The BBC reported today that the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) released its biannual "Living Planet Report," and the news is not good. Basically, if global consumption levels continued at the current rate, two planets would be needed to meet global demand by 2050. The WWF concluded this by estimating each country's ecological "footprint".
Here's what is interesting: If one looks at the "footprint", one notices that a big chunk of the footprint comes from fossil-fuel utilization.
And guess what? The Canadian Government had earlier announced that the "Clean Air Act" would halve Canada's 2003 emissions by 2005. (Oh,I get it now. This is MUCH better than the Kyoto protocol that the Conservative government had us bail out of, that would have required us to stick to 1990 levels.) Under the previous government, the Liberals pledged to spend $10 billion over seven years to help Canada cut its average greenhouse gas emissions by 270 megatonnes a year from 2008 to 2012. I wonder if anyone did the math to compare the two... but the difference is that now Canada will not be bound to its Kyoto commitments, and it will be "business as usual" for the foreseeable future (or until the next election).
IMHO, I think it's already too late... the human race missed its chance to keep the planet in good health...
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Friday, October 20, 2006
HotSoup launched
Another interesting article. Only this time, an interesting approach to participatory democracy.
In the article entitled "The Clintons Get Their Village", Wired magazine reports on a new site called HotSoup. In a nutshell, it's a forum for movers-and-shakers in the States to gain 2-way communication with "opinion leaders" who themselves have influence in their communities. The site is worth a visit, as HotSoup includes members such as Bill and Hilary Clinton, biker champ Lance Armstrong, Jon Bon Jovi (!) and senior Democrat / Republican strategists.
While the site is strictly U.S.-oriented, I couldn't help but think that this kind of site could be of use in Canada - but would likely be destined to failure because of the average Canadian's apathy and close-mindedness of its politicians and opinion-drivers...
Oh well...
In the article entitled "The Clintons Get Their Village", Wired magazine reports on a new site called HotSoup. In a nutshell, it's a forum for movers-and-shakers in the States to gain 2-way communication with "opinion leaders" who themselves have influence in their communities. The site is worth a visit, as HotSoup includes members such as Bill and Hilary Clinton, biker champ Lance Armstrong, Jon Bon Jovi (!) and senior Democrat / Republican strategists.
While the site is strictly U.S.-oriented, I couldn't help but think that this kind of site could be of use in Canada - but would likely be destined to failure because of the average Canadian's apathy and close-mindedness of its politicians and opinion-drivers...
Oh well...
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Video games can reshape education: U.S. scientists
Well, duh!
It's about time people started to wake up to the enormous potential of education-though-videogames. Some people might consider it distateful, even immoral - but let's face it, it's here, so we might as well get used to it and use it to "our" adavantage. That includes education.
'Bout frickin' time....
It's about time people started to wake up to the enormous potential of education-though-videogames. Some people might consider it distateful, even immoral - but let's face it, it's here, so we might as well get used to it and use it to "our" adavantage. That includes education.
'Bout frickin' time....
Thursday, October 12, 2006
Piila's Thought Wave
Ah, it's time to recognize a sister-in-arms, Piila, who's entered the blogosphere. Kindred spirit, she is. I invite you to check Piila's Thought Wave!
Happy blogging, Piila!
Happy blogging, Piila!
Thanksgiving at Shabomeka Lake
My family and some close friends spent a wonderful weekend at Shabomeka Lake at a fabulous cottage we rented. We hiked, biked, kayaked during three glorious autumn days and left the preoccupations of work behind...
We can only appreciate the beauty of Nature thanks to the work of those who take the time and effort to make it easier for the rest of us to get around. Thanks to Glenn Pearce, who over the past 20 years has built a network of trails in the area, we were able to sample a bit of what Nature had to offer.
You'll find some pictures of our treks during our Shabomeka Thanksgiving.
We can only appreciate the beauty of Nature thanks to the work of those who take the time and effort to make it easier for the rest of us to get around. Thanks to Glenn Pearce, who over the past 20 years has built a network of trails in the area, we were able to sample a bit of what Nature had to offer.
You'll find some pictures of our treks during our Shabomeka Thanksgiving.
Boost your life the Urawaza way...
