public school teach your kid. If the answer is anyone other than your kid - then get your kid out of traditional public high school. Each kid is different - ask them which they would prefer, a public school or a job with a mentor? Kids are unique, they have unique interests and they do not need to know a little bit about everything without context in anything.

Current education is a crime, although i would have to say that it is not deliberate on the part of most people involved. The evolution of the education system has run past checking its basic premises for a vast long time. For instance - why don't kids always attend local (walking distance) school buildings and we bus the teachers and administrators around for diversity of approach and content? Have a few local home teachers (moms and dads) and connect to experts in a field when it suits the content to have a deeper explanation. A monthly change in local visiting expert who can bring in new skills and techniques; the person takes off physically before the material gets stale - but checks in on-line. Content driven units would allow kids to spend time in depth on one topic, before learning the breadth of the world. As they get better at depth, they will then need to contact breadth, but at least our kids will have a frame of reference to base their intellect upon.

August 27, 2005

EH - 25 : Big Brother

Spyder's post comment at rigorous intuition is a very worthy read. You will have to scroll to find it - note: it is not on topic with the rest of the commentary.

Well...At about 11:30 or so, I was standing behind the stage talking with someone when I noticed a helicopter pulling over one ofthe mountain tops. I jokingly said "Oh look, here comes big brother" to the person I was with. I wasn't far off.

Western Water - Visual Summary

Winter Flow/Summer Flow at Falls Creek outlet on North Umpqua River. Photos are in March and August 2005.



Work and Rewards

This fall, OSEN will be launching an on-line mentor school - where students can tap into courses being offered by a teacher to other high school students and use our on-line resources - like the lecture-hall, the on-line offices, yourclassroom.com and the redile system to enhance the education that the students get from public schools. The first classes available in October will involve Reedsport and Douglas High Schools and the Riddle Education Center - a charter school.

The Bug Zone will feature aquatic entomology while Water Zone will teach techniques of water quality monitoring. There will be a field component to the work. Each zone will feature 12 1-hour on-line classes, a chalkboard area for interactive questioning of the expert, and a timed on-line test that requires knowledge of the terminology and context of the topic. The classes will build on common concepts, and will require field certification for completion. For people not local to us here - we will have methods of reaching you in your community. This will require work,to borrow and maintain quipment, to review websites, work math problems, and to put things together - but the rewards will be that you add an uncommon skill to your collection of abilities. Plus, if you live close, we could sit on a hillside and watch this:

or take a hike into the wilderness to find a natural hot pool like this:


If i have tempted you, we can make arrangements with Jane Green to pay us all a visit, so that you can get your certification here first hand and meet some of the animal characters that i have been blogging about.

Cats Again

Headed to the Cat Villa on Tuesday - just wanted to remind myself. Here are Diesel and Tarri - The embedded link is to the full resolution shot of Diesel. Typically, I crop pictures to fit the blog, but this shot in full resolution may be keepable. I would rather not have the cage in the photo, but these are tigers. After Labor Day, when the heat is down, the cats should be active. Cave Junction Oregon - Great Cats World Park.

Diesel2Jun05Giant.JPG

August 25, 2005

Whut wuz sed - ken B red

Non-picture archives are now available!
Get Howdt! Available Soon @ YC.C

Freddie Mercury - how did you know

Is this the real life - or is this fantasy?
Caught in a landslide - no escape from reality
Open your eyes, look up to the skies and see
I'm just a poor boy, i need no sympathy
because i'm easy come, easy go, little high, little low
any way the wind blows doesn't really matter - to me...
nothing really matters anyone can see
nothing really matters, nothing really matters, to me
any way the wind blows free

EH - 24 Economy

American university enrollments in science and engineering are declining because there are no jobs for graduates. It is pointless to invest money, sweat and toil in an education that has no payoff. Markets do work. Markets are working to shrink the demand for, and supply of, American engineers and scientists.

Paul Craig Roberts questions one of the basic assuptions and finds it lacking in support. GIGO. However, because the product is not currently being generated and the skills necessary to hold positions in science management are rare for native English speaking students with multiple language skills; any youth with the intelligence to speak valid science in universal language math, in the next future, should be able to write her own ticket. Responding to change first is what will create success.

Bugged Howdt

Went up the North Umpqua yesterday and sampled for bugs. We did the Calf and Fairy Creek sites which are the 7th and 8th data set. After lunch at Munchie's in Glide, we sorted the Fairy sample, which was taken from an area where downed wood from the Apple Fire 0f 2002 was being 1) flagged for timber sale and 2) recruited into the stream. The bugs, macroinvertebrates are an indicator of water quality. The Calf Creek site pictured below is outside the burned area. There were a lot of water pennies and black fly larvae in the Fairy Creek sample. We may have missed some mayflies and stoneflies that have previously hatched, being that it is late August.
I also have a shot of Falls Creek Falls - the same picture that i had up two weeks ago, but August rather than January. Bit of flow difference eh?


