My Life, My Crutch

Boy Kid is working on his organizational skills. He's not particularly good at keeping track of his assignments and projects and stuff like that. Honestly, he's in 6th grade, so his life isn't that darn complicated, but he needs to start learning how to manage information well.

When I was a student, I struggled with the same things until I started using a weekly planner to track all my events and tasks. It became such an important device, that the little black book (actually a new one every year) became known as my "Life." I still have several of my Lives on a shelf in the basement. Looking through one is an amazing stroll down memory lane. They have names, phone numbers, events, places, concerts, and so much more. I think it's time for Boy Kid to create and use his own Life.

In the mid to late 90's, my Life was replaced by a Palm Pilot PDA.
In the mid aughts, my Life moved to a blackberry.
Now, my life is in the cloud and is accessible from my Android phone, my tablet, or my computer.

Over the years, there have always been people who looked askance at my crutches. They think I am being intellectually lazy. Why can't I just remember dates? I should take the time to memorize my parents' phone number. I should use my brain instead of relying on technology.

Honestly, my brain ain't all that great. As a wise man once said "A man's got to know his limitations." My choice is between a crutch and total disorganization. I choose the former, and am fine with sharing that choice with Boy Kid.

Kicked in the Gut

Damn, this sucks.

I watch a lot of sports. I like football, basketball, hockey, and baseball. Heck, I'll even watch tennis and golf. Plus, I love just about every Olympic sport that isn't a major sport (this disqualifies soccer, basketball, tennis, etc., but includes skiing, archery, skeet shooting, curling, track & field, and any 'athlon).

You could say that I am a fan of sports.

On the other hand, I am one of those sports fans that some people hate. I rarely have a strong feeling about the teams. I have just about no paraphernalia from any sports teams. I'm a homer who likes the Redskins and Capitals (I'll jump on the Wizards bandwagon if they ever stop sucking), but I am not a rabid fan.

The Nationals have pulled me in. For the first time, I am really a fan of a team. Their owner is not a jerk who only cares about buying success (I'm looking at you Snyder). Their players aren't petulant thugs (I'm looking at you Andray Blatche and Agent Zero). The Nationals are my team.

As a result, last night hurt. Our pitchers let us down (giving up a 6-run lead?), and Davey Johnson let us down (Storen should have been yanked), and for the first time, I am really part of the "us."

Damn, this sucks.

Higgs!

When I rolled out of bed on July 4th, I grabbed a cup of coffee and my android tablet. When I fired up Plume (Twitter client), I was greeted with the greatest twitstream I have seen. Several people I follow were tweeting about the discovery of the Higgs Boson.

Phil Plait (@BadAstronomer)
who? Writes the Bad Astronomer column for Discover Magazine
favorite tweet: Higgs! Higgs! Higgs! http://is.gd/pbmFwE #Higgs

HAL 9000 (@HAL9000_)
who? The computer from 2001: A Space Odyssey
favorite tweet: The size of the applause Fabiola Gianotti just got at the #Higgs presentation you'd think she had just unveiled a thinner iPhone

Lifey (@9to5Life)
who? A funny guy on twitter
favorite tweet: Comic sans on the CERN presentation slides because fuck the haters.
honorable mention: I actually just clapped, alone, like an asshole.

Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson)
who? Astrophysicist, author, science superstar
favorite tweet: On the day we reserve to tell ourselves America is great - July 4 - Europe reminds us that we suck at science. #HiggsBoson

Other folks such as Mike Scully (@scullymike), Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt), and many others chimed in as well. Reading through that stream was tremendous. Sincere thanks to all of you. That was really, freaking cool (in a totally geeky kinda way).

For anyone who wants to figure out what the big deal is, here are some resources for learning more:

• The video What's a Higgs Boson(thanks to The Guardian) is a quick, simple explanation of what the Higgs Boson is.
• Phil Plait's Higgs! (Bad Astronomy blog at Discover Magazine) has the big statistical plot that shows the "bump" at about 125 GeV that represents the Higgs Boson. His article has a ton of excellent links to other articles with background info.
• To learn more about the Standard Model (the physics theory for which the Higgs Boson provides long-awaited validation), check out The Standard Model.
• Matt Strassler's The Higgs FAQ is a really good and informative read.

Music Monday: Take-Away Shows

The video series Concerts a Emporter (Take-Away Shows) is worth checking out. My wife the francophile should love the settings for these.

Menomena: Wet and Rusting
Check out the kids that appear about halfway through. As one of the musicians says "that is the cutest thing I have ever seen."

Phoenix: 1901
In this video, the couple that is getting married totally steals the visual show.

