Radical

Einstein's E = mc2 is an extraordinary concept. So radical: matter and energy are two phases of the same sort of general stuff. There's only one other idea that radical: Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

~Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007)

Simple Wisdom

You can have a plain

hot dog if you want,

he said, but until you've

had a real polish

sausage you're only

half alive. I decided

there were worse things

& I was only ten &

could correct the

serious mistakes later

& the plain dog tasted

just fine, even being

half alive and all.

Last summer I discovered writer/artist Brian Andreas - am really enjoying his simple wisdom (and his artwork) and wanted to share some. If you're interested you can find out more about him and his work at Story People.

Announcement

I am happy to announce that

- pending chancellor and board of trustees approval -

I have been offered and have accepted a tenure-track position on the math faculty.

It is absolutely clear to me that this is God's leading in my life and where He wants me to be. Now I need another miracle. My schedule in the fall includes an 8am calculus class. Those of you who know me well know about my sleep disorder, but I fully trust that, "If He leads you to it, He will lead you through it."

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.

Proverbs 3:5-6

Plans and Prayers and Peace

When I rise up

let me rise up joyful

like a bird.

When I fall

let me fall without regret

like a leaf.

Wendell Berry (b. 1934)

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

Jer 29:11 (NIV)

Outcomes

Prediction is difficult -- especially about the future.

As I continue tonight to prepare for my interview tomorrow I am feeling in a special way something that is always the case. There is an outcome, and with time I will know it, but right now all I can do is to prepare my best and walk into the unknown future. I do realize that all of us walk each moment of every day into an unknown future, but right now I'm just more aware of it than usual. What is bringing a smile to my face right now as I do so is the wonderful quote above from quantum physicist Neils Bohr (1885-1962).

Running the Race

Well, although it's Anthony who's on the track team, I sure feel like I'm running a race of my own. All my boys (including David) are on spring break this week, but my college did away with spring break a few years back. (Isn't that an oxymoron, a college without a spring break?) Things are kind of crazy, as not only would I like to spend time with them while they are on break, but the time I am used to having totally to myself during the day to plan and putter and process is not available to me this week.

This is some kind of crazy race - not just for me but with all of us going different directions. Of course there was Easter with its services and celebrations. Jacob is at a youth group camp right now. David and Anthony are leaving tomorrow for southern California to check out colleges (Harvey Mudd and Cal Tech) - taking advantage of this time while Anthony is on spring break. (They'll get to sit in on one of mathemagician Arthur Benjamin's classes while at Harvey Mudd. I'm so jealous!) It's a good thing Anthony is a quick healer. He had all 4 wisdom teeth removed Monday. He is still in some amount of pain and looks like a chipmunk at the moment, but he's being a very good sport about it all.

Poor Caleb is kind of being left in the dust - feeling rather bored and lonely on his spring break as David, Anthony and Jacob are all jetting around, and I'm working, revising a thesis and preparing for an interview - not much time right now for Mom to play!

My interview is Friday and is for a tenure-track position. I need to prepare 2 presentations. I do that sort of thing all the time, whether for lecturing to my class or for speaking at a conference, but when it's for an interview there's just a little different level of processing. There's a lot on the line. It's in a different category too than presentations I normally give; in this case I've been given the topics I need to speak on, but I will also be given specific examples to use in my presentations but won't have those until half an hour before the interview, which gives it kind of a twist. I usually plan very thoroughly, so I'm trying to figure out how to plan lessons with holes in them that examples I'm given later will fit into. Anyway, I'm pretty distracted away from family this week.

Sometimes Anthony has to run two races pretty much in a row, for instance the 800 meters and then the 2 mile. That's hard to do. When you give a finishing kick in one race you give it your all, and it's hard to recover to take on a new race. That's kind of what I feel like right now. Anything I do I give it my all, and I've got quite a few things I'm trying to give my all to right now.

It's all good stuff. Actually it's all kind of an interesting challenge, but I am eager for some down time. It's been a busy few years with my graduate program and teaching and with big family issues such as David's stroke and recovery. I'm eager for some time to just focus on my family in a relaxed setting for a while, and I sure hope we'll get that chance soon. Hopefully some of that can happen this summer! For now we'll all keep running the race as best we can!

Good Friday

Bulletin art by Caleb Good Friday 2009.

I am NOT Resigned

DIRGE WITHOUT MUSIC

I am not resigned to the shutting away of loving hearts in the hard ground.
So it is, and so it will be, for so it has been, time out of mind:
Into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely. Crowned
With lilies and with laurel they go; but I am not resigned.
Lovers and thinkers, into the earth with you.
Be one with the dull, the indiscriminate dust.
A fragment of what you felt, of what you knew,
A formula, a phrase remains, --- but the best is lost.