Change

Conversation at While Away Books concerned change. I have decided that i prefer loose change - a couple of quarters, one dime, two pennies - we don need no stinkin nickels. The pennies are so that i can put my two cents in. The quarters bear state emblems, which should remind us of the 10th amendment - the forgetten one that talks about the rights not delineated belonging to the states.

I am kicking around a concept that needs some latitude. I have developed terms for an individual challenge where a student demonstrates a role reversal with the mentor - a passing of the ritual, to demonstrate mettle in an individual field. But - the catch is that i'd like the student not to challenge his direct mentor, but the mentors in the educational hierarchy of his mentors.

I have in mind a challenge system that is not a waste of time for anyone - but brings challenges that get addressed promptly and accurately. Thus a challenge can be accepted, refuted or declined. Declined is a concession on the point. Refuted is easy - just bring up increased knowledge. But accepted challenges should be battled in a format where the crowd - you and me and everyone who is not a party to the debate team should have a say in determining the issue resolution. Is there a system out there that does this, or should i spend some of my precious time inventing this wheel?

EH - 23 Precaution

As the Commission interprets the precautionary principle, it is a free pass for the arbitrary political and administrative use of statistical data about everything and everybody

Doctor Lenny has railed against the precautionary principle several times, especially when NGOs get involved. Frank Van Dun points out the absurdity of attempting science in the background context of governance. The principle translates to me as - if we dont know, not only will we bury our heads in the sand, but you must bury your head in sand too. Who is included in the we is what the battle of life is about. Right now, i don't see too many scientists or clergy serious about the political arena. too bad.

August 24, 2005

EH - 22 Fanaticism

Unfortunately, modern academia is a cesspool of atavistic ideological fanaticism.

Steven LaTulippe illustrates a witch-hunt, which is due to an editor allowing some unacceptible religious thought slip into a science publication. The intolerance of it all - anti-thought. Y'know, the next author on the original list after Orwell is Kafka, with spin from Nostredamos and Machiavelli.

With the necessity to justify ones existence in every action in order to be allowed to procede, why would any creative thinker wish to publish thought in a journal - poetry speaks to people and doesn't require the busybodies of acceptible thought to vette the ideas in their own right. gotta get howdt

Be careful what you blog - the internet is a giant needle in the haystack, pin the tail on the donkey game. If you say it, it will track back to you. Visibility helps.

August 22, 2005

Depth First, then Breadth

One of the beauties of Redile is that we create young specialists and teach them to become generalists. This way they can take their field of interest and apply it to a profession in the world at large. The current school system creates know-it-all generalists who cannot even provide reasons to validly back up an opinion.

Science = Religion

If science can be defined as a non-theological religion, then the wall between church and state is complete fiction. The belief system of science - using reason to explain cause and effect - is just another way of looking at the world. If things appear to make sense, then why is it that rarely is the theory successfully put into practice. Oh, I suppose that you can cite some commercial products, but since Edison got electricity down pat - of what utility has been anything further? Einstein and Pauling discussed some unique possibilities, but really - what did relativity really do, except make people distrust Newtonian concepts of time and space?

If we cannot offer proof beyond a shadow of a doubt, then we must call our ideas theories. Hence we get things like the theory of gravity. Of course, when it works over and over again, we can call it a principle, like the Peter Principle or the Heisenburg Uncertainty Principle. Matter and Energy are subject to this, but you can tell that most people these days are oblivious to things like Maxwell's demon or Schroedinger's cat. The entire underpining of the universe depends on these concepts, except if you don't believe them. Then they apparently don't count.

The capitalists are jihading the muslims. Time to give peace a chance. Let the world be based on science rather than economics and let the other religions co-exist. There is no inherent conflict between creation and evolution - both can happen via the same mechanisms and we as scientists and reverends cannot distinguish between them, through our current choices of paradigm and instrumentation. If we check the premises and assume they are all wrong - working back through the theory of life, based on what we think we know now, may lead to an entirely different answer. I think it's worth a shot.

August 21, 2005

Archives

Doctor Lenny expects to be able to post access to the blog archives from October 2004 through April 2005 this evening. If we have the time, the next three months will be up by tomorrow and we will be current. Except that we still need to thumbnail the pictures. Is there a program that does this? The poetry files are muchly awesome!!!!!

Withdrawals

This weekend - Doctor Lenny's world of on-line gaming shut down along with everybody else that plays at It's Your Turn . com - both computer and back-up systems crashed. I only had forty games 40 going, as i had cut back to get some writing done. Rather than make excuses, the staff has been working to correct the problem and dealing with a whole bunch of people who have too much time on their hands - based on how much time is spent playing games. Patrick Chu is blogging with his customers - keeping us informed - the sign of a quality company.