This sounds like the subject line of an e-mail you'd have deleted when it got by your spam filter, but it's not. Urawaza (Japanese for "secret tricks") are little fixes to simple (but perplexing) problems. I prefer to think of them as "life hacks". Example: what's the trick to keeping a band-aid from falling off your finger when it gets wet? Find out by reading this Wired article.
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
The shame of it all...
Sigh.
I had to do it. I had to drop my math class.
It was just SOOO much work. It stopped being fun and became an adrenalin-driven chore. I really really wished that it could work out, but to do justice to the subject and to myself would have have meant that I would have to devote more time to homework and studying. To what end?
I don't know how single-parent families manage to complete high-school night courses. Or, for that matter, older adults who decide to return to high school so they can get their diploma.
So what did I learn from this?
Well, I learned that (a) I have a deep interest in math; (b) I can learn it if I decide to take the time to review my materials and do my homework; (c) math is fundamental to any science. (I know that this is a no-brainer, but there are so many applications! No wonder anything that is of use is founded in math - and that includes art). In fact, I'd venture that if one is well versed in mathematics, that this will open doors into the other sciences.
Math is great exercise for the mind. I'm sure this comes as no surprise to many people, but it was a surprise to me. It uses a different side of the brain, I'm sure. For some reason, the beauty of math reminds me of some lyrics from "Lined Up" by Shriekback (if you remember the 80's):
Lined Up
Tired of all this crawling around
Realising the joke was on us
Reaching out to the obvious
Starting with an answer not a question
Our most acceptable businesses
All aligned in just one direction
Organised on the same lines
With one face - one side
We got all lined up
We got all lined up
We got all lined up
All lined up
All lined up
Back at the all night party
We're getting clearer all the time
Refined to one shape - frozen like crystal
It has the symmetry of perfect design
One line leads to another
They cross at the corners run straight at the sides
It reads the same way in any direction
Two red circles and a thick black spine
We got all lined up
We got all lined up
We got all lined up
All lined up
All lined up
Let it fall into place
We could tie it to a tree
We could point it at you
We could make it a habit
We could leave it outside or
We could give it our full understand it or we could ignore it
Holding all our past in the one hand
We showed those people in a way they understand
Shiny little eyes on a big red bus
The ones we point at work for us
One sharp point between distinction
Going this way for X amount of time
Frame - line - and convergence
From the first to the final
This intention is mine
We got all lined up
We got all lined up
We got all lined up
All lined up
All lined up
Go figure.
I had to do it. I had to drop my math class.
It was just SOOO much work. It stopped being fun and became an adrenalin-driven chore. I really really wished that it could work out, but to do justice to the subject and to myself would have have meant that I would have to devote more time to homework and studying. To what end?
I don't know how single-parent families manage to complete high-school night courses. Or, for that matter, older adults who decide to return to high school so they can get their diploma.
So what did I learn from this?
Well, I learned that (a) I have a deep interest in math; (b) I can learn it if I decide to take the time to review my materials and do my homework; (c) math is fundamental to any science. (I know that this is a no-brainer, but there are so many applications! No wonder anything that is of use is founded in math - and that includes art). In fact, I'd venture that if one is well versed in mathematics, that this will open doors into the other sciences.
Math is great exercise for the mind. I'm sure this comes as no surprise to many people, but it was a surprise to me. It uses a different side of the brain, I'm sure. For some reason, the beauty of math reminds me of some lyrics from "Lined Up" by Shriekback (if you remember the 80's):
Lined Up
Tired of all this crawling around
Realising the joke was on us
Reaching out to the obvious
Starting with an answer not a question
Our most acceptable businesses
All aligned in just one direction
Organised on the same lines
With one face - one side
We got all lined up
We got all lined up
We got all lined up
All lined up
All lined up
Back at the all night party
We're getting clearer all the time
Refined to one shape - frozen like crystal
It has the symmetry of perfect design
One line leads to another
They cross at the corners run straight at the sides
It reads the same way in any direction
Two red circles and a thick black spine
We got all lined up
We got all lined up
We got all lined up
All lined up
All lined up
Let it fall into place
We could tie it to a tree
We could point it at you
We could make it a habit
We could leave it outside or
We could give it our full understand it or we could ignore it
Holding all our past in the one hand
We showed those people in a way they understand
Shiny little eyes on a big red bus
The ones we point at work for us
One sharp point between distinction
Going this way for X amount of time
Frame - line - and convergence
From the first to the final
This intention is mine
We got all lined up
We got all lined up
We got all lined up
All lined up
All lined up
Go figure.
