RdXLogic

Out-Educating the Competition

2011-02-25T18:11:00.000-07:00

Wii Remote Hacks | Video on TED.com

2010-12-30T12:13:00.001-07:00

Merry Christmas

2010-12-24T23:38:00.000-07:00

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to their own town to register.

So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

“Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told. (NIV)

Let them tell that to the Marines!

2010-10-04T18:45:00.000-07:00

Fireside Chat
by Franklin Roosevelt
Delivered on 23 February 1942.

My fellow Americans:

WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY is a most appropriate occasion for us to talk with each other about things as they are today and things as we know they shall be in the future.

For eight years, General Washington and his Continental Army were faced continually with formidable odds and recurring defeats. Supplies and equipment were lacking. In a sense, every winter was a Valley Forge. Throughout the thirteen states there existed fifth columnists—and selfish men, jealous men, fearful men, who proclaimed that Washington's cause was hopeless, and that he should ask for a negotiated peace.

Washington's conduct in those hard times has provided the model for all Americans ever since- a model of moral stamina. He held to his course, as it had been charted in the Declaration of Independence. He and the brave men who served with him knew that no man's life or fortune was secure, without freedom and free institutions.

The present great struggle has taught us increasingly that freedom of person and security of property anywhere in the world depend upon the security of the rights and obligations of liberty and justice everywhere in the world.

This war is a new kind of war. It is different from all other wars of the past, not only in its methods and weapons but also in its geography. It is warfare in terms of every continent, every island, every sea, every air lane in the world.

That is the reason why I have asked you to take out and spread before you a map of the whole earth, and to follow with me the references which I shall make to the world-encircling battle lines of this war. Many questions will, I fear, remain unanswered tonight; but I know you will realize that I cannot cover everything in any one short report to the people.

The broad oceans which have been heralded in the past as our protection from attack have become endless battlefields on which we are constantly being challenged by our enemies.

We must all understand and face the hard fact that our job now is to fight at distances which extend all the way around the globe.

We fight at these vast distances because that is where our enemies are. Until our flow of supplies gives us clear superiority we must keep on striking our enemies wherever and whenever we can meet them, even if, for a while, we have to yield ground. Actually, though, we are taking a heavy toll of the enemy every day that goes by.

We must fight at these vast distances to protect our supply lines and our lines of communication with our allies- protect these lines from the enemies who are bending very ounce of their strength, striving against time, to cut them. The object of the Nazis and the Japanese is to separate the United States, Britain, China, and Russia, and to isolate them one from another, so that each will be surrounded and cut off from sources of supplies and reinforcements. It is the old familiar Axis policy of "divide and conquer."

There are those who still think in terms of the days of sailing ships. They advise us to pull our warships and our planes and our merchant ships into our own home waters and concentrate solely on last-ditch defense. But let me illustrate what would happen if we followed such foolish advice.

Look at your map. Look at the vast area of China, with its millions of fighting men. Look at the vast area of Russia, with its powerful armies and proven military might. Look at the British Isles, Australia, New Zealand, the Dutch Indies, India, the Near East, and the continent of Africa, with their resources of raw materials, and of peoples determined to resist Axis domination. Look too at North America, Central America, and South America.

It is obvious what would happen if all of these great reservoirs of power were cut off from each other either by enemy action or by self-imposed isolation:

First, in such a case, we could no longer send aid of any kind to China—to the brave people who, for nearly five years, have withstood Japanese assault, destroyed hundreds of thousands of Japanese soldiers and vast quantities of Japanese war munitions. It is essential that we help China in her magnificent defense and in her inevitable counteroffensive—for that is one important element in the ultimate defeat of Japan.

Second, if we lost communication with the Southwest Pacific, all of that area, including Australia and New Zealand and the Dutch Indies, would fall under Japanese domination. Japan in such a case could release great numbers of ships and men to launch attacks on a large scale against the coasts of the Western Hemisphere- South America and Central America, and North America- including Alaska. At the same time, she could immediately extend her conquests in the other direction toward India, and through the Indian Ocean to Africa, to the Near East, and try to join forces with Germany and Italy.

Third, if we were to stop sending munitions to the British and the Russians in the Mediterranean, in the Persian Gulf, and the Red Sea, we would be helping the Nazis to overrun Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Persia, Egypt and the Suez Canal, the whole coast of North Africa itself, and with that inevitably the whole coast of West Africa- putting Germany within easy striking distance of South America- fifteen hundred miles away.

Fourth, if by such a fatuous policy we ceased to protect the North Atlantic supply line to Britain and to Russia, we would help to cripple the splendid counteroffensive by Russia against the Nazis, and we would help to deprive Britain of essential food supplies and munitions.

Those Americans who believed that we could live under the illusion of isolationism wanted the American eagle to imitate the tactics of the ostrich. Now, many of those same people, afraid that we may be sticking our necks out, want our national bird to be turned into a turtle. But we prefer to retain the eagle as it is—flying high and striking hard.

I know that I speak for the mass of the American people when I say that we reject the turtle policy and will continue increasingly the policy of carrying the war to the enemy in distant lands and distant waters—as far away as possible from our own home grounds.

There are four main lines of communication now being traveled by our ships: the North Atlantic, the South Atlantic, the Indian Ocean, and the South Pacific. These routes are not one-way streets- for the ships that carry our troops and munitions outbound bring back essential raw materials which we require for our own use.

The maintenance of these vital lines is a very tough job. It is a job which requires tremendous daring, tremendous resourcefulness, and, above all, tremendous production of planes and tanks and guns and also of the ships to carry them. And I speak again for the American people when I say that we can and will do that job.

The defense of the world-wide lines of communication demands relatively safe use by us of the sea and of the air along the various routes; and this, in turn, depends upon control by the United Nations of many strategic bases along those routes.

Control of the air involves the simultaneous use of two types of planes—first, the long-range heavy bomber; and second, light bombers, dive bombers, torpedo planes, and short-range pursuit planes, all of which are essential to the protection of the bases and of the bombers themselves.

Heavy bombers can fly under their own power from here to the Southwest Pacific; but the smaller planes cannot. Therefore, these lighter planes have to be packed in crates and sent on board cargo ships. Look at your map again; and you will see that the route is long- and at many places perilous- either across the South Atlantic all the way around South Africa and the Cape of Good Hope, or from California to the East Indies direct. A vessel can make a round trip by either route in about four months, or only three round trips in a whole year.

In spite of the length, and in spite of the difficulties of this transportation, I can tell you that in two and a half months we already have a large number of bombers and pursuit planes, manned by American pilots and crews, which are now in daily contact with the enemy in the Southwest Pacific. And thousands of American troops are today in that area engaged in operations not only in the air but on the ground as well.

In this battle area, Japan has had an obvious initial advantage. For she could fly even her short-range planes to the points of attack by using many stepping stones open to her—bases in a multitude of Pacific islands and also bases on the China coast, Indo-China coast, and in Thailand and Malay coasts. Japanese troop transports could go south from Japan and from China through the narrow China Sea which can be protected by Japanese planes throughout its whole length.

I ask you to look at your maps again, particularly at that portion of the Pacific Ocean lying west of Hawaii. Before this war even started, the Philippine Islands were already surrounded on three sides by Japanese power. On the west, the China side, the Japanese were in possession of the coast of China and the coast of Indo-China which had been yielded to them by the Vichy French. On the north are the islands of Japan themselves, reaching down almost to northern Luzon. On the east are the Mandated Islands- which Japan had occupied exclusively, and had fortified in absolute violation of her written word.