But - if you think about it - you get a lot more satisfaction from a break playing games on-line and chatting with friends, than you do from working. And - you probably produce just as much productivity to challenging your brain, as you do from working. If you get good at chess, or backgammon, or go or any of the cornucopeia of games that IYT offers, then you have demonstrated the ability to reason. Game number one on my website http://www.howdt.com is based on the Singularity game at IYT. So games are hardly a waste of time - as long as you consider the whole of what you spend on entertainment value, perhaps games are a much better deal than most other forms of brain-rot. Find a hobby, any hobby and do it!

So, if you do on-line gaming, now is the time to help out a friend and join this site. The side benefit is that it is a really cool site. I'll see you all on the Extinction chess ladder - i play under the name lemme howdt (bet you couldn't have guessed that). Good luck Steve in getting us gaming! Thanks Leigh Ann for dealing with Patrick's deluge.

BTW - i also have games going at http://www.schemingmind.com

Reminisce on Learning - the Run

People like to collect things. Through howdt time, the things that have been collected have more or less value, usually dependent on supply and demand. For a new issues of a collectable, the key factor is the size of the run. Here is a short autobiographical tale that describes the depth of the learning process.

At one point in my life i was an avid baseball card collector. i started when i was young and collected because i liked baseball. I read the cards, knew all the facts and watched the games that these players played. Cards cost a nickel a pack of ten and they came with gum - the gum was a worthwhile tradable. Card collecting developed for me a sense of marketplace - i knew what i valued, i knew what others valued and i set out to accomplishing a task - getting every card in the set. I began as a 5 year old in 1964 and by 1968 had completed my first set - the one with Tom Seaver and his rookie trophy. My friends Steve and Jeff and I did this every day. We breathed baseball.

Of course - i played with cards incessantly, putting them in my bicycle spokes, flipping them throught the air so that they spun over and over and trying to control whether they came up heads or tails. We would climb a staircase and flip cards out to a landing - the winner collecting all the cards when he could land a card touching another card in the designated area. On indoor days - we would pull out our cards and go back and forth matching positions, colors, even haircuts, winner take the stack. When we ran out of cards - the game ended for the day. I always seemed to leave with all the cards. So the next day, i would sort through - pull out the ones that were not doubles or look for better mint cards than the ones i had.

This was my interest, my hobby, my life - what i did when i was on my time. I crunched numbers, had a TV droning in the background with the Mets, Phillies, Yankess, Cubs and Braves available free. The sporting news and strat-o-matic baseball completed the set. Baseball players made a comfortable salary to play games - wow - and the numbers crunched demonstrated true performance comparatives - we could argue for weeks at length as to whether Greg Luzinski was more valuable than Lenny Dykstra (steroids?hmmm).

The depth of experience was supercedes by high school, chess, girls, drugs, beer and other things. I purchased complete sets, but put them aside whole to get back to - but never quite did. I would always look for odd sets - the Drake's Cakes set on the box bottom - clipped the panel whole. Each year the run of cards got bigger as more people began seeing value in these pieces of paper. And sports became bug business.

The tipping point for my interest was when Coca-Cola created a special Nolan Ryan commemorative set. I ordered five copies and when they came opened the first box. Jeff who is a diehard Ryan fan was so torn between looking at the cards and destroying the collector's value. But i wanted to see and read and feel the cards. The open pack is of course dispersed, but i still have a sealed Coke box in the closet. I wonder if Jeff has his?

I also have a Nolan Ryan Rookie Card encased in plastic in 'good' condition. Ryan was a late series rookie in the Seaver set - but edges and corners were not worth watching back then. That is why mint Ryan rookies are rare - a late in the run issue, when they printed less cards in the run for the latter series. Some years, the seventh series didn't come out til august and by that time - only the diehards collected baseball cards.

When I finished school and moved out west - moving my entire card collection was one of the keys factors to driving rather than flying. But grad school was too time consuming and other than buying sets - topps and Fleer and Donruss and Upper Deck and Beckett's became a life-saver. And then the move to Boston - the cards went into storage. Life in the working world - well, i moved back to Oregon and started the family.

And the opportunity came up, in the high point of the card craze where Roy - a California collector and I met at a card show, that was at a fair that my wife wished to attend. And when we got to talking the value, in 1993 and the need to raise money for the mortgage, Roy told me about the souther california card market where he dealt. Over the next year, I bled out all my sets from 1970 through 1985 and most of the specialty cards for enough to make the down payment on a small farm. The cards after 1986 were too recent and suffered badly from over-production. By 1995 - the value of cardboard was once again cardboard. Well a bit better - but i'll have to find a Beckett's and price a Ryan rookie. I recall an $1100 peak.

