Life was a breeze when we sat around the sun dial
making up a myth for everything we observed
Now we try to understand invisible stars
with imaginary numbers on Euclidean curves

- Progress by Stuart Davis

These lines popped into my head yesterday as I was leaving church. Yes church. After many years of avoiding organized worship I am now officially a member of the Shawnee Mission Unitarian Universalist Church. Or, as our resident philosopher jason would say "Church Lite".

The combination of the rather open ended dogma of the UU faith and the above lines from the Punk Monk Stuart Davis got me pondering the idea of theology. Almost all of us seek an explanation for what we see around us. Many folks choose to adopt a specific set of beliefs that serve to make the incomprehensible a little less intimidating. But why are there so many diverse belief systems when we are all really looking for the same thing?

I started college as an engineering major and as such I was forced to take all the core science and math courses designed to turn me into a human calculator. Physics, chemistry, calculus, statistics all began to slowly melt my grey matter into gooey putty that could be reshaped by the College of Engineering. After a few years of this I switched to the psychology department owing to the fact that building a better mousetrap didn’t seem like such a fine goal any more.

Once I made the switch I ran the gamut of the psych department. Developmental, social, child, and clinical psychology were on the menu now and I found it much easier to grasp operant conditioning than electron clouds. But with a few years distance from all of it I realized something.

All of those classes are teaching the same thing.

If you take enough physiscs, you will eventually begin to study the same principles found in the chemistry curriculum. Somewhere in the third semester of calculus the homework problems become indistinguishable from phyics assignments you had the year before. Even the psych classes will eventually lead you back to chemistry. Its all the same puzzle looked at from different angles.

Now I find the same types of over-arching questions in religion that I saw in those classes. Why do we act the way we do? What makes a tree bloom every year? Why are we here on this earth and why do our lives begin and end the way they do?

What interests me now is the way people choose to address those issues. In most religions that I have come in contact with there is a personification of the unknown. In other words, if it can’t be readily comprehended, we will attribute it to God, Gaia, Mother Earth, Odin, Lord Vishnu, Zeus and a thousand others. What is it in our nature that demands this embodiment of the force that drives our universe?

When I look at a puppy or a tree or a child I do not see the hand of an omnipotent being at work. I see the great clockwork of the universe at play. When I read about the intricaies of the Amazonian biosphere I do not pause to give thanks to the Almighty (whatever name it may have). I am amazed and humbled everyday to note the subtle and beautiful ways that the universe takes care of itself and continues its expansion.

But it astounds me that others who see the same wonders will attempt to explain it by telling me that what I see is the result of six days of hard labor by someone infinately more powerful than I or that the trees and grass are here because a bunch of overgrown petty dieties wanted a playground to fool around in. Theology is a recent construct of the human mind. The universe has been chugging along just fine for eons without our attempts to diefy it.

The point here is not to degrade religion. Not at all. I have always been impressed by people who have a strong faith and who take the time to question and understand the dogma they have chosen. This includes all religions and those athiests I’ve met who choose to study the world from a purely scientific angle. But what I am beginning to notice is that everyone is trying to solve the same set of problems. Just as the various math and science courses all lead back to the same results, all theologies are ultimately trying to answer the question "what makes the universe tick?"

For myself, I cannot personify the universe. When I look up into the night sky I do not see the work of a diety who lords over the heavens with benevolence. Nor do I see a vengeful god who expects me to display piety. As humans, we like to complicate things. Religous ritual, rigorous scientific skepticism, and fanatically held belief are all hinderances to our understanding of the universe. If we are ever going to really comprehend the intricate workings we see around us everyday, we must look for answers everywhere.

Perhaps religion has a piece of the answer. Science may contain clues as well. But until we set aside our need to personify and categorize all that we observe, we will never be any closer to understanding.

According to the email I received today, Michael Frey died about 4 years ago, and it could earn me a few million dollars. No, I won’t be sharing the money with you. However, being the generous soul I am, I have included the email detailing my soon-to-be fortune for your reading pleasure.