Vampire Weekend: The Kids Don't Stand a Chance
They seemed to stumble early on, but playing in that space must have been a huge challenge. Also, couldn't Rostam have put the keyboard up on the hood of a car?

Architecture in Helsinki: Heart It Races
Love the beginning of this. The sound quality seems a bit off to me, but it still works overall.

The Shins: Gone for Good and Turn on Me
Nice work here.

Jason Mraz: It's a Lovely Day
We have some spray paint art at home from that same spot where he was looking at street art (by the Centre Georges Pompidou). That is my favorite place to hang out in Paris. Maybe it was staged, but tt seems like he improvised that song based on what a barefoot Bulgarian street performer was doing. Pretty impressive.

Paying for Cheap Gas

A few weeks ago, xkcd had the comic Working, which put to mind an app I need to develop or commission.

Whether it makes sense to drive out of your way to save on gas is more complicated than just the economic argument the xkcd comic puts forth in the image. The caption gets at the more interesting thing to me. When you drive farther, you are using up more (probably expensive) gas.

Let's take a simple example. You need 10 gallons of gas and have a gas station right on your way to work. But if you go 2 total miles out of your way (let's say it's a mile in the wrong direction), you could save 5 cents per gallon. Does it make sense to make the detour?

If your car gets 20 mpg in the type of driving you do for this detour, then you are using an extra 1/10 of a gallon to save 50 cents. If gas costs less than $5.00/gallon, then your detour makes sense (ignoring the cost of your time and the increased wear and tear and maintenance for your car).

Now, let's try another example. Let's stick with the 20 mpg because it's an easy number to work with and probably not too far off for many non-hybrid cars.

detour distance: 5 miles (1/4 of a gallon)
save per gallon: $0.10

This scenario makes sense if the cost per gallon is less than $4.00/gallon.

Now, let's look at a decision I get to make. These numbers represent the data for my nearest Costco gas station:

detour distance: 20 miles (1 gallon)
save per gallon: $0.14

This scenario makes sense if the cost per gallon is less than $1.40. Notice that this detour doesn't even make sense if you drive a car that gets 40 mpg.

Anyway, it amuses me that people start going out of their way to save money on gas when the cost of gas goes up, but when the cost of gas is high, the detours make less sense than they do when gas is cheaper. I need to write an app that doesn't just find cheap gas, but also allows you to put in your fuel efficiency and gallons needed to help you determine which cheap gas is worth the trip.

Music Monday: International Jazz Day

Happy International Jazz Day. Seriously. The UN says so. In honor of this auspicious occasion, I decided to post something for the first time in ages.

First of all, the International Jazz Day site has videos of some concerts featuring Herbie Hancock. Herbie doesn't come out until about 22:00 in the first video, but it is worth a listen.

Now for two songs from Duke Ellington, and one each from Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock. Actually, for some of these, I am linking to multiple versions because each version is remarkable.

Duke Ellington: Take the A Train
With his Big Band Live at Newport Jazz Festival. This version really swings.
With a trio. This is a very smooth, cool (and longer) version of the tune.

Duke Ellington: Caravan

Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers do a nice version of this classic.

Wes Montgomery's version swings, baby.

Oscar Peterson's piano work is incredible.

Miles Davis: So What
Live in Stockholm in 1960
Herbie Hancock, et al do the song justice in their tribute to Miles.

Herbie Hancock: Maiden Voyage
The studio version from the album of the same name is lovely. Freddie Hubbard's trumpet solo absolutely gives me chills every time.

Khaaaaaaaaaan!

A friend at work sent me this link to a 60 Minutes article Khan Academy: The Future of Education?

I haven’t seen the 60 Minutes piece, but have tired of the idea conveyed by the title. I have blogged about Khan before, so I'll keep this short.

• Mathalicious's blog has a nice article Khan Academy: It's Different this Time. 
• On his MAA blog Devlin's Angle, Professor Keith Devlin brings us The Difference Between Teaching and Instruction. 

I could go on and on with links to articles that put Khan in some reasonable context, but I’ll spare you the pain. The basic idea is that I am not alone in thinking that if Khan is really the future of education, then we are in deep doodoo. Frankly, I would not really call Khan Academy’s stuff “education,” but rather would consider it “instruction.” If we turn education into nothing but a series of activities that a microchip can perform, then we are on a very dangerous path.

Don't get me wrong. Khan isn't bad. Using it as a way to support struggling students, or as a way to help flip a classroom and allow teachers to focus on engaging with students, it could have great value. The Daily Riff has The Flipped Class Manifest, which provides some insights into how and when flipping a classroom can work, as well as a nice set of links to articles that provide more depth. 

Regardless of its benefits, my concern is that Khan Academy could be used to replace teaching with instruction, and I think that's bad.