Mathematical Reflexes

One of the blogs I read regularly posted a reference to a Nature article about a correlation between a kind of mental reflex and mathematical acuity.

Take the NYT test

I got 14 out of 15 just like the blog author.  

How about you?

Midnight Conversations

[Actually 1:30 AM Conversations...]

"Daddy?"

"Yes"

"Daddy?"

"Yes."

"Daddy?"

"Yes..."

"Daddy?  Woody missing his arm."

"But they can sew it back on."

"Daddy?  Ellie's arm."

"Does it need a kiss?"

"Yes Daddy... Thank you Daddy."

Ugly Taste

[Unrelated forward: I've always found phrases like that, "ugly taste," -- phrases that mix sensory adjectives with a differen sense -- interesting.  I'm reading (via audible during my commute) Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series.  He does an outstanding job of this in a lot of different places.  In particular, there's one character who has the ability to communicate with wolves, but the wolves think in images and senses rather than distinct ideas, and senses that are different than human ones.  So, it's interesting to read.  There was a Star Trek episode kind of like that, too, where an alien race spoke in metaphor and allusion rather than with the same kind of "logical" sentence structures that we use in most human languages.]

I was watching Giuliani and Palin on the RNC tonight.  As Giuliani stood, back dropped by a twin-tower absent skyline of New York and spewed ridicule after ridule of Obama, the DNC, and anyone idiot enough to support him, I couldn't picture anything more than a school yard bully.  His language was ugly.  Admitedly I come from a different value-perspective, but some of his "jokes" didn't make any sense to me.  For instance, why is it so funny to the entire hall gathered there that Obama was a community organizer.  I guess I come from such a different place.  According to wikipedia, McCain stood up for other guys getting bullied at the Naval Academy.  Sure hope he stands up for Obama against Giuliani!  It nearly made me sick to my stomach that all the people at the RNC were laughing their heads off... not just cheering the superiority of their candidate, but laughing at the seemingly ridiculousness of the democratic candidate.  Wow.  How ugly.  Even if they believe someone isn't suited for a job, what kind of people make fun of that other person and laugh at their expense.  It made me sick.  Sick.

I don't have any respect for that kind of behavior.

I admit I want to go back and watch the DNC speaches.  I want to make sure I'm be fair in my emotional reaction.  It doesn't seem, in my memory, that the democratic speakers ridiculed and made fun of McCain, though.  They said "he is wrong about what we need to do."  They afforded McCain some decency.  Giuliani, and Palin to some less extent, just plowed into Obama and poked fun at him like his was only 1/2 human.  And everyone gathered laughed and laughed.

As I write, it makes me not just want to vomit, but want to go shake Giuliani.  That kind of bullying behavior actually makes me want to be violent.  ARG!

I hope there aren't too many people out there that think that kind of behavior is acceptable.  If McCain does get elected, I hope that the behavior of his party's strongest supporters doesn't rub off on him and that his a protector of the bullied.  

There's a Christian value question: "Do you put down and laugh at people who you believe to be at a disadvantage, or do you respect them for their contributions, their courage, and their potential?"

Still no pig

"Alas. No prob this end."
"We have cheese."
"Still no pig."
"Next."

Crack me up! Sarahlynn discovered the "drafts" folder full of unsent text messages on her phone. These were the last four message that she hadn't ever sent. Something makes me think thank her T9 didn't guess quite right on that second to last message.

I think this is almost as good as the infamous Lester-family game of Balderdash where Ben Jett defined "mopoke" as something like "what a red neck says when asking for a second helping of bbq, as in the quote: I said, mo' pork!"

That Time Again

You'll notice a new feature on my sidebar - the read-out from electoral-vote.com.

It's that time again. I don't know what we'll do in this house with the debate and election season. The last two presidential election cycles were pretty dramatic for us:

In 2000, we were on the last night of our honeymoon, on a magical Disney cruise in the middle of the Caribbean, trying to learn if we should ask the captain if he would drop us off in a different country or if we could return to the States. We spent the evening at a dinner table with some very un-likeminded guests, and all took turns heading out to the lounge to see where things were on the TV. Sarahlynn stayed up all night; I gave up in the wee hours. As we all remember, the results were still unclear the next morning when we docked. So, we disembarked anyway.

In 2004, we rented a huge 52" rear-projection TV that looked like a martian ship in the middle of our little living room; and we hosted debate parties. We had to rent the TV for at least a month, so we decided to host an election night party as well. Everyone was required to bring a food item that was either red or blue -- lots of interesting concoctions showed up. We all remember where that election went as well.

So, here we are in 2008. Seems like we're on the cusp of change. I sure hope so.

INTP

As most who know me would probably expect... I'm an INTP.
...
My team at work has a couple of challenges. First, 80% of the people in the department we're part of have been there for less than a year. Second, people don't understand much about what we do. The department is only 3 years old.

So, there's a lack of trust between people, a lot of inefficiency in process, not a lot of camaraderie sometimes. Since other managers in my department were complaining about things not getting done well and people not working together effectively, I decided to try to fix some of those issues, with join team meetings.

This latest meeting was a lot of fun. Everyone participated in a simple "Meyers-Briggs for programmers" personality inventory.

I'm an INTP:

E=2 Extraversion
I=9 Introversion

S=7 Sensing
N=13 iNtuition

T=12 Thinking
F=7 Feeling

J=9 Judging
P=10 Perceiving

INTP - Physicists, chemists, biologists, photographers, strategic planners, mathematicians, university professors, computer programmers, computer animators, technical writers, engineers, lawyers, forensic researchers, writers, artists, psychologists, social scientists, systems analysts, researchers, surveyors. Highly analytical, they can discover connections between two seemingly unrelated things, and work best when allowed to use their imagination and critical thinking.

What I found really interesting was that the largest majority of people in the room were in a category with career notes including "mob boss."

I do think those team meetings have been effective!

Duct Tape

Yes... I am an engineer.

WD40 (from my last post) is second in value to duct tape.

Two years ago, I was looking for a Christmas present for my uncle. I decided that he needed a duct tape wallet and a book to go with it: Ductigami. I found a great deal on a duct tape wallet - only $6 including shipping. Wow! When the box arrived... it was a case of 20 duct tape wallets!! And they only charged me $6.

What does one do with 20 duct tape wallets?!

Over the course of the past 2 years, I've given all but one for me away to friends and coworkers. Including a friend over in Iraq for 18 months. He still uses it today. I expect mine to last a while longer, yet, too.