Dear Frey,

I am Barrister Johnson Madu Solicitor, I am the Personal Attorney to Engr.Michael Frey, a national of Your country, who used to work with shell development,Company in Nigeria. On the 21st of April 2000, my client, his wife and Their three children were involved in a car accident Along Sagamu/Lagos Express Road.

Now, gentle reader, I have been the target of such messages before, but never before have I seen such sophistication. Why, they even got my name right ￜ and pointed out that Mr. Frey is a national of My country (whichever one that is)!

I particularly like the ￜBarristerￜ term. If you want someone to trust you, sound British.

Unfortunately they All Lost their lives in the event of the accident,since Then I have made several enquiries to your Embassy to Locate any of my client extended relatives, this Has also proved unsuccessful.

These capital Letters are very Interesting. What exactly is a client extended relative, anyway? Is that like a client extended warranty? How long is it good for?

After these several Unsuccessful attempts, I decided to trace his Relatives over the Internet, to locate any member of His family but of no avail, hence I contacted you. I contacted you to assist in repatriating the money In addition, property left behind by my client before they get Confiscated or declared unserviceable by the bank Where this huge deposits were lodged. Particularly, the Bank where the deceased had an account valued at aboutUS$7million dollars.

Sadly, this sort of thing is all too common. Searching for relatives on the internet is difficult. That’s why I endorse www.genealogy.com, home to the Internet’s largest database of family information. That’s www.genealogy.com, your best solution to discovering your family’s unique story.

Conseqently, The bank issued me a notice to provide The next of kin or have the account confiscated within The next twenty official working days. Since I have been Unsuccessful in locating the the relatives For over 2 years now I seek your consent to present You as the next of kin of the deceased since you are From the same country and you, share the same surname, this will make it very easy to make claims So that the proceeds of this account valued at US$7 Million dollars can be paid to you and then you and me Can share the money. 45% to me and 45% to you, while 10% Should be for expenses or tax as your government may Require.

As Levi pointed out, 10% is an interesting number. I like this ￜ I get about 7 million bucks and only 10% of it needs to be spent on taxes? Sure, if Iￜve got the Enron auditors doing my books.

I have all necessary legal documents that can be used to back up Any claim we may make. All I require is our honest cooperation to enable us sees this deal through. I guarantee that this will be executed under A legitimate arrangement that will protect you from Any breach of the law.

Thank goodness. Heï¿œs going to make sure that when I give him my checking account information, he makes it nice and legal so Iï¿œm indemnified. In exchange, all heï¿œll ask for is access to my savings, social security number, and my credit cards. But after he takes my money, at least I wonï¿œt be going to jail!

Please get in touch with me by my email to Enable us discuss further.

Best regards,

Barrister Johnson. Madu.{esq}

__________________________________________________

Broadband from an unbeatable ￜ15.99!

http://www.tiscali.co.uk/products/broadband/home.html?code=SM-NL-11AM

Oh, wait, I see now. Maybe he actually IS British! His email is advertising something in pounds rather than dollars, after all.

Ah, I love the internet. These sorts of messages always make me feel good about myself because I just know that thereￜs someone out there who actually falls for it. Itￜs the same mentality that makes people watch Jerry Springer ￜ ￜWell, I may be dumb but Iￜm not as messed up as THOSE people!ￜ

Sometimes its fun surfing the web. Found a site (one of many I’m sure) that lets you customize a whole bunch of photos. Letter James is fun to play with. Read on to see some of my handi work.

And Northern Iowa is within 4 points of Georgia Tech. Meanwhile, Western Michigan is clinging to a three point lead over Vanderbilt, and Oklahoma State is just starting to pull away from Eastern Washington.

It’s NCAA tournament time, which means a lot of things. Mostly, it means that men (and women) all over America have filled in their picks for each game in the 64 team bracket, using any number of systems. Our office has a pool that is currently being led by our HR Director, who just picked the highest seed in every game because "the selection committee spent days figuring out who the best teams were already. What makes me think I’m any smarter than they are?" A strategy that lacks poetry, but seems effective so far.