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Bob's Xcellent Math Adventure - or maybe not
Well, maybe not so excellent.
I've had a long-standing interest in math (in spite of having atrocious marks in high school and in undergrad) and I decided I would try (re-)taking my high-school math for the pleasure of it. You might ask what kind of warped sense of pleasure do I have? I'm not sure, I'm still trying to figure that out...
Anyway, I enroled a few weeks ago in a high-school math course, because I couldn't find it in the non-credit continuing education guide. Why aren't there hordes of people lining up to take Advanced Functions and Introductory Calculus for fun? Go figure. Anyway, it's not like I needed the credit - I took a similar course 30+ years ago. Note I say "similar" and not "identical." Now that I've spent some time in the course, it appears there were at least 2 major revisions of the curriculum since my butt has last warmed the seat of a school desk, and I'm seeing first hand the changes that have been made.
I've just gotta tell about my experience. So here they are, in no particular order:
1. Homework. Man, what a rough ride. Too much to do, not enough time. What with stuff to do around the house, cooking, etc. I just don't have enough time to get on top of things. I actually took a Friday off so I could devote myself to doing homework early on in the course. Interesting thing is that I didn't even see the hours go by - I missed lunch without realizing it. I figure I was in a state of hyperfocus. The downside is, if you don't do your homework (for whatever reason), that Big Black Train of Math starts to pick up speed as you frantically try to keep pace and jump on board. Nowhere did it hit me harder than last night when I "bombed" our weekly test. In a moment of paralyzed insight, staring at my blank piece of foolscap. Yup, I shoulda stayed on top of that homework.
2. Satisfaction. The most interesting realization I've had is that I'm an inveterate puzzle-solver. I think that's why I like math. Solving math questions is exactly like solving a puzzle. Kinda like Sudoku On Steroids and Adrenaline.
3. Frustration: Oh, I could spend a lot of time on this one. With time, I could describe a veritable taxonomy of frustration related to math. Let me just hit the big ones.
Attention to detail. A big chunk of my frustration with myself is I make what I consider an inordinate number of errors of attention: errors of transcription, forgetting to put a minus sign, writing "3" when I meant "13", you get the idea. But what alarms me is that I make A LOT of mistakes. Out of at least 50 problems I have worked on and gotten wrong the first time around, in at least 45 cases I went back over my math to realize that I mistranscribed or whatever. VERY frustrating. I wonder if I must suffer from some kind of AADD. But that's for another blog entry.
Gaps in understanding. Ah, this is like an old but unwelcome friend come to visit. I'd actually forgotten that particular feeling until last night, when I lost track of what the teacher was saying as he explained a particular problem. Maybe I should have termed it more precisely "a gap in attention." Whatever it was, I didn't quite understand as the teacher went through the problem, and I frantically wrote down the solution in the hope that I'd be able to go back over my notes and work out where my Big Black Train of Math Thought got derailed. I spent 5 minutes SOLID looking over the notes on that particular section and figuring out how we were supposed to come to the solution. I'm STILL not sure I understand it rightly.
Failure of memory: This one is the cousin of Gaps in Understanding and has a very ugly brother called Over-Confidence. This very "odd couple" also came to visit me last night during my test. There's nothing like that warm fuzzy feeling that you get reading over your notes before a test and thinking "yeah, I'll remember this" or "yeah, I know how to do this one" and, when you're looking at that piece of foolscap when the test has started, you don't. At that moment, you realize that you have something in common with that particular piece of paper: the word fool.
So why, you may ask, are you going through this? You don't NEED this course, you're getting frustrated by it, you're spending two weeknights from 6 to 10 PM feeling your bum get numb sitting at a cramped desk, getting poor grades, and most everyone thinks you're cMy short answer to this is: I don't know.