The islands that lie between Hawaii and the Philippines these islands, hundreds of them, appear only as small dots on most maps. But they cover a large strategic area. Guam lies in the middle of them—a lone outpost which we have never fortified.

Under the Washington Treaty of 1921 we had solemnly agreed not to add to the fortification of the Philippines. We had no safe naval bases there, so we could not use the islands for extensive naval operations.

Immediately after this war started, the Japanese forces moved down on either side of the Philippines to numerous points south of them—thereby completely encircling the Philippines from north, south, east, and west.

It is that complete encirclement, with control of the air by Japanese land-based aircraft, which has prevented us from sending substantial reinforcements of men and material to the gallant defenders of the Philippines. For forty years it has always been our strategy—a strategy born of necessity—that in the event of a full-scale attack on the Islands by Japan, we should fight a delaying action, attempting to retire slowly into Bataan Peninsula and Corregidor.

We knew that the war as a whole would have to be fought and won by a process of attrition against Japan itself. We knew all along that, with our greater resources, we could out build Japan and ultimately overwhelm her on sea, on land, and in the air. We knew that, to attain our objective, many varieties of operations would be necessary in areas other than the Philippines.

Now nothing that has occurred in the past two months has caused us to revise this basic strategy of necessity- except that the defense put up by General MacArthur has magnificently exceeded the previous estimates of endurance; and he and his men are gaining eternal glory therefor.

MacArthur's army of Filipinos and Americans, and the forces of the United Nations in China, in Burma, and the Netherlands East Indies, are all together fulfilling the same essential task. They are making Japan pay an increasingly terrible price for her ambitious attempts to seize control of the whole Asiatic world. Every Japanese transport sunk off Java is one less transport that they can use to carry reinforcements to their army opposing General MacArthur in Luzon.

It has been said that Japanese gains in the Philippines were made possible only by the success of their surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. I tell you that this is not so.

Even if the attack had not been made your map will show that it would have been a hopeless operation for us to send the fleet to the Philippines through thousands of miles of ocean, while all those island bases were under the sole control of the Japanese.

The consequences of the attack on Pearl Harbor—serious as they were- have been wildly exaggerated in other ways. And these exaggerations come originally from Axis propagandists; but they have been repeated, I regret to say, by Americans in and out of public life.

You and I have the utmost contempt for Americans who, since Pearl Harbor, have whispered or announced "off the record" that there was no longer any Pacific Fleet—that the fleet was all sunk or destroyed on December 7—that more than a thousand of our planes were destroyed on the ground. They have suggested slyly that the Government has withheld the truth about casualties—that eleven or twelve thousand men were killed at Pearl Harbor instead of the figures as officially announced. They have even served the enemy propagandists by spreading the incredible story that shiploads of bodies of our honored American dead were about to arrive in New York Harbor to be put into a common grave.

Almost every Axis broadcast—Berlin, Rome, Tokyo—directly quotes Americans who, by speech or in the press, make damnable misstatements such as these.

The American people realize that in many cases details of military operations cannot be disclosed until we are absolutely certain that the announcement will not give to the enemy military information which he does not already possess.

Your Government has unmistakable confidence in your ability to hear the worst, without flinching or losing heart. You must, in turn, have complete confidence that your Government is keeping nothing from you except information that will help the enemy in his attempt to destroy us. In a democracy there is always a solemn pact of truth between Government and the people; but there must also always be a full use of discretion and that word "discretion" applies to the critics of Government ,as well.

This is war. The American people want to know, and will be told, the general trend of how the war is going. But they do not wish to help the enemy any more than our fighting forces do; and they will pay little attention to the rumor-mongers and the poison peddlers in our midst.

To pass from the realm of rumor and poison to the field of facts: The number of our officers and men killed in the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7 was 2,340, and the number wounded was 946. Of all the combatant ships based at Pearl Harbor—battleships, heavy cruisers, light cruisers, aircraft carriers, destroyers and submarines—only three are permanently put out of commission.

Very many of the ships of the Pacific Fleet were not even in Pearl Harbor. Some of those that were there were hit very slightly; and others that were damaged have either rejoined the fleet by now or are still undergoing repairs. And when those repairs are completed, the ships will be more efficient fighting machines than they were before.

The report that we lost more than a thousand planes at Pearl Harbor is as baseless as the other weird rumors. The Japanese do not know just how many planes they destroyed that day, and I am not going to tell them. But I can say that to date—and including Pearl Harbor—we have destroyed considerably more Japanese planes than they have destroyed of ours.

We have most certainly suffered losses—from Hitler's U-boats in the Atlantic as well as from the Japanese in the Pacific- and we shall suffer more of them before the turn of the tide. But, speaking for the United States of America, let me say once and for all to the people of the world: We Americans have been compelled to yield ground, but we will regain it. We and the other United Nations are committed to the destruction of the militarism of Japan and Germany. We are daily increasing our strength. Soon, we and not our enemies will have the offensive; we, not they, will win the final battles; and we, not they, will make the final peace.

Conquered Nations in Europe know what the yoke of the Nazis is like. And the people of Korea and of Manchuria know in their flesh the harsh despotism of Japan. All of the people of Asia know that if there is to be an honorable and decent future for any of them or any of us, that future depends on victory by the United Nations over the forces of Axis enslavement.

If a just and durable peace is to be attained, or even if all of us are merely to save our own skins, there is one thought for us here at home to keep uppermost—the fulfillment of our special task of production.

Germany, Italy, and Japan are very close to their maximum output of planes, guns, tanks, and ships. The United Nations are not- especially the United States of America.

Our first job then is to build up production—uninterrupted production—so that the United Nations can maintain control of the seas and attain control of the air—not merely a slight superiority, but an overwhelming superiority.

On January 6 of this year, I set certain definite goals of production for airplanes, tanks, guns, and ships. The Axis propagandists called them fantastic. Tonight, nearly two months later, and after a careful survey of progress by Donald Nelson and others charged with responsibility for our production, I can tell you that those goals will be attained.

In every part of the country, experts in production and the men and women at work in the plants are giving loyal service. With few exceptions, labor, capital, and farming realize that this is no time either to make undue profits or to gain special advantages, one over the other.

We are calling for new plants and additions to old plants. We are calling for plant conversion to war needs. We are seeking more men and more women to run them. We are working longer hours. We are coming to realize that one extra plane or extra tank or extra gun or extra ship completed tomorrow may, in a few months, turn the tide on some distant battlefield; it may make the difference between life and death for some of our own fighting men. We know now that if we lose this war it will be generations or even centuries before our conception of democracy can live again. And we can lose this war only if we slow up our effort or if we waste our ammunition sniping at each other. Here are three high purposes for every American:

1. We shall not stop work for a single day. If any dispute arises we shall keep on working while the dispute is. solved by mediation, conciliation, or arbitration- until the war is won.

2. We shall not demand special gains or special privileges or special advantages for any one group or occupation.

3. We shall give up conveniences and modify the routine of our lives if our country asks us to do so. We will do it cheerfully, remembering that the common enemy seeks to destroy every home and every freedom in every part of our land.

This generation of Americans has come to realize, with a present and personal realization, that there is something larger and more important than the life of any individual or of any individual group- something for which a man will sacrifice, and gladly sacrifice, not only his pleasures, not only his goods, not only his associations with those he loves, but his life itself. In time of crisis when the future is in the balance, we come to understand, with full recognition and devotion, what this Nation is, and what we owe to it.