I still have my Ryan rookie card. The sixties cards that i collected as a rugrat were not of high enough quality for the collectors. I worked with Roy to fill in those sets and replace cards, but then life called and now - I look at the cards on the shelf and say wow - what's the next baseball card phenomena. It went to pet rocks and pokeymans and all sorts of things. So i sit back and look at the world and try to predict value. I look at sports of the 60s and ask - what has replaced it? Sports of the oughts (00s) is gladiator warfare - or at least was until it got replaced for real by the middle east endeavor. But science stands ripe to provide a collectable interest for youth - if we can share our stories and give people something to aspires to.

So who should be the scientists in the first issue of Science Zone cards and what should be the size of the run? Einstein, Pauling for sure, but who else? I'll accept nominations for a while - until we go into print. I'd also like suggestions for the back design of the card. If somebody else would like to invest money in my time - I'll help set them this up as a micro-business. I figure a run of about 15,000 - but i haven't looked at the market economics at all - there may be a significant cost savings at some threshhold printing run level.

August 20, 2005

Distopian Reality

Could i be too far howdt there
what will i find when i let go
when i look for the mirror
and the reflection appears blank
underwhelming achievement
the cost of empowerment today
in terms of ethics and morals
and credibility - cannot vision
a world as out of balance
as the current one we inhabit
seeded with outrageous abundence
yet sequestered by few whims
endless perpetual escalator of
unrelentless growth demand
converting biomass into humanity
as if, as if, as if we recognize
no other intelligent critters exist
because they don't speak words
can be excluded from cognizance
cept when we deem to pet them
the relationship of trust
dependent upon past cultivation
but, y'no, we reap what we sow

(c) 2005 lemme howdt

EH - 21 : Medical Science

Shane Ellison is definitely not trumpeting the party line here folks.

Science 2 Politics 2 Change

The world reared its ugly face again this week and the anger and frustration spilled out once more. Most people have no concept how their short term actions affect long term entrenchment of systems that have lost utility and function to promote ethical lapses.

My mechanism of building partnerships has always been to sacrifice the now for the later and i have built to the point where i have justified a laboratory to investigate carbon. I have not been paid to keep up on the carbon field, but was hooked on the premise of venture capital for the lab as a cornerstone of the business plan, which i would be a low level share owner. I developed a counting method based on chemistry and it gives results on the same order of magnitude as the current conventional calculation.

But since $ calls the shots, my four-year investment of time and effort has been superceded by corporate know-it-alls who decided that the organization was stronger on paper without the lab. I was shifted to a monkey role with a fixed (low) salary - which is still just imaginary.

Realize that carbon sequestration is a no-brain approach. It encourages the build-up and removal of a raw material in a cyclic process carbon dioxide - which is 'linked' to global warming, a phenomena that has virtually no bearing with atmospheric chemistry. The earth cycles nutrients throughout nature via many connective mechanisms, each of which is being increasingly diminished by our current approach to resources. Lomborg's The Skeptical Environmentalist and Crichton's State of Fear both go a long way in pointing holes in the arguments, but each poo-poo the idea that something is physically changing that cannot be explained in terms of modern science. However - collecting carbon in trees is a valid approach to enhancing the cyclic process of nature. If we fix the rate that nature can work at for maximum atmospheric efficiency, then earth can metabolize oxygen to take care of all the populations. Conservation Biology is where things will be happening - we need to get things correct.

So it's time to collectively check our premises. Chemistry is a superb first order approximation that recognizes a dual particle/wave nature to atoms in molecules. We can use the discipline to synthesize natural products. The wave nature is used for spectroscopy - identifying molecules by the characteristic frequency of the chemical bonds. The chemical bonds store energy. So what ever happened to the waves and their usefulness in carrying information? Consciousness can neither be explained by just particle theory, nor solely by wave theory - yet we insist on studying the phenomena separately. (Cept the militry hmm)

How is it that the investment in ethanol - a two-carbon material formed by the breaking of chemical bonds in higher order more advanced biological chemicals - is supposed to net save energy when the energy cost involved in breaking all the six-carbon cellulose chains to two-carbon chains is greater than what is left stored in the two-carbon product?

There are a huge amount of similar issues packed in the energy bill. The flood of funding from the federal government meant to stimulate the economy is a large waste of resource. In this case we get ethanol: agribusiness corn producers pay lobbyists to sell congress on the idea that they are addressing a problem, which they created to sell corn that is overproduced due to production incentives to agribusiness from the department of agriculture. Some solutions - elect no incumbents to congress, reduce the size of the executive bureaucracy, allow no lawyers outside the judicial branch, decrease the volume of laws.

But there is another solution that relies on no government at all. OSEN will begin offering basic science classes for knowledge purposes for low cost. The catch is that the work to learn the scope of material requires a significant time investment. I would put it out for free - but economics dictate that i have to make a living and i would prefer not to have to accept the last grants that i will be/have been offered. And I still want to fund a lab. So on September 1st - there will be an on-line Science Zone offerings in natural resources science. Each Science Zone will offer multiple one topic stand-alone courses. Each course will have a physical outdoors component that will be arranged in your local community (overseas interest? - contact me in the comments). Course education target level is high school freshman. Objective - learn to collect good data.