The answers quick & keen, the honest look, the laughter, the love,
They are gone. They have gone to feed the roses. Elegant and curled
Is the blossom. Fragrant is the blossom. I know. But I do not approve.
More precious was the light in your eyes than all the roses in the world.

Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave
Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind;
Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave.
I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned.

Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950)

Super Power!

On movies I have at times heard characters asked what super power they would want if they could choose one: invisibility, flying, being able to breathe underwater, mind-reading, a lasso of truth like Wonder Woman had, ability to talk with animals, the ability to leap tall buildings in a single bound, bullet-proof flesh, x-ray vision . . .

Today it dawned on me what I want my super power to be!

I want to be gifted with the ability to always say exactly the right thing at exactly the right time.

If YOU could choose any super power, what would it be?

Don't Even Go There!

Reliving Childhood

Another of my favorites that is bringing me joy right now. I can't resist the classics and am so glad YouTube provides a place for reliving these memories!

Escapism

They sure don't make 'em like they used to!
I needed some healthy escape today, and this did the trick!
I hope you'll enjoy it too!

Alone

From childhood's hour I have not been
As others were; I have not seen
As others saw; I could not bring
My passions from a common spring.
From the same source I have not taken
My sorrow; I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone;
And all I loved, I loved alone.
Then -- in my childhood, in the dawn
Of a most stormy life -- was drawn
From every depth of good and ill
The mystery which binds me still:
From the torrent or the fountain,
From the red cliff of the mountain.
From the sun that round me rolled
In its autumn tint of gold,
From the lightning in the sky
As it passed me flying by,
From the thunder and the storm,
And the cloud that took the form
(When the rest of Heaven was blue)
Of a demon in my view.

-Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)

Mathematics is . . . (HUH?)

"Mathematics is not only real, but it is the only reality."

Martin Gardner (1994)

"Mathematics is an escape from reality."

Stanislaw Ulam (1991)

Well, we mathematicians do love our paradoxes!

Never Thought I'd Say This

I've never been a fan, but today I say:
"Thank goodness for cell phones!" :-)

Unless you've been in one of my classes, you may not be able to FULLY appreciate this. Sadly, whenever I am teaching anything relating to circles, I feel called upon to pause before I do any drawing and state, "PRETEND this is a circle." The resulting image usually comes out (at best) looking like some sort of pathetic egg laid by a mutant chicken.

Yesterday in class I drew the best circle of my life. Knowing I would never be able to replicate this feat I said, "I wish I had a camera!"

Unbeknownst to me, one of my students took a picture of it with her cell and sent it to me today. So I have proof that I have, once in my life, drawn something that is a reasonable facsimile of a circle. It will probably never happen again, so this picture is tantamount to a picture of the elusive Loch Ness Monster. Were it not for Kelley's cell phone, "Nessie" would be lost forever ;-D

Revery Alone Will Do

To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee,
One clover, and a bee,
And revery.
The revery alone will do
If bees are few.

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

Promoting Play

What you see above is a picture of a game created by my friend Tony, a game inventor who is just breaking into the market. In an earlier post I mentioned his game "Dissed." Now he has this new one out, Magniverse. It is 6 games in one. The marbles are magnetic, but sometimes repel each other in surprising ways.

Tony is interested in the "Aha Moment" when the brain makes a connection when solving a riddle or a puzzle - or getting a joke. He's currently working on his Ph.D. relating to this, and is doing cool stuff like taking MRI's while people solve puzzles. I love making connections and knowing what makes people's brains tick, so in my next life that's what I want to do too! :-)

I'm doing my best to make such connections in my Master's program, but I don't have access to any MRI machines!

Tony is currently selling the game from his own site but has a company interested in buying it (Gamewright). If you'd like to check this out - or his other game: Dissed - or just have the link for future reference - as more games will certainly be created by him, here it is:

http://www.duckbunnyproductions.com/index.html

Click on the individual game names in the left column in order to check them out! Also, check out his Mission Statement, which I applaud!

Rubik's Cube "Before"

Back in the day when the Rubik's Cube first came out I was able to solve it (with help from the instruction manual, of course!). That was many moons ago, and I no longer remember how now that they've become popular again, but I've found a good teacher -- my son!

Because he is shy and because he is a perfectionist it took me a long time to convince him to let me tape him. I think he has an idea he shouldn't be taped unless he is near world record time, which he is not, but I find the 34 seconds here pretty impressive (fastest for him is 27 seconds). So I'm putting this up here as a "before." He continues to study various methods and moves and hopes to improve his time. Once he's made a significant improvement I'll post that as "after." (Let it be known right now that I am NOT going to be going for speed. I simply want to learn how to do the thing again!)