The Axis propagandists have tried in various evil ways to destroy our determination and our morale. Failing in that, they are now trying to destroy our confidence in our own allies. They say that the British are finished- that the Russians and the Chinese are about to quit. Patriotic and sensible Americans will reject these absurdities. And instead of listening to any of this crude propaganda, they will recall some of the things that Nazis and Japanese have said and are still saying about us.

Ever since this Nation became the arsenal of democracy—ever since enactment of lend-lease- there has been one persistent theme through all Axis propaganda.

This theme has been that Americans are admittedly rich, that Americans have considerable industrial power- but that Americans are soft and decadent, that they cannot and will not unite and work and fight.

From Berlin, Rome, and Tokyo we have been described as a Nation of weaklings- "playboys"—who would hire British soldiers, or Russian soldiers, or Chinese soldiers to do our fighting for us.

Let them repeat that now!

Let them tell that to General MacArthur and his men.

Let them tell that to the sailors who today are hitting hard in the far waters of the Pacific.

Let them tell that to the boys in the Flying Fortresses.

Let them tell that to the Marines!

The United Nations constitute an association of independent peoples of equal dignity and equal importance. The United Nations are dedicated to a common cause. We share equally and with equal zeal the anguish and the awful sacrifices of war. In the partnership of our common enterprise, we must share in a unified plan in which all of us must play our several parts, each of us being equally indispensable and dependent one on the other.

We have unified command and cooperation and comradeship.

We Americans will contribute unified production and unified acceptance of sacrifice and of effort. That means a national unity that can know no limitations of race or creed or selfish politics. The American people expect that much from themselves. And the American people will find ways and means of expressing their determination to their enemies, including the Japanese Admiral who has said that he will dictate the terms of peace here in the White House.

We of the United Nations are agreed on certain broad principles in the kind of peace we seek. The Atlantic Charter applies not only to the parts of the world that border the Atlantic but to the whole world; disarmament of aggressors, self-determination of Nations and peoples, and the four freedoms—freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from want, and freedom from fear.

The British and the Russian people have known the full fury of Nazi onslaught. There have been times when the fate of London and Moscow was in serious doubt. But there was never the slightest question that either the British or the Russians would yield. And today all the United Nations salute the superb Russian Army as it celebrates the twenty-fourth anniversary of its first assembly.

Though their homeland was overrun, the Dutch people are still fighting stubbornly and powerfully overseas.

The great Chinese people have suffered grievous losses; Chungking has been almost wiped out of existence—yet it remains the Capital of an unbeatable China.

That is the conquering spirit which prevails throughout the United Nations in this war.

The task that we Americans now face will test us to the uttermost. Never before have we been called upon for such a prodigious effort. Never before have we had so little time in which to do so much.

"These are the times that try men's souls." Tom Paine wrote those words on a drumhead, by the light of a campfire. That was when Washington's little army of ragged, rugged men was retreating across New Jersey, having tasted nothing but defeat.

And General Washington ordered that these great words written by Tom Paine be read to the men of every regiment in the Continental Army, and this was the assurance given to the first American armed forces:

"The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the sacrifice, the more glorious the triumph."

So spoke Americans in the year 1776.

So speak Americans today!

I Am

2010-09-25T21:57:00.000-07:00

I am uncertain yet determined.
I wonder where I will be in 9 years.
I hear others who are stressed about their future.
I see the confused.
I want to be happy.
I am uncertain yet determined.

I pretend to drive around by myself.
I feel that sense of control.
I touch the lives of others who have done the same.
I worry about failure.
I cry when nothing makes sense as things change.
I am uncertain yet determined.

I understand that things HAVE to change to get anywhere.
I say live life, follow your heart, be brave.
I dream about success.
I try to stay optimistic.
I hope for the best in my future to come.
I am uncertain yet determined.

-- Amanda Morris

Christian Matthew Morris

2010-05-27T16:01:00.003-07:00

Born today at 1:31PM weighing 7lbs., 3/4 oz. and 20-1/2" in length. Christian has brown wavy hair.

Why Schools Should Learn To Use Online Services Like Facebook & YouTube Rather Than Banning Them

2009-12-31T13:54:00.000-07:00

From an article at TechDirt

A Practical use for Geometry

2009-09-06T09:12:00.002-07:00

A typical question that always comes up at least once a semester from my students is when will they ever use this stuff in real life. My standard response has become, "I don't know. What do you plan on doing with your life?" Their usual response is that they don't know. So I tell them "It's ok if you don't know. But whatever it is, you had better be prepared for it and that's what you're here for." They seem to think that is a good idea and let the conversation go.

There is a McGyver tip titled Estimate Distances with Your Arm and This Rule of Thumb posted at LifeHacker. I used something like this for range estimation when I was in the Marine Corps. It relies on the ratio of the distance between your eyes and the length of your arm (usually about 1:10). The phenomena is called parallax. Astronomers parallax to estimate the distance to stars.

The post also mentions The Old Farmer's Almanac. I used to read this over and over again when I was a kid, along with Webster's Dictionary and Collier's Encyclopedia.

I guess I didn't have much else to do when I couldn't go outside to play during those long Michigan winters.

Let the Eagle soar again...

2009-07-20T14:53:00.003-07:00

NASA's current budget is 0.6% of the Federal budget. This is an extremely small investment when you consider the real tangible benefits that have been gained from spin-offs from the space program. When you consider the amount of money that is wasted in other areas, it is really sad to see our space program, something that is such a source of pride to our nation, struggle the way it has.

It has been said that if NASA had continued at the pace of the 1960's, we would have humans all over the solar system by now. Think of all of the jobs and other benefits to society that would be created. Think of what our world might be like if more people could see it for what it is - a pale blue dot in space. Wouldn't this view bring us closer together by showing us how we really are all in this together?

I say, let the Eagle soar again. Let us move beyond the pettiness of the last century and become what we can be. Let's inspire the next generation to be the greatest generation, the generation that finally, truly unites us with a common goal. The world is waiting.

Our inheritance is the stars. Let's not wait any longer.

21st Century Literacies

2009-07-19T14:34:00.003-07:00

I just finished watching an interesting presentation on 21st Century Literacies by Howard Rheingold which he presented presented at the Reboot Britian conference in July, 2009. You can view his talk at BlipTV. (Approximate length: 40 minutes)

According to Rheingold, new literacies for students in the 21st century include: Attention, Participation, Cooperation, Collaboration, Critical Consumption (crap detection), Network Awareness.

"Schools are places where we park our children while we go to work and where they learn to be good 19th and 20th century workers. Unfortunately, this is the 21st century...a lot of learning takes place outside of school and when the teacher is not looking." (Rheingold)

"I am not sure how to get there, how to evaluate efforts or measure impacts...whether schooling as we know it is even the place to start building the necessary institution." (Rheingold)

In his talk, he refers to a number of his other articles that have been published, such as the one titled Crap Detection 101.

Mom, Tom, and Judy

2009-04-11T18:20:00.002-07:00

Destinations: A Future Timeline of Gifted and Talented Education

2009-03-28T18:57:00.002-07:00

This is an timeline for a work of fiction that I composed for a course on gifted education that I participated in. It parallels some of the legislation for special education in the US, time-shifted about 50 years into the future. It gets kind of science fiction-like toward the end.

2015: Congress adds Title XII to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 creating a Bureau of Special Education for the Gifted and Talented. Educating gifted and talented students is still not mandated by federal or state law. However, creation of the Bureau signified that a change was on the horizon.