The design is for people to get the material on-line, have access to a mentor/tutor, pass timed tests, and demonstrate proficiency at an arranged field event. Once connected, these skills will allow volunteers to work with community organizations and governmental agencies to collect meaningful data. This could morph into stewardship opportunity in land management, which is why this particular area is chosen - local concern. Anybody with an interest in the science of the topic can tag along - as long as somebody picks up the costs. As we reach critical mass - more depth in each topic will become available. The system should provide access to equipment, access to the knowledge base and pure entertainment value.

A few courses will begin on October 1st, 2005 - most others March 1st, 2006. More information available after Labor Day. A preview of the Bug Zone can be made available for perusal - investors that would like to sponsor a zone class for a local high school in their community - please contact me. This school offer is currently restricted to Oregon, although once we begin to establish The Communities of Zones, there will be no geographic restrictions. It requires a critical mass of people with the knowledge to carry out the program.

August 18, 2005

Serendipity

SERENDIPITY - really came through to crystallize my thoughts toward the eventual zone scoring system for level 7 students.

Ever notice how when we need a new person to talk with that understands, that providence (fate?!) always brings the proper person to us. I received a psychological promotion today by validating my ideas with a peer from another world - who knew how to complement the exchange with more creativity rather than bringing it down with negativity.

My goal is to build a reality where each person retains ownership through stewardship - building a world that cannot fail for its active participants. Forging cooperative competitions and win/win partnerships will benefit the community via the creation of jobs in novel endeavors, once the verticle chains of the current politcal system are demolished. Until then, knowledge for personal benefit seems more valuable in the long run than classes for credit. The latter might get you a job, the former gains a you a profession.

Finding a proper mentor that builds upon the natural creativity of the individual is what inspires learning. Creating the proper environment that is common to the goals but supportive of the individual requires an evaluation system based on accurate measurement. Basing learning on research is a natural for math and science.

Finding the proper proxies to measure the metrix that everybody must achieve for demonstrative success and then measuring them at their optimal value relative to the task rather than subjective to the testing authority is a difficult task. Keeping out the bias is done by scoring on performance based criteria - well defined, common across topic matter, and readily given to some primary or simply calculated secondary relative score. By using research protocols as the learning basis, the quality assurance criteria becomes the optimum standard of performance.

Individual scores would be ranked catagorically and the sum of the individual scores becomes the total performance measure. Once the system is established, both roles and zones will have their own sets of metrix. The 10 x 12 matrix should have 20 different catagories, with only 10 randomly in play at a time. By having this chaotic component - students must really do the work to gain the score - because the standard shortcut of having previous tests is preempted by the different testing criteria from league to league.

August 17, 2005

Jo's Quote

"Behold the turtle: He only makes progress when he sticks his neck out."

James Bryant Conant 1893-1978, Educator and Diplomat

UB-Fat

ReadThis poem was conceived during a presentation by Eric Riley - Project manager for the Umpqua Basin - Fish Access Team. The UB-FAT mission - identify passages where roads cross streams to determine whether replacing the culvert will increase salmonid access to natural habitat. Jim Monk of Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife related how no matter what the return runs, the salmonid frye in the Smith River tributary of the Umpqua River have peaked - no space remains in the existing juvenile habitat.

fish access
everywhere they can get
our human teams
empower fish (how so, how so)
with habitat and space
players all over
restoring quality
to water and air
building habitats
with log placement
boulder inset
refugia creates
room to hide
this temporal location
where fish can hang
in time, here, now
mebbe not tomorrow
if the water doesn't hold
Culverts... (feelings Barbra)
nothing more than culverts
trying to forget those
culverts of passage
when a road meets
a stream bed
the hole beneath
requires agilty, faith
and a lurch into darkness
a smashed, dented
plugged failed pathway
denies this land
particulate exchange
nutrients from the sea
carried by salmon
carcasses feed critters
post-spawn
natures weigh is odd
whattsa matter (billy joel)
when the fish are swimming
can you tell that
the streams not wide
mebbe up to
the bedrock channel
and the fish have
maniacal slides
if they get there
and they can hide
perhaps the numbers
can really increase
half a percent survival
needs only be nudged
for fishery restoration
and tasty dinner treats
what is important
miles of habitat available
quality of stream water
quality of upstream habitat
are there barriers below
one matrix sorts it out (bilbo)
one matrix guides them
one matrix weights the goals
biggest bang for buck
fish thought the thalweg
which lets us know
our fish can go
further upstream
back to beyonds
they once knew
all because
we be UB-FAT

(c) 2005 lemme howdt

August 16, 2005

Why Continue Science Zones?