EXTRA CREDIT 3

Here is the new extra credit project I'll be having my students work on this month. It's a project called "Regifting Robin." When you go to that link you'll be asked to choose a 2-digit number and then to subtract from that number its first digit and its second digit. FOR EXAMPLE, if you pick 25 you would subtract 2 and then you would subtract 5; the result is 18. What you do with this resulting number is look on a grid at that link, and Regifting Robin will read your mind by telling you what gift is in the box with the number you ended up with.

I've seen some chat rooms where this trick is discussed, and some people say, "Not bad! She got it right half the time." Um . . . sorry, that means those people didn't subtract correctly. This does work every time.

WHY?!

Frailest Thing

Between us and heaven or hell there is only life, which is the frailest thing in the world.

Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)

David Update

David has put up a new update on his ongoing stroke recovery. Click on DAVID at right to read it.

(Spoiler: He ran his first road race since his stroke!! :-)

Blanket Wealthier

Snow beneath whose chilly softness
Some that never lay
Make their first Repose this Winter
I admonish Thee

Blanket Wealthier the Neighbor
We so new bestow
Than thine acclimated Creature
Wilt Thou, Austere Snow?

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

I Fear More for Munin

Well, Odin was right to fear more for Munin. We say good-bye to her today. I've posted the meanings of their names before, but I'm going to do it again to explain why Odin feared more for Munin. The following is from Wikipedia.

"Huginn and Muninn, sometimes anglicised Hugin and Munin, are a pair of ravens associated with the Norse god Odin. In Norse mythology, Huginn and Muninn travel the world bearing news and information they have collected to Odin. Huginn is "thought" and Muninn is "memory". They are sent out at dawn to gather information and return in the evening. They perch on the god's shoulders and whisper the news into his ears. It is from these ravens that the kenning 'raven-god' for Odin is derived.

From Grímnismál:

Old Norse:

Huginn ok Muninn fliúga hverian dag
iörmungrund yfir;
óomk ek of Huginn, at hann aptr ne komit,
þó siámk meirr um Muninn.

English:

The whole world wide, every day,
fly Huginn and Muninn;
I worry lest Huginn should fall in flight,
yet more I fear for Muninn.

Another translation reads,

Every morning the two ravens Huginn and Muninn, are loosed and fly over Midgard; I always fear that Thought may not wing his way home, but my fear for Memory is greater."

Today Munin did not "wing her way home."
We shall miss her.
She was a good pet.

My February

This dormant liquid amber caught my attention recently. It makes me think of an ornament-laden tree from some crazy Ted Burton Film (The Nightmare Before Christmas?)This tree also caught my attention. I have no idea what kind it is, but these weird pods are popping open.February is always kind of a schizophrenic mix of fall and spring out here.The above three pictures were taken at work, as was the pod tree as are the following 4 pictures. I get kind of excited working at a place that has so much history, and then I am reminded that the western US really only goes back so far! The following always catches my attention. The tree that you can see the base of was planted on our campus back when there was "THE" world war - hadn't been 2 of them yet.I LOVE ROOTS! We had family events - good, bad and regular.
My brother celebrated his 40th birthday party.I just noticed that the above is quite a male-dominated picture!
Anthony got hit by a truck - thankfully just grazed him arm - driver didn't even stop - argh!We faithfully, as always, took care of our mice. Here are Hugin and Munin, hanging out in their "holding facility" while we cleaned their home.Valentine's Day showed up on schedule, and my sweetie gave me these lovely roses.My children have grown up a lot. I can't believe Anthony can create and consume such a thing as you see below!Then there's Jacob who's taller than his older brother AND taller than I am! And, of course Caleb who turned 12 this week and was featured in these posts (here and here).I am able to put so much time into a post today because I TURNED IN MY FIRST FULL DRAFT OF MY THESIS!!!! Now it is in the hands of my advisor to revise, and I CAN'T work on it this weekend! It has been hanging over me for so long. Last week I even moved out of the house and moved in with my brother so as not to be disturbed while I worked. Here it is:I have been doing pretty much nothing else other than work on my thesis. As a result, notice the health of the weeds in my yard:I almost pulled this one, but it has been living and growing so long and is so lush - think of all the soil, water and sun that went into it - all the photosynthesis - that I didn't have the heart to pull it and took a picture instead!Yes, I do have some "legitimate" flowers in my yard too (but "who says purple is a weed and pink and white is posies?"). I do love my lilies!Here are some stones from a trip to the beach last fall that are in a flower pot in our yard. We haven't decided what to do with them yet, but I think they're pretty even here.I even had time to go for a walk today and enjoyed the cloudy sky and the season continuing to transition from fall to spring. Soon enough I'll get my thesis back and have my nose to the grindstone making revisions. Today I wanted to spend my time reflecting on life a bit, so here it is; this was my life this month.