2022: Two significant US Supreme Court decisions [Darcy v. California (2022) and Nguyen v. Topeka Board of Education (2022)] apply the equal protection argument to students with gifts and talents. The courts take the position that children with gifts and talents do not have an equal right to access education as their non-gifted peers. Although there is no existing federal law that mandates this stance, some students begin leaving school to be home schooled as a result of these court decisions.

2023: Section 1054 of the Rehabilitation Act of 2023 is enacted into statute. This national law mandates the identification and tracking of gifted and talented students. This national law was enacted with little fanfare. Most educators were not aware that this applied to public schools.

2025: The Education for Gifted and Talented Children Act (EGTCA) is enacted. This was also known as P.L. 184-1204. Today we know this law as the Individuals with Gifts and Talents Education Act (IGTA). Before 2025, children with gifts and talents were mostly provided an education solely on the basis of their abilities. EGTCA, along with some key Supreme Court cases, mandated all school districts not to educate students with gifted and talented abilities.

2040: The Americans with Gifts and Talents Act (AGTA) is enacted. AGTA adopts the Section 1204 regulations as part of the AGTA statute. In turn, numerous “1204 Plans” for individual students start to become a more common place in school districts. Gifted and Talented students are regulated to special classrooms where their education can be monitored and controlled.

2047: IGTA is reauthorized. This amendment calls for gifted and talented students to be excluded in from state and district-wide assessments. Also, Federal Department of Education agents are now required to be a member of the IEP team. Some Gifted and Talented students are relocated to schools where their needs can be better met.

2051: No Child Gets Ahead is enacted. This law calls for all gifted and talented students to be segregated from the general population by the year 2064. It also sets limits on what can be taught in government schools and enacts strict penalties for schools whose student performance is out of conformance.

2054: IGTA reauthorized There are several changes from the 2047 reauthorization. The biggest changes call for more accountability at the state and local levels for identifying and removing from the general population all Gifted and Talented children. As more data on the number of gifted and talented people still at large are revealed, states react more severely to the crisis. Another notable change involves school districts providing adequate instruction and intervention for students to help keep them out of gifted and talented education.

2062: Executive Order 9066. President Walter N. Utak authorizes the internment of gifted and talented students with Executive Order 9066, which allowed local military commanders to designate "military areas" as "exclusion zones", from which "any or all persons may be excluded." This power is used to declare that all gifted and talented are to have their rights as US citizens suspended, except for those in internment camps. In 2064, the Supreme Court upholds the constitutionality of the exclusion orders, while noting that the provisions that singled out the gifted and talented are a separate issue outside the scope of the proceedings.

Internment camps are established in Alaska and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan for the purpose of relocating the gifted and talented. The US border with Canada is officially closed to prevent fleeing by those seeking a more intellectually tolerant society.

Destinations:

Camp 1 (Minimum Security – Moderately Gifted) is located in Lake Superior National Park 34 miles northwest of the town of Newberry. The residents of Newberry had been evacuated in 2035 after wild fires swept through the region.

Camp 2 (Highly Gifted) is located near the upper branch of the Coleen River in the Alaskan Arctic National Wildlife Refuge close to the Canada border. The camp is about 85 miles from both the villages of Old Crow in the Yukon Territory and Arctic Village in Alaska’s Brooks Range.

Camp 3 (Exceptionally Gifted) is located near a bend of the Etivluk River about 15 miles from its confluence with the Colville River on Alaska’s North Slope. The closest villages, each about 120 miles from the river bend, are Ambler to the southwest and Atqasuk to the north.

Camp 4 (Maximum Security – Profoundly Gifted) is located on the remote island of St. Matthew, which sits alone in the Bering Sea without road, airstrip, or town. The closest village is Mekoryuk, on Nunivak Island off the Yukon River delta. St. Matthew’s nearest neighbor is 209 miles away.

2064: The "Public Welfare Land Act” becomes law. Also, known as the Great Equalizer, seizes public and private lands which have been used for the "endowment, support, and maintenance of at least one college or institution where the leading object has been scientific and classical studies and the mechanic arts in order to promote liberal and practical education." All colleges and universities in the US are closed.

2066: All communications are lost with the island of St. Matthew (Camp 4). Satellite surveillance downlinks showing images of the island are scrambled. The secure inter-web connection is fire-walled by St. Matthew Island. US Intelligence agencies are unable to “hack the system.” All ships and aircraft approaching the island mysteriously vanish.

2068: The United States of America ceases to be a power of any consequence. Anti-intellectualism spreads around the world. The State of Arizona ranks first in the nation in education.

2072: The US-Canadian Virtual War ends in 38 minutes and 27 seconds. Michigan and Maine are annexed by Canada. California, Alaska, and Hawaii secede from the Union.

2078: In an effort to revitalize the economy, Congress declares war on Alaska. Federal troops fire on Camp 3. In one day, one hundred and ninety-seven Federal troops are killed by friendly fire. Internees suffer no losses. The Federal government’s only remaining active combat division is lost in the arctic wilderness.

2082: The European Space Operations Centre, in Darmstadt, Germany detects launches from St. Matthew Island into low Earth orbit. The announcement of the launches is later retracted.

2091: The world economy collapses. China, Russia, South Africa, and India engage in a limited nuclear exchange. The inter-web collapses due to a virus filled upgrade originating in Ohio. World civilization enters an agrarian-based barter economy.

2099: Canada annexes Alaska. Camps 2 and 3 are liberated and found to have booming economies and healthy, prosperous populations. Advances in medicine in Camp 2 have eliminated all disease except for the common cold. Technology in Camp 3 is found to have advanced to include free, limitless energy from zero-point energy sources.

2110: Alaska secedes from Canada and becomes the new world superpower due to the prosperity created by intellectual freedom.

2125: World-wide panic ensues when the European Space Agency announces that a spacecraft of unidentified origin has entered Earth orbit. The unidentified spacecraft is later determined to be a starship launched by the internees of St. Matthew’s Island more than 40 years earlier to colonize an Earth-like planet in the Alpha Centauri system. The Education Bureau moves to conceal the truth from the general public.

Notes:
The timeline from 2015 until 2054 is based on A Timeline of Special Education History as prepared by John Peterson at http://admin.fortschools.org/PupilServices/StaffInfo/A%20TIMELINE%20OF%20SPECIAL%20EDUCATION%20HISTORY.htm. I attempted to align these dates with the same intervals of time that occurred for the various legal actions involving special education for those with disabilities.

Executive Order 9066 is from an article on Japanese American Internment Law on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_American_internment. Executive Order 9066 is the actual order signed by President Franklin Roosevelt that allowed the internment of Japanese-Americans to occur during World War II.

Camp locations are the results of a Google search for most remote locations in the continental US. At least the Alaskan entries are. The one for the Upper Peninsula of Michigan is fictional. (Probably)

The entry for 2064: The "Public Welfare Land Act” is based on the 1862 entry on the First Morrill Act at http://www.cloudnet.com/~edrbsass/educationhistorytimeline.html

I learned of the European Space Operations Centre, in Darmstadt, Germany from a search for EAS tracking stations that yielded a reference at http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMB0DJJX7F_index_0.html

References to the events of 2091 were inspired by the novel The Humanist Inheritance by M. J. Lineberger.

I conducted a search for earth-like planets on Google and was referred to an article by the Daily Mail at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-529410/Earth-like-planet-supports-life-circling-Suns-nearest-neighbour.html

Death Star over San Francisco

2008-08-24T09:36:00.001-07:00

Olympic Taekwondo

2008-08-19T23:08:00.001-07:00

Exclusive Summer Olympics news & widgets at NBC Olympics.com!