Lots of things are still nebulous at this point. So we go with the flow. But we always play on the edge – that’s where the bugs hang out. As we can magnify and look at things a bit closer, we could find a new species or two. The research base is where Doctor Lenny is headed personally, but the education has to provide the grounding for the research to be valid. The Redlle system – research directed learning environmentsworksat least for the kids involved. Nuff said.
Bug Zone - Data Collection Event - August 24, 2005 - 9:00 am Colliding Rivers- Glide. 4th Calf/Limpy/Fairy Event - Data sets 7 and 8. Please RSVP

August 15, 2005

HB Eggman

Hey folks - the Eggman has hit 45 years of age - so lets all blog him happy birthday notes downplaying any impending mid-life crises. ;-)

Games

OuchThe obnoxious advertisement for blogging with Hilary on the main page of Yahoo has led me to invent a game that rewards us for not freezing onto that hideous face. This works for dial-ups, because we have to stare at those chops for seconds on end. There is a bonus for turning up with Mary Hart on the screen. Who are some of these people and are they supposed to be famous?
CoolIf you wish to try a few numbers games - go to the main page at www.howdt.com and cruise down under the leopard. Two games - a monthly serendipity and my new Wave Equation. The latter will start with five entries.

EH - 20 Pollution

There seems to be a pattern, not to mention a conflict of interest.
WowThe entire EPA regulatory scheme denies reality. Seachman points out an area which i have deemed critical for several years - government gives themselves a pass on regulations.
WowUnderstanding that nature and earth chemistry are cyclic processes, we can design a reward system to benefit keeping the waste streams in use as raw material factories. But as long as the approach to farm fertilization is as a means to get rid of industrial wastes (fluoridation is much more insidious in this), the breathing public be damned. Fines should be invested in clean-up sites and local people that are affected by the problems should be the driving forces. The agencies should empower local response, not dictate uber-response. I'd rather see the Environmental Protection Agency disbanded than the Department of Education. That's a significant statement right there! Totally misplaced priorities.

August 14, 2005

Thinking, Writing and Questioning

GoWriting is important for getting messages out – but be careful of trusting the written word. Thinking clearly comes from discriminating between various opinions and not being locked into a single mindset or train of thought. Questioning base premises and assumptions has long been stifled – but it is time for us as people to be asking questions and seeking proper answers, rather than ones that just sound good.
GoWho gave the government jurisdiction over our sovereignty – and why are we bound to decision made by unrepresentative white men 230 years ago? Legally, isn’t it 19 years after the death of a principal, that the contract becomes null and void? Any armchair lawyers want to give me a reasonable answer that makes sense as to why we follow the terms of the legal agreements when the government absolves themselves of that responsibility. Arthur never answered Dennis' questions in Python and the Holy Grail - but I question Dennis' assumption - how does supreme executive power derive from the mandate of the masses? What is wrong with watery tarts lobbing scimitars?

Alice Chess

www.Schemingmind.com offers this unpredictable variant that combines Lewis Carroll's Through the Lookingglass mentality with the logic and reason applied to the chess. When a piece is moved, it lands and is whisked away to alternate reality board B. There is essentially only one rule-change from orthodox chess: A second board is used, initially empty, and after a move, on either board, the moved piece is transferred to the square with the same coordinates on the other board. Moves must be legal, no landing on occupied squares and no en passant (its too messy). lemme is playing on an alice chess pyramid - a ladder with slightly different rules. zabindaprufte

It's Happening Here!

Let me call attention to Steven Yates' new Blog - currently focused on CAFTA. Having been put out of good work by NAFTA (smelter closure) and learning that the system has no rewards for the honest pursuit of truth, I enjoy thoughtful commentary that primarily agrees with my point of view on the topic of trade. As long as Orwellism enforces the use of the term free trade in this hopelessly over-managed mangled trade system that only benefits a small group of jurisdictionally challenged value syphons - time to roll up our sleeves and get to work. Changes happen - we make them happen. It's Happening Here! tells you why The Zone concepts are important. Stop FTAA!

August 13, 2005

Cats

Slipped into a common falacy with the last post - cats never gave humans ownership rights. The relationship i have with the housecat is one where she used to own the entire neighborhood. London slipped off one summer and we didn't see her for a couple of months. Then she returned. We later found that a neighbors barn had had a rat infestation and London moved in and took care of the mess.

With this cat having lived on the property since 1993, the wavelength of friendship we have achieved allows me to know when something at the barn is awry - the cat makes certain i notice. Even though she was a great mouser - she has neither gone after rabbit kits nor ducklings. Barn Cats usually have nine years - nine lives. I am glad to have this friend around as a constant companion.

Essence of Katt

WowOur elderly kitty wanted desperately to be photogenic this morning, so while i was out i snapped a series. This one caught the essence of cat.

Sticks and Smoke

How is it that when you take things to heart you are over-sensitive, but when you let them slide off, you are aloof? When misrepresentation appears to be the last trick left in the bag of tricks, I fear that the next trick in the book will be played - brace for something to happen before everybody breaks from the summer recess. The Roberts Confirmation will not be a front page story. Obfuscate. But when you pay attention, two keys - cui bono and follow the money.

