Random Brain Dump

Time takes a look the state of education with the cover article called “How To Build a Student For the 21st Century“. The article points to a report coming from a bi-partisan commission which concluded that we need to advance education into the 21st century. Right now, our education system has a low aim: traditional reading & math competency. The article suggest these additional skills are necessary also:

1. Knowing more about the world
2. Thinking outside the box.
3. Becoming smarter about new sources of information.
4. Developing good people skills

One thing I didn’t see addressed here is arts which is woefully lacking in public school these days. Bush’s “No Child Left Behind” policy further worsens the support for the arts since it only put emphasis on academic studies. As a parent of 2 preschool girls, education is one of the biggest & most challenging concern I have.

Update: here’s an entry with links to bloggers discussing this article…

Imagine you’re on a car trip for the holidays with your family. You’re off to see friends & relatives like millions of other people this time of the year. Then imagine that somewhere along the trip, the weather begins to get bad in Oregon. Night begins to take over and in the darkness, you make a simple mistake: missing a turn. You look at the map on hand and spot the next turn coming up. So you decide to take the next turn instead of wasting more time turning back.

Once taking the turn, you notice that the road gets narrower & gains altitude. But you keep on driving with the motivation that you’ll hit your destination before the night gets too late. The snowfall gets heavier and the night gets darker. When you start to hear the wind howling outside, you begin to wonder if you’re the only creatures out on this miserable night. Your station wagon fights through the wind and snow in the darkness. But soon, you begin to resign to the notion that the elements got you beaten. You decide to turn back.

You spot a stretch of the road where you can think you are able to turn the station wagon around. But as you turn the car around on the narrow road, your car got stuck in the snow. You panic a little as you look over to the back seat– the 7 months old baby is sound asleep and your 4 years old daughter is busily applying yellow crayon on Pooh Bear. Your wife is also asleep all wrapped up with a throw blanket. You put on a jacket and quietly zip it up all they way to your neck.

As you get out of the car and the shearing wind immediately hit you. You’re rudely reminded as how nasty weather can get in this part of Oregon wilderness. You brave the wind and try rocking the car back and forth. The only thing you accomplished is waking up wife & startling your older daughter. Giving up, you re-enter the car to escape the weather. You explained to the wife: “we’re stuck!” After calming yourself down & discussing the situation with the wife, you both realize that the only option is to leave the car & the heater running and wait out until the morning.

Dawn breaks. You did not get a wink of sleep. You struggled to get out of the car to access the situation. You’re alarmed to discover how much snow was dumped on top the car.

I have been following the ordeal with James Kim’s family since last week.

Unfortunately, the news broke out that the ordeal ends tragically. James was found face-down in the snow, dead. Tragic. I watched James on Tech TV.

There’s a new worldwide poll going on right now for voting the modern 7 wonders of the world from a list of 21 sites. So very cool. Go vote!

I have yet to visit any of the 21 candidate sites, that sucks! Sigh… 🙁

Unless you haven’t been following the tech news of late, the HP board is in chaos. Board member resigning left & right, the chair woman is the latest victim. All stems from the questionable tactics used in investigation of information leaks in management– phone taps, illegal access of private computer records etc… Now, the scandal is drawing the attention of federal prosecutors. The feds are investigating HP.

The feds are investigating illegal wire tapping and invasion of privacy? They care about leaks? Let’s see… Remember George Tenant’s CIA leak? How about the Patriot Act and the bill aiming to allows the feds to wiretap anybody’s phone.

Doesn’t the irony just kills you? 🙂

A news reporter in LA uncovers scams at Jiffy Lube.

I hate Jiffy Lube. Some years ago, I took my old Celica for an oil change there before a long trip. I discovered later that the goofballs who worked there didn’t fill up the minimal amount of oil. Had I taken my car to Sacramento as planned, the Celica would probably be incinerated somewhere on interstate 80.

Jiffy Lube sucks.

NASA announces that Voyager 1 reaches 100 astronomical units, or 9.3 billion miles, from the sun on Tue 8/15 at 2:13 PM (PST). It’s 100 times more distant from the sun than the Earth is. Traveling 1 million miles a day, it’s the most distant human-made object in space and is traveling at the outer edge of our solar system. It will hit interstellar space in 10 years.

And to think that the spacecraft was launched some 30 years ago. A mind boggling human achievement!

E85 is biofuel: a blend of 85% ethanol & 15% gasoline. It promised to be cheaper and reduced emissions. It’s debatable how cost effective effective it is.

Brazilian drivers, for one, is on the ethanol bandwagon. The Brazilian Ethanol Program was launched back in 1975 and has became the largest commercial adoption of ethanol as a fuel. Unlike the U.S. where the main source for ethanol is corn, Brazilian ethanol is processed mainly from sugar cane. For all its success, the adoption of ethanol is not without costs. As farming sugarcane became more lucrative, it’s creating a farming monculture– taking over farm land that produces food crops and create a large number of destitute migrant works who can only find farm work during the short 2 months of harvest time. The indirect costs of ethanol in Brazil: sharp increase in food prices, political unrest and violence in rural areas. In addition to the social costs, surprisingly there’s also environmental cost: sugar cane contribute to deforesting the Amazon.

I haven’t been following TV coverage of the new Israeli-Herzbolla conflict, but I imagine the following photos are more powerful than anything featured on CNN.

Even at the get-go, the Bush adminstration made clear its stance on the environment by withdrawing from the Kyoto Accord, which aims to reduce global emmision of green-house gases. It insofar denied even that global warming is a real concern when in 2001, Bush claimed that “we do not know how much our climate could, or will change in the future. We do not know how fast change will occur, or even how some of our actions could impact it.” Sure claim ignorance…

An episode of 60 Minutes aired last nite claims that the administration is now censuring findings by NASA’s James Hansen on global warming. Hansen is the world’s leading researcher on climate changes and believes global warming is accelerating; he points to the melting of artic glaciers and that 2005 was the warmest year on record, as proofs. The administration is restricting his communiques. Interview requests for Hansen are repeatedly turned down by the administration. When requesting an interview with Hansen, NPR was informed by NASA that they didn’t want Hansen talking on the most liberal media in America. Hansen’s press releases are reguarly reviewed by the chief-of-staff of the Council on Envronmental Quality named Phil Cooney. Conney was a lobbyist for American Petroleum Institute before going to work for Bush! 😮

Now, it’s one thing to be driven by certain politcal motives (aren’t all politicians?)– it’s another to censure, and worse, alter science! It’s blatant, outrageous and alarming. Now I won’t get started on the administration’s dealing with stem cell research, that’s a story for another day…

The comedians are having a ball poking fun at the VP’s hunting accident. Here are some of the funny ones:

David Letterman: “Good news, ladies and gentlemen, we have finally located weapons of mass destruction: It’s Dick Cheney.”
Jay Leno: “I think Cheney is starting to lose it. After he shot the guy he screamed, ‘Anyone else want to call domestic wire tapping illegal?’ ”
Jon Stewart: “Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot a man during a quail hunt … making 78-year-old Harry Whittington the first person shot by a sitting veep since Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton, of course, (was) shot in a duel with Aaron Burr over issues of honor, integrity and political maneuvering. Whittington? Mistaken for a bird.”
Borowitz Report: HOMELAND SECURITY DEPARTMENT UNVEILS CHENEY ALERT SYSTEM: Color-coded System Would Warn Nation of Future Attacks by Veep.