No, just kidding. I DO know the answer, I'm just not telling you (or myself, for that matter). There is a reason, only I haven't quite figured it out, yet. There's a certain lemming-like quality to the feeling around the reason. For now, it's enough for me to know that I enjoy math, it's fascinating, it's a puzzle, and I want to understand it more.
More later.
I've had a long-standing interest in math (in spite of having atrocious marks in high school and in undergrad) and I decided I would try (re-)taking my high-school math for the pleasure of it. You might ask what kind of warped sense of pleasure do I have? I'm not sure, I'm still trying to figure that out...
Anyway, I enroled a few weeks ago in a high-school math course, because I couldn't find it in the non-credit continuing education guide. Why aren't there hordes of people lining up to take Advanced Functions and Introductory Calculus for fun? Go figure. Anyway, it's not like I needed the credit - I took a similar course 30+ years ago. Note I say "similar" and not "identical." Now that I've spent some time in the course, it appears there were at least 2 major revisions of the curriculum since my butt has last warmed the seat of a school desk, and I'm seeing first hand the changes that have been made.
I've just gotta tell about my experience. So here they are, in no particular order:
1. Homework. Man, what a rough ride. Too much to do, not enough time. What with stuff to do around the house, cooking, etc. I just don't have enough time to get on top of things. I actually took a Friday off so I could devote myself to doing homework early on in the course. Interesting thing is that I didn't even see the hours go by - I missed lunch without realizing it. I figure I was in a state of hyperfocus. The downside is, if you don't do your homework (for whatever reason), that Big Black Train of Math starts to pick up speed as you frantically try to keep pace and jump on board. Nowhere did it hit me harder than last night when I "bombed" our weekly test. In a moment of paralyzed insight, staring at my blank piece of foolscap. Yup, I shoulda stayed on top of that homework.
2. Satisfaction. The most interesting realization I've had is that I'm an inveterate puzzle-solver. I think that's why I like math. Solving math questions is exactly like solving a puzzle. Kinda like Sudoku On Steroids and Adrenaline.
3. Frustration: Oh, I could spend a lot of time on this one. With time, I could describe a veritable taxonomy of frustration related to math. Let me just hit the big ones.
Attention to detail. A big chunk of my frustration with myself is I make what I consider an inordinate number of errors of attention: errors of transcription, forgetting to put a minus sign, writing "3" when I meant "13", you get the idea. But what alarms me is that I make A LOT of mistakes. Out of at least 50 problems I have worked on and gotten wrong the first time around, in at least 45 cases I went back over my math to realize that I mistranscribed or whatever. VERY frustrating. I wonder if I must suffer from some kind of AADD. But that's for another blog entry.
Gaps in understanding. Ah, this is like an old but unwelcome friend come to visit. I'd actually forgotten that particular feeling until last night, when I lost track of what the teacher was saying as he explained a particular problem. Maybe I should have termed it more precisely "a gap in attention." Whatever it was, I didn't quite understand as the teacher went through the problem, and I frantically wrote down the solution in the hope that I'd be able to go back over my notes and work out where my Big Black Train of Math Thought got derailed. I spent 5 minutes SOLID looking over the notes on that particular section and figuring out how we were supposed to come to the solution. I'm STILL not sure I understand it rightly.
Failure of memory: This one is the cousin of Gaps in Understanding and has a very ugly brother called Over-Confidence. This very "odd couple" also came to visit me last night during my test. There's nothing like that warm fuzzy feeling that you get reading over your notes before a test and thinking "yeah, I'll remember this" or "yeah, I know how to do this one" and, when you're looking at that piece of foolscap when the test has started, you don't. At that moment, you realize that you have something in common with that particular piece of paper: the word fool.
So why, you may ask, are you going through this? You don't NEED this course, you're getting frustrated by it, you're spending two weeknights from 6 to 10 PM feeling your bum get numb sitting at a cramped desk, getting poor grades, and most everyone thinks you're cMy short answer to this is: I don't know.
No, just kidding. I DO know the answer, I'm just not telling you (or myself, for that matter). There is a reason, only I haven't quite figured it out, yet. There's a certain lemming-like quality to the feeling around the reason. For now, it's enough for me to know that I enjoy math, it's fascinating, it's a puzzle, and I want to understand it more.
More later.
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