Randy Pausch on Time Management

2008-07-26T17:27:00.001-07:00

Randy Pausch on Time Management

Posted using ShareThis

The Push For Quotas For Women In Science

2008-07-15T16:56:00.001-07:00

"The NYTimes has a story about how Congress has quietly begun to press for an equal number of women in the hard sciences and engineering under Title IX, which is best known for mandating numerical equality for boys' and girls' sports for institutions that accept federal funding. The problem is, the article says, it is not merely that women face discrimination from male colleagues, though that is often true, or that they are discouraged from pursuing these fields. Rather, women with aptitude in these areas often simply have other interests and so pursue their education and careers in other fields like law, education, or biology. Opponents of this plan, including many women in scientific fields, say implementing sex-based quotas will actually be detrimental because it will communicate that the women can't compete on even terms with men and will be 'devastating' to the quality of science 'if every male-dominated field has to be calibrated to women's level of interest.'"

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday July 15, @05:48PM on slashdot.

Hippocratic Oath for Scientists?

2008-06-23T21:59:00.002-07:00

"I promise never to allow financial gain, competitiveness or ambition cloud my judgment in the conduct of ethical research and scholarship. I will pursue knowledge and create knowledge for the greater good, but never to the detriment of colleagues, supervisors, research subjects or the international community of scholars of which I am now a member."

Article: Living the Scientific Life

Teaching Math

2008-04-22T20:49:00.001-07:00

What do kids want to learn and how do they want to learn it? There are certain requirements for every course that must be mastered by the students. But what makes learning enjoyable for some and drudgery for others? As a teacher, I can show my students an outline for the course and try to put everything in perspective so that they have a better idea of where I am taking them through the course. They know where they are and they know where they are going.

It always happens in every math class that I have taught that one day a student will as me why they need to learn this stuff. They are not impressed with explanations of how math trains their minds to think logically and teaches them to solve problems in a sequential manner by applying properties and theorems. The best answer that I can give my students is that I don’t know. And they don’t either. It depends on them and what they end up doing with their lives. Some of them will probably never use any of it. I am giving them tools to use and it will be up to them to decide if and when to use them.

I look at it as they are on a journey, one that I have already traveled. In high school algebra and geometry, they are at the beginning of a journey that will take them to calculus and higher math. Calculus is the door to a whole new way of looking at the world and leads to an understanding of the way things work. They are beginning a journey that will take them places and allow them to understand things that they haven’t even imagined.

I realize that most of my students will end their journey early and go no further than the basic algebra and geometry that is required for them to graduate from high school. That is fine. Math isn't for everyone. As long as you can make change and balance a checkbook. You probably learn all of the math that you need for normal, everyday life by 6th grade.. But there are a few who will make the journey. They will take the tools that I give them and acquire many more along their journey.

Hopefully, one or two of my students will continue the journey even further than I have gone.

A New Enerprise

2008-03-22T14:36:00.005-07:00

CGI artist Gabriel Koerner has confirmed this is actually one of his designs. I'm really looking forward to the new Star Trek movie next summer. I really don't mind that it is a restart of the original series (TOS), as much as I am a fan of all things Star Trek. I think the modern way of story telling may be what the series needs to get a new generation hooked on making the future happen as much as my generation has been influenced by TOS.

Information R/evolution

2007-10-22T09:14:00.000-07:00

Found on Merlin Mann's 43folders. This is an excellent video presentation by Michael Wesch on how digital technology is affecting the way that we deal with information.

On note taking and other important stuff

2007-09-29T22:48:00.000-07:00

I'm in grad school working on an MS in EE and for note taking have found that nothing beats plain white copy paper. It's cheap ($2-3 per ream) and with a 3-hole punch and an inexpensive 1” 3-ring binder is very versatile. I have one binder for each course. I like the 1-1/2” wide binders because I can easily fit 2 or 3 in my bag. I have tabs to divide syllabus and course schedule, notes, handouts, and blank paper. Other tools include a good ol' Pink Pearl eraser, a Z-Grip 0.5mm mechanical pencil, and Pilot G-2 0.7 mm gel pens in red and blue ink and a Pilot G-2 Pro fine point in black ink. With these tools I can quickly capture notes and diagrams. The only things that I type up are homework assignments and lab reports. In my computer, I have files for each class and sub-files for homework, labs, and lecture notes (PowerPoint presentations and PDFs supplied by the professors). With my trusty Moleskine pocket squared notebook to keep track of my deliverables and other stuff I am able to leave my Dell Latitude D520 notebook computer put away until I get to the library.

Discontinued - Your kidding?

2007-09-29T22:13:00.000-07:00

I just found out that my trusty TI-86 has been discontinued. So I'm using a relic. Hmmm. Well, anyway, everyone knows that real engineers use HPs. I bought the TI before I knew better anyway. Let's take a look at what they've got.

Wow. Look at the HP-50. Nice!

Oops, $149.99?

Um, the TI still works great, and besides, it's not the calculator, its the skill of the operator that counts.

Ya, that'll work.

Getting Things Done

2007-09-23T07:43:00.000-07:00

I finally got around to buying David Allen's book (I bought it from Amazon along with one of the textbooks that I need for one of my grad courses). So far it is a pretty easy read. The book organizes a lot of what I know and have learned from working in industry for 18 years. I'll need to get through it all, digest it, and read through it again before I decide on what it can do for me. At this point, two thumbs up. I just need to put it down and get back to my textbooks occasionally.

Reliving the 80s with Pandora

2007-07-29T21:10:00.000-07:00

I'm just sitting here doing some random browsing on line with Pandora open in another tab. I've got several stations set up that I can go to depending on my mood. Tonight, I selected the Electric Light Orchestra station and so far there has been a steady stream of "oldies" coming across. Starting with ELO, there has been The Police, Paul Simon, Cyndi Lauper, and now Bryan Adams is up. Each song brings back memories and feelings from a long time ago. It's actually quite amazing to me how music creates such an emotional response.

What to do?

2007-05-20T10:58:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to figure out what I want to accomplish today. I'm a functional procrastinator and if I don't sit down and organize myself in the morning, I'm just kind of random throughout the day. At the end of the day I really don't feel like I have accomplished anything.

I started listening to podcasts from Merlin's Mann's 43 Folders blog and have downloaded a series on getting things done. I started listening to it on my walk last night and it is no surprise that I'm not the only one with this problem. What is surprising is that someone else actually has to time to spend really thinking about this issue. Merlin and his guest must have some very important projects that they are putting off. It seems that it is common to find lots of other things to do (like I am doing now) rather than getting done what needs to be done. The trick seems to be that if you are going to procrastinate getting done what needs to be done by doing other things, make those other things that you do things that need to be done. In other words, waste time with worthwhile activities.

Perhaps I'll finish listening to Merlin's podcast on my walk tonight, if something else doesn't come up.

Solving Karnaugh maps ain't like dustin' crops, boy!

2006-11-03T11:02:00.000-07:00

I've found a new toy to play with. Recently, I pulled out my EE textbooks with the goal of re- familiarizing myself with things that I have forgotten. One of the things that I have been playing with is my old favorite the Karnaugh Map. I had forgotten how much fun it is to solve K-maps by hand. I think that they are a lot more interesting than wasting time with suduko. There is something practical that can result from simplifying a Boolean functions using a K-map. After playing around with several functions, I wondered if anyone had taken the time to create software to simplify a K-map (I was almost certain someone had). I found a neat open source application at http://k-map.sourceforge.net/#top to do just that. Now to all I have to do is get around to spending a little time playing with the software. I wonder if I can get it to run on my Pocket PC.

