Root Canals

Here is a link due to recent interests in root canals in my comment section. Mama don't let your babies grow up to be cheerleaders, or bad dentists.

A Great Rugby Win

A good win this weekend against a team we have never beaten in a full side match, as they reminded us of afterwards.

Followed by a wonderful Sunday, full of sunshine. We walked the long back roads to Porter, fighting for space with the four wheelers. Leo attempted to slide into every mud puddle available.

Necessary Evil

Seems like I've seen this quote in Michael's papers. Seems entirely relevant. Here's a web site.

Any community's arm of force - military, police, security - needs
people in it who can do necessary evil, and yet not be made evil by it.
To do only the necessary and no more. To constantly question the
assumptions, to stop the slide into atrocity.
Lois McMaster Bujold

Fetching Dogs solving Calculus Problems

Here's a piece regarding a dog's innate ability to find the optimal path to fetch a ball. They even wrote a book about it with a great title, The Math Instinct: Why You're a Mathematical Genius (Along with Lobsters, Birds, Cats, and Dogs). Once you can solve calculus problems, taxes should be a breeze. Leo get your pencil out.

Family WatchDog

We looked at this web site with Nancy this weekend, now a story in a major blog. The article raises some privacy concerns regarding wrongful convictions, or even wrongful entries into a database. However, it is terribly creepy to see all of the people living around you that come up on this map.

Alternative Approach to Teaching Fractals

Teachers are redefining classical mathmetics by simulating cultural practices in a field called ethnomathemeatics. In this case, using corn row braids to demonstrate fractals.

Olympic Skating

After watching Olympic skating last night, I found this article describing the various jumps. Do you know the difference between a lutz and an axel? By the way, we're much more impressed with the athletisism of speed skating anyway.

Great Weekend

What a great weekend we had with Nancy and all the kids. Lots of hiking and exploring and playing. And while we weren't totally healthy, we did spend a bit of time discussing healthy issues. This quote reminded me of burning calories. Maybe if I can use my brain more, I can eat more M />

Estimated amount of glucose used by an adult human brain each day, expressed in M 250

Harper's Index

Kennedy / Cheney Bumper Sticker

Here's the answer to the Kennedy driving portion, and this cartoon illustrates the last vice presidential shooting.

Life Happens in Three Dimensions

Life happens in three dimensions, so why doesn't science? Declan Butler discovers that online tools, led by the Google Earth virtual globe, are changing the way we interact with spatial data.

This article discusses the scientific uses of the Google Earth application. This application is basically a plug in that can be used by anybody. Shhh don't tell anybody, but my idea for the next big thing involves Google Earth meshed with our container tracking system.

Check a new toy on the site

Its a tiny browser for the blog, you can search for things inside my web site. Pretty cool. Try it out, I put in a default search of rugby.

The Flying Tomato

Testing new Performancing blogger tool.
Did you see the Flying Tomato, Shaun White, at the winter olympics. A breath of fresh air flying into the winter olympics. There has been some doubt whether or not the winter olympics deserve so much attention (see Bryant Gumbel's remarks on HBO); however, the Tomato was pretty awesome.

We Made Google (Beta)

Google has a new search engine for blogs (although its still in beta), looks like it has most of my entries when searching by the blog name. Cool!

Star Wars Valentines

An early valentines day gift.

Potential Cure for AIDS

A research group at BYU have developed a possible cure for the AIDS virus, using a class of drugs called ceragenins. It is currently being confirmed. If the results remain positive, it will take 3 - 7 years for release by the USDA.

Democracy, War, and Genocide

This article notes the likihood of genocide with new democracies. Perhaps predicting the possiblity of such with the perfect storm in Iraq. It also describes how the Germans justified the Holicost in terms of 'just war' arguments. This seems to give significance to Michael's studies in history as well as current events.

Reasoned defences of most genocides can be constructed on the basis of a conjunction of the just war and social exclusion arguments, for if there is an identifiable social group engaged in total war against you, then it has to be neutralised. The Armenian genocide in 1915 was justified on these grounds, for the Armenians were expected to fight with the Russians in the event of an invasion of Anatolia. Stalin’s classicide was an attempt to deal with counter-revolutionary elements who might have sided with the Whites in the event of a renewed civil war or foreign invasion. A defence of the Holocaust might be constructed along the same lines: the attack on Bolshevism was a just war against an outlaw state ‘driven by slavery and the threat of human sacrifice’; it became a total war in which Jews would probably have taken the Soviet side; their pre-emptive internment was therefore a natural precaution, and their execution an unfortunate necessity at a time of ‘supreme emergency’ when the Red Army threatened the Fatherland. If you accept the just war and social exclusion arguments, then these genocides can only be criticised on the basis that they relied on shaky political analysis. They were, in effect, misjudgments, failures of statesmanship, perhaps.

These are not hypothetical arguments. Orhan Pamuk was until recently awaiting trial for affirming the existence of an Armenian genocide, while the president of Iran has cast doubt on the Holocaust, and floated the idea of relocating the state of Israel in Central Europe. Mann and Levene both see genocide as a modern practice coextensive with the rise of the West, and imply that the Middle East has been relatively insulated from this historical pattern. But as war and democracy march hand in hand into the region, that may change. On Mann’s analysis, the chances of some sort of genocide must be quite high. According to him, murderous ethnic cleansing takes place where the demos is equated with the ethnos. Young democracies are particularly at risk, especially those where ethnicity trumps class as the primary means of social classification. The danger zone is reached when two groups claim the same territory, and they reach the brink either when the weaker group fights rather than submits (perhaps believing it has outside support) or when the stronger thinks it can act with impunity. Genocides do not occur in stable, peaceful environments, but at moments of crisis when the state is in danger. So societies only go over the brink when the perpetrators of the genocide are radicalised by war.

Groundhog Day

Today is groundhog day, some interesting facts from an MSN article.

• While the official groundhog in Pennsylvannia is a zoo animal put in place for tourism, groundhog day is built around the idea of a groundhog hibernating.
• The day started in Europe as part of a Christian holiday called Candlemas, however, they used a hedgehog
• When the groundhog hibernates, it only breathes once every four minutes, its heart beats about four times a minute, its body temperature drops to 36 degrees.
• Usually a groundhog's hibernation cycle lasts about 2 weeks, then he checks again for spring. Additionally, the groundhog only gets the correct prediction 37% of the time.