I have no scientific strategy of my own, you understand. Mostly I pick based on little bits I’ve gleaned from watching SportsCenter and my own memories of different teams. For instance, every year at least one 12-seed beats a #5, so I picked a couple of those (and hit one of them, Manhattan over Florida). Also, when I was growing up it seemed like Xavier won a lot of first-round games so I pick them every time they’re in the tournament. No reason why, but it seems reasonable every time. Then I throw in a few upsets for good measure, like 14th-seeded Northern Iowa over 3rd-seeded Georgia Tech, or Western Michigan over Vanderbilt.

There are a few things I could tell you about the tournament, but the most important is this: There Are Teams.

There Are Teams that are good for taking a chance on every now and then. Princeton is one of these teams. Manhattan is one of these teams, and so is Xavier. Gonzaga used to be, but now they’re a favorite, not an underdog.

There Are Teams that will break your heart. Florida is one of these teams. Kansas is one of these teams. These are the teams that make you pick underdogs, because going with the favorites all the way through (despite our HR director’s plan) will screw you in the end.

There Are Teams that you pick just for fun. Richmond is one of these teams because they have a sweet nickname. The Richmond Spiders? C’mon, that’s awesome. So I picked them over Wisconsin.

2:27 left in the second half, and it’s Georgia Tech 59, Northern Iowa 54.

Ok, so its a conversation starter. Subjective as hell, but such is the magic of community websites.

So here, without any ado at all, are five albums (that’s CDs for you younguns) that I would want with me on a desert island.

• Live: Mental Jewelry - The first band I fell in love with. Mental Jewelry is raw, powerful, and generally kick ass in a cerebral way.
• Harry Chapin: Greatest Stories Live – I grew up with my dad’s vinyl copy of this one and if I had druthers, I’d take the vinyl version to the island with me since it has two tracks that the CD doesn’t. Chapin is the best storytelling artist I’ve heard. This live album captures the best of his craft.
• Stuart Davis: Nomen Est Numen – Lots of good Stuart discs out there, but this one is my favorite. Not as spiritual as a lot of his other work, but great just the same. Every track is listenable and they all can be taken for shallow humor or deep seeded social commentary.
• Pearl Jam: Ten – Tough call between Ten and Vs. but the debut album is the best of the Seattle grunge sound. Even now, the songs are fresh sounding and emotionally charged.
• Cornelius Brothers and Sister Rose – There could be any one of a dozen albums here. But the smooth stylings of Don Cornelius and crew make the cut. Treat her like a lady is a classic and every other song here has the same groove to it.

Just missing the cut:

• Tori Amos: Little Eathquakes
• 4 Non Blondes: Bigger Better Faster More
• Concrete Blonde: Mexican Moon
• Marvin Gaye: What’s Goin On
• Shannon Campbell: Stuff from her website
• Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds: Live at Luther College

So lets hear it. What music can’t you live without?

A few experiences in the last week have caused me to think through my parenting philosophy.

Amazingly, it turned out to be pretty simple and straightforward. So I thought I would share a few of the highlights.

First, a little background on the week. I am attending a baby shower this Saturday for a couple having their first child. The invitation asked that people contribute advice for parents as part of the RSVP so their friends could compile a small book of those nuggets. Now, I don’t really know them well enough to toss in my own two cents. So I decided to do it here on my website.

Then, last Sunday I attended my son’s karate tournament. I volunteered to direct traffic on the competition floor because when you have a thousand kids running around, well someone has to do it. Some kids won, some came in third and some came in tenth but everyone got something. Whether a trophy, medal or ribbon. The thing that gave me pause was the look of utter despair on some of those faces. Even a few with third place trophies in hand were just crushed by their performance. Much more food for thought.

Then last night, I was discussing a parenting issue with the lovely and talented dawnuh. Seems there are people in the world who approach child rearing much differently than I do. Imagine that. Taken together, all these things have led me to create the following guidelines for parents. Pay close attention. Or don’t, I’m not really keeping track.