The Beach

2006-07-24T21:39:00.000-07:00

At the beach. I'll be right back.

A Real American Hero

2005-12-24T14:47:00.000-07:00

From the story of the Real GI Joe:

On Oct. 26, 1942: The last man did not fail

Oct. 26 fell on a Thursday this year [2000]. Ask the significance of the date, and you're likely to draw some puzzled looks -- five more days to stock up for Halloween? It's a measure of men like Col. Mitchell Paige that they wouldn't have had it any other way. What he did 58 years ago, he did precisely so his grandchildren could live in a land of peace and plenty.

Whether we've properly safeguarded the freedoms he and his kind fought to leave us as their legacy, may be a discussion better left for another day. Today we struggle to envision -- or, for a few of us, to remember -- how the world must have looked on Oct. 26, 1942. A few thousand lonely American Marines had been put ashore on Guadalcanal, a god-forsaken jungle island which just happened to lie like a speed bump at the end of the long blue-water slot between New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago -- the very route the Japanese Navy would have to take to reach Australia.

On Guadalcanal the Marines built an air field. And Japanese commander Isoroku Yamamoto immediately grasped what that meant. No effort would be spared to dislodge these upstart Yanks from a position that could endanger his ships during any future operations to the south. Before long, relentless Japanese counterattacks had driven the U.S. Navy from inshore waters. The Marines were on their own.

World War Two is generally calculated from Hitler's invasion of Poland in 1939. But that's a Eurocentric view. The Japanese had been limbering up in Korea and Manchuria as early as 1931, and in China by 1934. By late 1942 they'd devastated every major Pacific military force or stronghold of the great pre-war powers: Britain, Holland, France, and the United States. The bulk of America's proud Pacific fleet lay beached or rusting on the floor of Pearl Harbor.

As Mitchell Paige -- then a platoon sergeant -- and his men set about establishing their last defensive line on a ridge southwest of the tiny American bridgehead at Henderson Field on Guadalcanal on Oct. 25, it's unlikely anyone thought they were about to provide a definitive answer to that most desperate of questions: How many able-bodied U.S. Marines does it take to hold a hill against 2,000 desperate and motivated attackers?

The Japanese Army had not failed in an attempt to seize any major objective since the Russo-Japanese War of 1895. But in preceding days, Marine commander Vandegrift had defied War College doctrine, "dangling" his men in exposed positions to draw Japanese attacks, then springing his traps "with the steel vise of firepower and artillery," in the words of Naval historian David Lippman.

The Japanese regiments had been chewed up, good. Still, American commanders had so little to work with that Paige's men had only four 30-caliber Browning machine guns on the one ridge through which the Japanese opted to launch their final assault against Henderson Field, that fateful night of Oct. 25.

By the time the night was over, "The 29th (Japanese) Infantry Regiment has lost 553 killed or missing and 479 wounded among its 2,554 men," historian Lippman reports. "The 16th (Japanese) Regiment's losses are uncounted, but the 164th's burial parties handle 975 Japanese bodies. ...The American estimate of 2,200 Japanese dead is probably too low."

Among the 90 American dead and seriously wounded that night were all the men in Mitchell Paige's platoon. Every one. As the night wore on, Paige moved up and down his line, pulling his dead and wounded comrades back into their foxholes and firing a few bursts from each of the four Brownings in turn, convincing the Japanese forces down the hill that the positions were still manned.

The citation for Paige's Congressional Medal of Honor adds: "When the enemy broke through the line directly in front of his position, P/Sgt.Paige, commanding a machine gun section with fearless determination, continued to direct the fire of his gunners until all his men were either killed or wounded. Alone, against the deadly hail of Japanese shells, he fought with his gun and when it was destroyed, took over another, moving from gun to gun, never ceasing his withering fire."

In the end, Sgt. Paige picked up the last of the 40-pound, belt-fed Brownings -- the same design which John Moses Browning famously fired for a continuous 25 minutes until it ran out of ammunition in its first U.S. Army trial -- and did something for which the weapon was never designed. Sgt.Paige walked down the hill toward the place where he could hear the last Japanese survivors rallying to move around his flank, the gun cradled under his arm, firing as he went.

The weapon did not fail.

Coming up at dawn, battalion executive officer Major Odell M. Conoley first discovered the answer to our question: How many able-bodied U.S.Marines does it take to hold a hill against two regiments of motivated, combat-hardened infantrymen who have never known defeat?

On a hill where the bodies were piled like cordwood, Mitchell Paige alone sat upright behind his 30-caliber Browning, waiting to see what the dawn would bring.

One hill: one Marine.

But that was the second problem. Part of the American line had fallen to the last Japanese attack. "In the early morning light, the enemy could be seen a few yards off, and vapor from the barrels of their machine guns was clearly visible," reports historian Lippman. "It was decided to try to rush the position."

For the task, Major Conoley gathered together "three enlisted communication personnel, several riflemen, a few company runners who were at the point, together with a cook and a few mess men who had brought food to the position the evening before.

"Joined by Paige, this ad hoc force of 17 Marines counterattacked at 5:40 a.m., discovering that "the extremely short range allowed the optimum use of grenades." In the end, "The element of surprise permitted the small force to clear the crest."

And that's where the unstoppable wave of Japanese conquest finally crested, broke, and began to recede. On an unnamed jungle ridge on an insignificant island no one had ever heard of, called Guadalcanal. Because of a handful of U.S. Marines, one of whom, now 82, lives out a quiet retirement with his wife Marilyn in La Quinta, Calif.

When the Hasbro Toy Co. called up some years back, asking permission to put the retired colonel's face on some kid's doll, Mitchell Paige thought they must be joking. But they weren't. That's his mug, on the little Marine they call "GI Joe."

And now you know.

The Washington Post
November 18, 2003; Page B06

Mitchell Paige, 85, a retired Marine Corps colonel who received the Medal of Honor after almost single-handedly staving off enemy forces during a crucial battle of World War II, died Nov. 15 at his home in La Quinta, Calif., southeast of Palm Springs.

United States Marine Corps

2005-11-10T09:24:00.000-07:00

Since 1775

Here's to you and to our Corps.

Freedom

2005-10-25T20:18:00.000-07:00

For those who fight for it, freedom has a special flavor the protected will never know.

Back to Business

2005-07-14T23:48:00.000-07:00

I've been working on the courses that I'm taking over the summer at CAC. I'm trying to knock out the education credits that I need to teach here in Arizona. The courses aren't all that difficult (Behavior Management and Intro. to Education) and actually are quite interesting. They just take a little time for the reading and writing papers. I've got a couple of more chapters to go and hope to have it all finished over this weekend. Then it's back to playing with microcontrollers. I really miss the little guys.

I've been seeing a lot more discussion about FPGAs in the literature lately. It looks like they are coming to light as the versatile little buggers that they are. EDN magazine has an interesting little article in the July 7 edition on the image-processing applications of FPGAs. In Embedded Systems Programming magazine (July 2005) the editor has a nice piece about his experiences with FPGAs.

Good news! IEEE Spectrum magazine is reporting in the July 2005 issue that engineering salaries are slowly starting to rise again in the US and are really taking off overseas. Overseas, salaries for engineers are increasing by double digit percents. The drain that has occurred here in the US with engineering jobs seems to be heating up the job market in China and India. Hopefully, some type of near equity will be reached with US engineers and some of the jobs that have been sourced off-shore will start returning.