August 11, 2005

Joe Highzkool - spkn cOd

If i've done everything correctly, there should be an avatar on-site - Joe represents the voice of the children and is the ultimate student seven.

ngr n rsntmnt
frstAshn nO cntrl
mntl djstmnt
2 + frAm v mnd
rgntly rqd
letitgo
dzn gt thns dn
mOshns agn
nszntly w/o chng
Y cntnU
wn rzltz nvr chng
Y bothr?

think local, act global

SayIf you don't believe what you read here - you are certainly encouraged to give a different opinion. Science has always been pursuaded by reason. If you don't agree that science has become a religion - go back to wiki and look up the word belief. Religions are constructs that help us to explain what we believe in terms of what we see.
YouIf you wish to counter what i am doing - come to me and talk - don't go behind my back and attempt to sabotage my resources. It will not work - science is vapor. But please do your own fact checking. We are seeing fruits of our natural resource grapes - we are creating county commissioner whine - right, Marilyn.
CanIf this were a boxing match, i'd have to say that we are seeking to overcome a small disadvantage. Round one was an overwhelming victory but rounds two and three had the good guys on the ropes. Each round adds new tactical skills and recent developments lead me to believe that time is not of the essence - rushing too fast will only create weakness that will have to be rejoined later. There is one stand-alone unit that requires attention, but shortly afterward, there will be a seasoned effort to create a new surface tension for round four. The salinity creep will be monitored and estuary developed as a point of focus. Rocks, bugs, water, plant distribution - the Umpqua will be measured with as limited a footprint as possible. Hopefully, as a function f(x) of high school science.
AllPolitics? Oh, yes - national politics. If we want to change our government, we had better roll up our sleeves and get involved. Ron Paul needs help - help any non D/R get elected to congress. If you disavow the political system - even more reason to get involved - the people acknowledge voting victory even if the vote is 1-0. Not voting is not an option - informed voting and working for choice beyond lawyers as representatives of the people in all elective office is an option. Whoever finds the best way to do this first wins - 435 chances to play - eligibility geographically determined. I'd bet on an upset in the second district in oregon (OR2-Walden-R), as long as the incumbent protection act is not used to stifle the blogosphere. CAFTA traitors cannot be rewarded by being reelected. (Note added 0814 - if klamath federal water policy suddenly shifts - CAFTA).

August 10, 2005

Intelligent yes - By design - ??

WowLook at these two and try to ask - how intelligent are they? My answer is more intelligent than the average human being. Hodari is 4 or 5, while Chantilly Lace is 26. At some point we will blog the Code 1: Hodari in the Wetlands story.


EH - 20 Intelligent Design

“Intelligent design is three things: a scientific research program that investigates the effects of intelligent causes; an intellectual movement that challenges Darwinism and its naturalistic legacy; and a way of understanding divine action….It was Darwin’s expulsion of design from biology that made possible the triumph of naturalism in Western culture. So, too, it will be intelligent design’s restatement of design within biology that will be the undoing of naturalism in Western culture.”

Somebody recently asked me for a comment on the issue of intelligent design and i stated my opinion based on what i thought the term meant. After reading Dr. Samuel Blumenfeld's article today - i can see that i had a complete misconception of the jargon. There is no reason that science and religion can't coexist and both be real. Why is this a battlefield?

August 09, 2005

Civic Environmentalism

The link above to a George C. Marshall Institute Policy Outlook is in pdf format and requires adobe acrobat. When you read the current soapbox (3) at www.howdt.com, i don't think that you would be surprised to learn that Dr. Lenny is indeed a member of the Marshall Institute. One of my dream goals is to serve on a Marshall Panel with Tom Clancy or Michael Crichton. Who knows - maybe they'll join ONRRI?

August 07, 2005

Astronomical Introduction

moon
moon sliver
moon sliver over
moon sliver over oak
moon sliver over oak venus
sliver over oak venus
over oak venus
oak venus
venus
venus in
venus in moon
venus in moon curl
in moon curl venus
moon curl venus
curl venus moon
venus moon
moon

(c) 2005 lemme howdt

Rant on Politix - Paging Jesse

sometimes, you just have to step back and observe. things change so rapidly today; but the more they change, the more they really stay the same. politically, it looks like no choice on the horizon - a standard repoobliken (JM?), as yet unnamed, running against a standard demoncrap, as yet unnamed, but highly likely to have the initials HC. paging jesse ventura, earth to jesse, earth to jesse - can you read us. we need a body slam on the political scene, can you put on the white hat once again. we promise we wont let RP anywhere near with a chart.