Today I also got to cheer Anthony on in his Science Bowl competition and go to Fun Works with the fam for a little more celebrating with Caleb - good times!!

"Caleb" by Jacob

See original here.

GREED is to Capitalism as . . .

“The mess we’re in is due to greed.”

We hear that a lot these days.

It sounds correct.

Greed is a sin.

So greed must be the problem.

We hear of companies that gave end of the year bonuses first and went to the government for a bailout right afterwards, and we tax-payers are, rightly, disgusted. We hear of CEO’s with trash cans valued at $32,000 in their offices, and we nod our heads knowingly, irate that while the rest of us barely have 2 pennies to rub together a greedy CEO has a cute little trash can worth far more than the vehicle we drive, and we say, “Yes, greed is what caused this.”

Greed is certainly a necessary condition for the creation of an economic mess such as the US and the world are in right now, but it is not a sufficient condition. Just as oxygen is necessary in order to have a fire, oxygen by itself is not sufficient to cause a fire.*

We have become a "microwave society" of sound bites. Rather than thinking deeply in this fast paced world, if we hear something that makes sense on the surface, we tend to grab it and go - just like fast food from the drive-thru. Ponder for just a moment, slap a label on it, move on . . . and just what fast food does to your body over the long term, microwave thinking does to our society over the long term. The sound bite that seems to be catching on right now is: "We're in this mess due to greed, and we need more government regulation in order to fix it." On a first hearing it sounds right, but we need to go deeper.

The US and the world are in such a dire state economically that we can no longer afford to allow our knowledge and understanding to be a skimming of the surface and a hoping for the best as we blithely leave things in the hands of others - simply rejoicing that there is a new administration, thus good change will automatically occur.**

I recently received the following thoughts from a friend, which, coincidentally and presciently preceded the article I am also supplying a link to:

In recent discussions of the causes of the current economic crises I've noticed an interesting point of view seems to be shared between religious folks and liberals. Both groups preferred explanation tends to be greed. Yes greed; one of the . . . seven deadly sins.

It appears that both groups believe that over the past decade there has been an unexplained outburst of greed regarding the residential real estate market. It's as if the MBAs and bankers suddenly abandoned all of their standards when they discovered this untapped market of previously "redlined" minimum wage workers, illegal immigrants, and "people of color" that they could exploit.

The weakness of this argument is somewhat masked by the well-known fact that humans are indeed prone to greed. No one will argue that given the proper incentives, or absence of disincentives, nearly anyone can be induced to exhibit an excess of "greed".

There was a time when our institutions and rules successfully governed greed and the residential real estate market in the USA. The rules changed, not the human condition.

This is the most difficult challenge that Capitalism faces today; to explain that greed, pragmatically channeled and balanced is best understood not as a sin, but the essential engine behind our prosperity and a normal component of human nature.

Greed is to Capitalism as lust is to marriage.

"The rules changed, not the human condition."

In other words, it was government interference and regulation that INITIATED this mess in the first place - creating rules that SOUNDED GOOD - and now, from what I hear around me, we think MORE government regulation is going to fix the problem.

The DEFINITION of INSANITY is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results!!

The human condition didn't change; government regulation did - so where is the problem? Are we going to use what caused the problem to fix the problem? How much sense does that make?

Coincidentally my friend's email was followed days later by this parallel column, which I find to be very well-written and insightful: Upside-down Economics

Here is a quote from this article by Thomas Sowell:

What was lacking in the housing market, they say, was government regulation of the market's "greed." That makes great moral melodrama, but it turns the facts upside down.

It was precisely government intervention which turned a thriving industry into a basket case.

An economist specializing in financial markets gave a glimpse of the history of housing markets when he said: "Lending money to American homebuyers had been one of the least risky and most profitable businesses a bank could engage in for nearly a century."

That was what the market was like before the government intervened. Like many government interventions, it began small and later grew.

We can no longer afford this insanity.

We can no longer afford to rest in mere hopes for the best.

We can no longer afford to be placated by platitudes.

We cannot afford to think that "change" is good by definition.

We need to stop the microwave mentality.

We need to get real.

We need to learn and understand and to do so at a deep level - rather than just not wanting to be bothered to think too hard. Consider the following from Adam Smith's classic of economics, The Wealth of Nations:

It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our necessities but of their advantages.

The Wealth of Nations, Book I Chapter II

*I owe the oxygen analogy and Smith quote to my friend Bob.
**I do wish our president only well and pray that God will give him wisdom. I wouldn't want to be in his shoes.

HBD Boo!

Today is a very special day. It marks the 12th anniversary of the arrival on this planet of a very special dude named Caleb. Life would sure be boring around here without him!