Computer magazine (July 2005) also has an article on embedded computing and discusses the need for computer science to revisit its foundations and prepare for the 21st century by creating practices that will meet current and projected needs. It will be necessary to reinvent computer science. There are issues of precision and reliability involving temporal issues. We have the basic tools that we need. We just need to start using them. Technology is ready for another leap. The time is just about right for another revolution such as occurred as transistors became ubiquitous.

Star Trek New Voyages

2005-07-01T00:57:00.000-07:00

I came across a cool web site for an independent Star Trek fan film production group at Star Trek New Voyages. They have released two films so far that pick up where the original series from the 1960s left off. Captain Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise had completed three years of their five year mission when the series was cancelled and the fan films pick up during the fourth year. All of the original Enterprise crewmembers are portrayed by new actors who give fresh interpretations of the original characters.

The first two episodes “Come What May” and “In Harms Way” were released in 2004. These short films are available free for download from the website in zipped WMA format either through direct download from mirror sites or through bit torrent. Each episode is presented as a teaser and five acts. There are two more films in development and are scheduled for release in 2006. The third film is being written by one of the writers from the original series and will guest star Walter Koenig - Mr. Chekov from the original series and the movies.

I was impressed with the quality of the films considering that they are privately sponsored and produced. There are quite a few computer generated special effects but the look and feel is approximate to the original series plus something a little more. The costumes, props, and sets are very well done. I noticed the improvement between the first episode and the second episode and anticipate again as much improvement in the upcoming episodes. Since Star Trek Enterprise was cancelled and there is no Trek in sight, at least not for a few years, the production of fan films such as New Voyages will do nicely to fill the void for Trekkers such as myself.

I know that there are other fan films in production, some spinning off from the later series such as "The Next Generation." But for me, it's exciting to see Captain Kirk and the Starship Enterprise back in action again - boldly going where no man has gone before.

A View from Space

2005-06-24T23:24:00.000-07:00

This satellite picture was taken at 18:50 UTC on June 23 by NASA's Terra Earth observing satellite. The pixel resolution on this picture is 250 meters. The Terra satellite and other NASA satellites monitor the atmosphere for carbon monoxide and other pollutants. This picture shows the wildfires burning here in Arizona. Terra has been used for the past several years to monitor wildfires all around the world. The instruments on Terra are sensitive enough to allow analysts to be "able to tell the difference between pollutants originating from wildfires and those from urban and industrial sources."

The white fluffy things on the right are obviously clouds, but the gray smears to the south of the white clouds along the center right hand side of the picture are smoke trails from the wildfires. The gray smudge below the smoke trails is Phoenix. That's the Gulf of Baja at the bottom of the picture and the dark kidney bean shaped object towards the left is the Salton Sea. Of course, that's the Pacific coast of Southern California looking overcast all the way to the left.

If you are able to zoom in with your browser, you can see the red outlines drawn in by NASA showing where the wildfires are located. I'm not surprised at the number of fires. We had a relatively wet winter and spring was really beautiful here in the desert with all of the wild flowers. But, it has been over a hundred every day for the last couple of weeks and everything had dried up for the summer. The last couple of nights there have been lightning flashing in the sky all around and so there is bound to be fire. We even got a little rain last night which might signal the start of monsoon season.

2005-06-23T14:37:00.000-07:00

Tacia, Class of 2005

What is an Electrical Engineer?

2005-06-21T23:03:00.000-07:00

The first thing that we need to do is define terms.

"Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline that deals with the study and application of electricity and electromagnetism. Its practitioners are called electrical engineers. Electrical engineering is a broad field that encompasses many subfields." (From Wikipedia.)

This is a good general description of an electrical engineer. The definition makes a point that electrical engineering is not one monolithic discipline but consists of several subfields. These include power, control systems, digital signal processing (DSP), analog and digital electronics, computers, biomedical, and radio frequency (RF) electronics.

The next step is to take a closer look at those subfields. Since this is my blog, I've chosen to take a look at the subfields or emphasis in electrical engineering that I am involved with.

Digital Electronics: "The branch of electronics dealing with information in binary form." (From Electroflash)

This is a short but concise definition. Along with digital I also have an emphasis in computers.

Computer Engineering: "A specialized discipline that combines electrical engineering and computer science. A computer engineer is an electrical engineer with a focus on digital logic systems, and less emphasis on radio frequency or power electronics. From a computer science perspective, a computer engineer is a software architect with a focus on the interaction between software programs and the underlying hardware components." (From Wikipedia)

Computer Engineering at some universities is a separate discipline; at others is an emphasis in electrical engineering. The definition given above for computer engineering details more specifically the types of activities that I was involved with while working to obtain my degree in electrical engineering. My focus was more on the interaction between software and the underlying hardware components along with my focus on digital logic systems.

I spent a lot of time dealing with lower level language such as assembly and in examining what exactly happens in machine language as instructions are executed. This provided me with a better understanding of what is occurring when executing higher level instructions in languages such as C/C++. Getting down to transistor level design is the most basic and most enjoyable part of what I do. I also work with large scale components such as Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) and Complex Programmable Logic Devices (CPLDs). When it comes to design entry languages using either Very High Speed Integrated Circuit (VHSIC) Hardware Description Language (VHDL) or Verilog I prefer to use VHDL because I think that it works better for systems level design and in Register Transfer Level (RTL) modeling.

I also found fascinating the solid state physics involved in the creation of semiconductor devices. This is a topic that I would like to study more about in the future. It is truly amazing to me what is going on at the atomic level in these devices.

So this is where my head is at with this stuff. There is a lot of ambiguity as to what an electrical engineer is and does.

Once I was asked by a friend what I studied in college.

"Electrical Engineering," I replied.

"Oh, then you know how to wire houses and stuff."

"Yeah...and stuff."

Return to Space

2005-06-20T22:29:00.000-07:00

Here is a little quiz for you. Name the orbiters in the original space shuttle fleet.

The orbiter Discovery and its new and improved external tank and solid fuel boosters rolled out to Pad B on June 15. The window for launch is now July 16 – July 31. This means that we are less than a month away from return to flight with STS-114.

I can remember when we returned to space after the loss of the Challenger. I was at work and the plant manager wheeled a television into the plant and stopped production so that everyone could gather around to watch. It was one of those kinds of events. I still remember the roar of applause and cheers from everyone in the plant as we watched the launch.

STS-114 commander Eileen Collins says that the crew is ready to go. They are very confident in the improvements made to the entire space transportation system, enough so to climb aboard and light the candle in July.

When asked if she thinks that it is worth the risk, she responds that the need for humans to explore makes it worth the risk. She states that we are taking just tiny first steps – we are flying the space shuttle, building the space station, preparing to return to the moon and then go on to Mars – in the beginning of manned exploration of space. Commander Collins agrees that there are still risks, but she feels that the shuttle is safe enough to take those risks. She equates what we are doing now to what the early explorers did setting sail into the Atlantic in those tiny little boats. Those boats, she explains, were a lot less safe than the shuttle is and she thinks that those early explorers were crazy to do what they did. But that is where we are now, taking the first tiny steps of exploration into a new world.

The answer to the quiz is this: There were six orbiters in the original fleet. We have lost Challenger and Columbia in accidents. The remaining orbiters are Discovery, Endeavor, and Atlantis. The first orbiter of the fleet was an experimental/test orbiter that never made it into space – the Enterprise.

