March 16, 2003, Dick Cheney: “I really do believe we will be greeted as liberators”

March 31, 2004, AP: In a scene reminiscent of Somalia, frenzied crowds dragged the burned, mutilated bodies of four American contractors through the streets of a town west of Baghdad on Wednesday and strung two of them up from a bridge after rebels ambushed their SUVs.

How is it even remotely possible those arrogant, ignorant, lying, dickwad cowards are neck-in-neck for re-election?

As usual, a trip to Furuya Sensei’s site makes me feel very, very small.

As much as we talk about peace - for many people, peace would spell doom because much of what we do in our lives involves the struggle of power, the self, greed, hate, sex and money… When we get rid of the desire to be better than others, to oppress others, to express our power or superiority to others, to hate others, to want to injure or hurt others, we may finally have a chance to realize peace - as long as all we think that this is the substance of our lives and what keeps us going - there will never, never be peace in this world at all.

Please keep in mind that a fight does not have to be open warfare with weapons nor does it have to involve fist and kicks, it is in a tiny word or look, of the eye, it can hang slightly at the very edge of the mouth or just the way you stand or turn your head and especially it is in all of the subtle, personal agendas, mind games and little power trips we play on each other.

Being one to drag evolutionary psychology into most socialogical arguments, you’d think this would be total mumbo-jumbo to me. But there’s more there. I’d like to comment on this later.

Well, after abandoning my first attempt at sleep, I have a little more time to type. But, I don’t want to engage in any trains of thought that might keep me up even later. I think reporting my recent musical endeavors is pretty safe. I took up Bach’s A min violin concerto for a little while, but my keyboardist gave up on it, so I decided to go back and finish learning the cello prelude, which I never quite nailed. I also met with a bass player (a Chemistry professor) and agreed to play something together in the future. About as vague a commitment as it gets, but what do you expect from two pre-tenure science professors? Presently, I’m a week and a half into a minimum three-week left-hand hiatus for tendonitis. I killed it back in October when I attempted to perform for the visiting in-laws when I was totally out of practice. I expect this won’t be too long of a break, and I’m actually enjoying the much-needed right hand work.

I need to get me an electric. That would be much easier on the ‘ol tendons.

We’re back. Server glitch. Much to report, but as usual, not much time. Spring has arrived, the forest out back is sprouting green, soon to be an impenetrable tangle of vegetation. It’s also coming alive with crickets & birds & frogs & some early locusts. It’s supposed to be a really good cicada year, I think we’re due for both 17 and 13-year broods.

This is the first I’ve heard of philosophical therapy. Frankly, it makes a lot of sense. This is precisely what clergy spend a lot of their time doing, and no one bugs them about liability. Why shouldn’t secular philosophy play a similar role?

However, it’s also looks like that Marinoff chap is recklessly self-promoting. That is not how science proceeds. It is no more a medical profession than religious counseling. I think it would make an interesting branch of clinical psychology, but not an independent mental health field.

Now here’s some real research:

LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists said on Monday they had finally proved that [Guinness’s] creamy bubbles defy expectations and flow down instead of upwards.

…close examination has revealed that, as a pint settles, bubbles touching the walls of the glass experience drag, similar to that a person feels sliding their finger along glass, and that prevents them floating up.

The bubbles in the middle however, are free to rise, creating a circular flow within the glass that causes bubbles at the edge to be pushed downwards on the inside surface of the glass.

The Edinburgh team, working with researchers at Stanford University in California have produced high-speed video footage of the sinking bubbles — to put at rest the minds of any drinkers who might have felt they were seeing things.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Americans spend far more time driving cars and watching television than they do exercising, researchers said on Thursday in a study that helps shed light on the country’s obesity epidemic.

The study also demonstrated that american researchers spend far more time driving cars and watching television than doing any actual research.

I arrive in my physics department office to peruse my new handbook of radiation effects and grade the last astronomy exam, and see that there is some promising evidence that the Higgs boson, the Holy Grail of the standard model, has been detected. I did some Higgs boson work at Stony Brook many, many years ago, before the SSC was canned. Funny thing is, I find this out via the blog of a poet.

This correctly identifies the real problem with education in America.

I was accused of demanding “college-level” work from high school students. Parents across the board complained that I expected too much. I’m not sure which component of my program caused this perception. The open-book tests? The detailed study guides students received a week before the tests, study guides which listed every possible test question? I even let the students take notes based on the study guides and use these notes on the tests.

Don’t tell me that’s a college-level expectation. Still, over 75% of the students would fail every test - and they were multiple choice tests in which all questions were simple recall items. I was trying my best to make the program as easy as possible. I didn’t want to fail most of the students. I learned, though, that the only way to avoid marking massive numbers of F’s on report cards was to expect absolutely nothing at all of the students. I couldn’t in good conscience do that.

Of course, the teachers are forced to give in (or fail 75% of their class, and face the wrath of the parents, who pressure the school board into firing said teacher). And, in the end, the parent end up being right, because what they should have learned in high school ends up being their college level work (which 50% still fail). This is my PHYS 101 class. The high school physics course I taught was more rigorous.

I say: make a stand. If the kids come to college unprepared, offer 000-level courses, which don’t count toward a college degree, but prepare them for (real) college level work. But then again, I’m a total bastard.

The real tragedy here is, there is no solution. No amount of education reform is going to solve this, because the problem is not with education. It’s cultural. And the dominate force in our culture is stupidity. Which is how the churches and corporations like it.

I just got back from a little trip to Monterey (CA). To think I was a hair’s breath from living out there (a little ways south). By now, I would be bankrupt and sleeping on the beach. It’s damn nice out there, but you’d have to be loaded to really enjoy it. I think the professors either (a) rent an efficiency apartment that still sucks up 60% of their salary (b) have a spouse with a lucrative job.

It’s certainly not a bad place to kill a few days. Wednesday night I found a little Italian bistro called The Loose Noodle. I couldn’t work up the courage to ask them for the Marinara recipe. It’s just none of my business. I’ll just have to spend the rest of my life trying to copy it.

Otherwise, I passed the time in my usual way: checking out the local music and used book stores. I tried the 2003 Gibson 135. I had figured, without the f-holes and tailpiece, it would be a piece of crap. I liked it much better than the 1998 version. If only it had a tremolo bridge. I picked up a book of Holton essays and The Trial of Socrates. I always find Holton a very interesting, but very flat. I can’t say he’s a bad writer, but for some reason, despite being intensely interested in what he’s saying, my attention always drifts away.

I had to do an impressive 500 m dash to make my connection to Indy, due to a heavy rain storm… in Phoenix. I mean come on, it doesn’t rain in Phoenix!