when you think about it - grass roots management (or bottoms-up) is just as evil as top-down. politically, we need to rest the egos and fix the problems. first thing is to address the real causes of the problems. one of those causes is bipartisan politics. its just one big washington party. i question their jurisdiction. i question all jurisduction. lets get a plain language simple contract with amerika - let people choose in or out. if in - get to work making the government serviceable. if out - canada and mexico aren't very far. but lets get rid of all the partisan rules and choose our lawmakers by profession rather than by geography. each of 435 professions gets one representative to congress. find a different means to choose senators, equally really non-partisan.

finally - lets represent everybody on the supreme court, not just the lawyers. the constitution actually restricts lawyers to the judiciary, but since they have oozed out into the legislative and executive branches, controlling them is like trying to put toothpaste back in the tube. so lets reset our system requirements and drop the need to actually know the politically rigged system - we need our solomons to know fairness and justice, not some precedent by some circuit court in the middle of the last century. time to reboot to the organic constitution.

August 06, 2005

EH 19 - knowledge and egotism

August Eckland gets a Howdtstanding Expanding Horizons Wowee Award for this post at The Great Oak Forest!!

Bug Howdt

Read On Wednesday - a group of bug fanatics will troupe up the North Umpqua River to collect samples from Calf and Limpy Creeks. These macro-invertebrates will be the fifth set in a series that began in 2001, when Bug Zone began our efforts to reach youth in schools with the message that math and science can increase your grip on reality - a successful life approach. Of the 23 original bug-zone students, 22 have graduated high school and the 23rd is finishing this fall.
Read The students that attend this 5th year reunion will employ a skill that has no bearing on their ultimate career, yet launched the thoughts that depth exists, for a whole batch of rural youth. The Calf/Limpy collection is an annual event - the Apple burn significantly affect the Limpy Creek site while Calf Creek a mile away was untouched. Our first Bug Zone collected data from both sites before the burn! The second collection was shortly afterwards - before the population distribution change. This will be the second year after, the fourth data set. Only Donna has the results - I haven't peeked - the kids and I are running blind, so as to not skew the data.
Read The picture here is Falls Creek taken this past spring. Note the height of the water - i plan to get this same shot on wednesday for perspective.

windshield philosophy

everyone can aspire
to become a great person
via significant achievement
in her field domain of effect
compassion for placement
forgiveness when required
strength and endurance
with perspective
non-coercive wisdom
lattitude to pursue goals
set for oneself by oneself
in terms of accomplishment
for internal consumption
of one eternal soul

(c) 2005 lemme howdt

retro whirled jojo

how rapidly
we become
nonentities
when state
decides
we R not
really real
running
thru shadows
violet
underground
visible
yet opaque
netwerked
4 action
role howdt
roll dauwn
roal eraund
2 get back
2 where
U once
belonged

Therapy Dogs

I have been emphasizing cats - but i also wish to give credit to the dogs. This is Pita. one of my favorite dalmations. Pita looks after Jerry as he hunts mushrooms and learns about his laptop. The dog knows and can tell people what he thinks, what he knows. He knows how to keep Jerry's ticker ticking - the heart shaped tag on the collar gives Pita access to stores and human enclosures - and Pita has never abused the privilege. Wish more people were as upstanding.

August 04, 2005

New at howdt.com

A never before published poem by lemme howdt - cat pictures and a brand new soapbox - The New Environmentalist - I . And if you want to collect bugs on the North Umpqua next wednesday - contact me here by Sunday.
Get Howdt !!!!! Rosencrantz agrees!
Rosie is a 13.5 ft albino burmese python, preparing to molt.

Hot Cats

Wow - Yesterday was hot in Cave Junction at the Great Cats World Park. Most of the cast stayed out of the sun, but i convinced an amyr leopard to be photogenic. Go in the morning, when the cats are active to beat the heat!

August 03, 2005

Please, stop war

Coercion is superfluous, violence is its tool. People are not cannon fodder. Peace!

August 02, 2005

hypocritical sportswriters

ReadWhen do we get to find out the results of sportswriters peeing in cups? The holier than thou attitude that Lopresti and Verducci take sickens me. Steroids were not a problem, nor were they illegal in the Canseco era - this vilification of drugs is nonsense - just the powers that be coming down on unpopular lifestyles. If athletes wish to trade a few years of their life for greater glory today - who are the sportswriters and newspapers to pass moral judgement. Show me your pee tests boys, before you decry the death of baseball. Doesn't congress have better things to focus on?

August 01, 2005

there are steroids in milk

The pompous a**holes who domineer sports are at it again with the suspension of Rafael Palmiero for violating major league steroid policy. An over-the-counter non-perscription supplement contained a banned substance. I wonder how many banned substances are in milk - especially the non-pasteurized types that come from real animals on real farms - the kind we wont see when the CAFTA sh*t hits the fan. Now i'm pissed - bust the Orioles for societal stupidity and over-reaction. Miggy, Javy, Erik - this suspension could cost you money - is it just? It's as unreasonable as Kenny Rogers' suspension for getting cameramen outta his face.