Day Seven

2005-06-14T22:00:00.000-07:00

On the Road Again

We're getting ready to head out first thing tomorrow to California for Tacia's high school graduation on Thursday. I plan on spending Friday and Saturday on the beach. I’ve got my bottle of SPF 80 sunscreen all ready to go.

I've got all of the essentials packed: my PocketPC filled with recent podcasts and ripped mp3s, digital camera and digital video camera, Todd Cochrane's 'Podcasting' book, Kevin Mitnick's book 'The Art of Deception', my USB thumb drive with my school stuff on it, and my toothbrush. After the graduation ceremony and festivities on Thursday I'll jack Tacia's laptop and then head off to find a hot spot.

Chris will probably disappear with his surf buddies. I won't see him again until it is time to leave on Sunday. I told him not to leave the state without me. He still hasn't unpacked his bag from his last trip to California over spring break, so he's all ready to go.

Luz and Amanda will be taking off visiting friends and relatives in Long Beach and San Diego. They have two huge suit cases packed and a couple of other bags staged and ready to go.

Tacia has some loose ends to tie up - surfing and beach parties - before she leaves to come back to Arizona, find a job for the summer, and get ready to start at NAU in the fall.

Day Six

2005-06-14T01:19:00.000-07:00

A New Planet Found Orbiting Gliese 876

A planet that is being called “Earth’s Big-Cousin” has been found orbiting a star about 15 light-years away. The planet is 5-7 times as massive as the earth and orbits its star in less than 2 days. This means that it must orbit very close to the star, only about 2 million miles away. Being that close to its star means that it is probably composed of rock, making it the first solid extra-solar planet discovered.

There have been approximately 150 extra-solar planets discovered so far, but they have all been gas giants like Jupiter. There have been no direct observations of Earth size planets because they would be hidden by the glare of the stars that they circle. It is kind of like looking for a pea on the lens of a search light.

A new type of space telescope that is due to be put into orbit in the next few years will have the capability of directly observing Earth size planets. Once they are detected we can use various methods to analyze the light being reflected off of the planets to look for clues of life.

The question of are we alone in the cosmos will probably be answered within the next twenty years. If we do detect evidence of life out there, then the question becomes what do we do next?

Day Five

2005-06-12T23:36:00.000-07:00

Nanotechnology, Artificial Intelligence, and Space Exploration

I just read a very interesting article on micro-spacecraft that are being developed by 'The Aerospace Corporation' working with NASA Ames Research Center. The spacecraft will be cone shaped, similar to the Apollo capsule, only much smaller - on the order of only one foot in diameter. This is being made possible through the application of nanotechnology.

Nanotechnology deals with the construction of machines and electronics on the scale of a billionth of an inch (smaller than the thickness of a human hair). The techniques for constructing such devices relies in part in photolithographic techniques such as are used to construct microchips. This technology allows us to construct much smaller, much more complex machines requiring much less energy to operate.

Some of the components of these spacecraft will be data recording devices, transmitters, accelerometers, chemical and biological sensors, and pressure sensors. Spacecraft of this size can be used as probes launched from larger spacecraft to explore much larger areas of a planets. They will also be used as black boxes to record flight information from satellites and the new CEV (Crew Exploration Vehicle) that is being designed as the next generation spacecraft to replace the space shuttle. In one application scenario they will be dispersed to form a network of interconnected nodes to gather information about a particular environment in preparation for subsequent exploration.

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in designing similar devices is becoming more prevalent. Already, AI has been used to design antennas for spacecraft according to predetermined specifications. The AI is able to generate designs and "evolve" them to arrive at a design in which flaws and weaknesses have been eliminated through survival of the fittest type design reiterations.

The stuff of science fiction from only a few years ago is continuing to become science fact in relevant engineering applications. There is an article at the NASA website that discussed more details of what is coming in this area of technology.

View the article at NASA's Micro Spacecraft.

2005-06-12T23:35:00.000-07:00

Micro Spacecraft - Now fact, not fiction.

Day Four

2005-06-12T01:06:00.000-07:00

Classic Rock

I added a link on the right to a local classic rock radio station. If I had one reason to stay in this area, this radio station might be it. Fortunately, they have a streaming broadcast so I will be able to listen online whereever I end up.

What I like best about this station is "NO COMMERCIALS" at all. (Except for their occasional station identification as mandated by law, but they're so cool you really don't notice them.) They also play a really good mix of the classics.

A word about the station's philosophy from their website:

"KCDX, a privately owned and funded radio station, operates each day with one mission in mind: Staying true to the music. We have thrown the corporate radio guide book out the window, and replaced it with real listeners' views and opinions.

Artists and listeners alike know that Rock and Roll isn't made up of just 500 hit songs. Rock and Roll is so much more than that. We know this. This is why we here at KCDX spend countless hours digging deeper into our collections to find those missing pieces of Rock and Roll history.

As KCDX nears its fourth year of playing NON-STOP Rock and Roll, we promise to never let our search for Rock and Roll end. If you, too, are passionate about your Rock and Roll and would like to help the search for great Rock and Roll, please visit our “Rate the Rock” page and help us discover."

Give a listen to what's playing at KCDX.

Day Three

2005-06-10T21:24:00.000-07:00

Day three and I'm still going.

I've been getting a lot of good information on podcasting out of Todd Cochrane's Podcasting book. Lots to learn here. Podcasts are like self-produced radio programs that anybody with a computer and a microphone can put together. I'm on Chapter Three - "Finding and Subscribing to Podcasts" - and there is just too much information out there. Really good stuff. I've spent a lot of time looking around on the websites that he suggests and have downloaded a couple of different podcatcher clients to try out. I have been using the one that comes as a part of Thunderbird to catch blogs and I really like it, but the various podcatcher software that Todd describes in the book are really good and open up a whole new level of the podcasting experience to explore. I like the idea of having podcasts of topics that I am interested in downloaded onto my PocketPC and then being able to take that with me to listen to the podcasts throughout the day - listening to what I want, when I want.

Day Two

2005-06-09T17:49:00.000-07:00

This is my second day of blogging.

"Blogging" kind of sounds like a made up word for something that I used to do as a kid in the winter back in Michigan.

Bob: "It snowed twelve inches last night. What go you want to do today?"
John: "Let's go blogging."

I think the term that we used was 'boggining.

I just received in the mail today a copy of "Podcasting: The Do-It-Yourself Guide" by Todd Cochrane.

It has a really nice look and feel to it. I've read his acknowledgments and Introduction and have just started on Chapter 1. It's nice to be able to put a face with the voice that I've been hearing on the "Geek News Central" podcasts. I think that the book is going to be one of those "can't-put-it-down" kind. Leafing through it, it seems to have a nice mix of technical and layman explainations on how to find podcasts to subscribe to and what it takes to produce and distribute your podcast.

You can find it at Amazon: Podcasting

I'm thinking that a podcast would be a good way to get Tacia's music out to a larger audience. It's something to think about.

2005-06-09T01:30:00.000-07:00

Tacia (left) at the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival

First Post

2005-06-09T00:37:00.000-07:00

Let's see how this thing works.

I've been listening to a lot of podcasts over the last few days. This is something new to me. It is supposed to be the next big thing in broadcasting.

Here are a couple of geek/tech blogs with podcasts that are kinda cool:

Geek News Central
Evil Genius Chronicles

There are a couple of blogs that I have been following, again computer geek/tech stuff:

Kevin Rose
Space.com

That's all I want to do for my first post. I want to work on getting the hang of this before I try anything more.