Be consistent

Its first on the list for a reason. Its also my Dad’s favorite piece of advice about parenting. "Its more important to be consistent than to be right." As parents we will make mistakes. Its a given. But stay true to your beliefs and present a stable set of values to your kids, more often than not you will do ok. Don’t sweat it if you do things different than other parents. They aren’t raising your child. Do what you think is best every time. And when your child comes home and says "but everyone else’s parents are letting them do *activity*" tell em that you don’t agree with the morals or values associated with it and will not allow it. (I have had this conversation regarding the Boy Scouts at least twice now.)

Hug your kid

Seems simple enough right? But its easy to lose sight of this. Hug your kids every day. Hug em before they go to school and before the lights go out at night. Hug them when you pick them up from school. Hug them when they finish their homework. Hug them when they scrape their knee. Hug them when they score the winning goal, and even more important, when they give up the winning goal. Hug them for small successes and big ones. Hug them when they struggle and when they triumph. Most important of all, hug them even when they pull away from you.

Physical contact is more powerful than anything you will ever say. It conveys more in five seconds than you could tell them in an hour. If you embrace your child in a genuine act of love and devotion, they will know it. And even if they are pissed at you, they will know that you still love them.

Instill a little fear

I have seen children throw fits. Tantrums. Mind blowing displays of agression towards parents and others. I have seen children as old as 10 actually strike a parent. Usually when this happens the parents response is to try to reason with the kid.

My children have hit me maybe once or twice. All before the age of 4. Why doesn’t it continue? Because I made sure they knew, with no room for doubt, that they were completely outclassed in a physical match. Kids evolve in stages. When they are toddlers they understand the world in a physical way. This thing is big, that one is small. This thing makes a scary noise and that thing is hot. When a child that age hits you, its because they don’t know any better. In their mind, physical attack is the only tool they have to cope with frustration. I think some parents make the mistake of letting that slide at first. Then the kid reaches the Age of Reason (around four or five) and they are still hitting. Now the parent goes to the "time out". And while this may solve the behavioral problem there is still a big hole in the child’s psyche. They don’t understand that they are outclassed. They don’t understand fear.

Now, before you call the child services folks on me let me explain. I am not suggesting you hit your kids. I have spanked on a few occasions but I am not proud of it because it wasn’t a reasoned act. I was upset. The kid had won the mind war. If you are physically superior to someone there is no honor in hurting that person and no purpose in it. But what can be effective is restraint. When a young child hits me, I pick them up and hold them at arms length before I begin speaking. I do it suddenly and without a word. In that moment, the kid knows they are outclassed. And since most toddlers have experience falling down, that four feet of air between their feet and the ground gives them pause. Suddenly, they know a little fear. Now you can reason with them.

I think it does a disservice to kids to let them grow up without that sense of place. How many times have you seen a teenager who seemed to miss the basic facts of the situation. How many people talk trash to cops. The cops have all the power, you have none. And yet you continue to harass them? Somewhere in the past, those kids threw a fit, hit their parents and learned that the consequence for getting in over your head was to sit in time out and that’s it.

Just a little fear folks. It goes a long way.

Talk to your kids

Tell them you love them. Tell them they are the greatest ever. Tell them they made a mistake. Whatever it is, you can’t tell them things often enough. In the same vein as hugs, your words do matter. Most important though, talk to them as adults. Yes, content should be age specific. You don’t explain mortgage payments to a five year old. But presentation should always be the same. Kids know when you are talking down to them. That’s different than talking on their level. Speak to your kids the way you wnat them to speak to you because I guarentee, that’s how they will talk to you. Kids are not dumb. They are as smart as you let them be. If you use a word in conversation that they don’t know, take a moment to explain it. But always always talk to them with the same respect you would give a peer. Eventually, you want that respect back. The old saying applies, nothing given, nothing recieved. In that same theme…..

Listen to your kids

Yes, I know. The latest episode of Spongebob Squarepants is not high on your list of conversation topics. But to your kids it might be the most exciting thing that happened today. Always listen to what children are telling you. Listen to them like you would listen to your boss. Try to be engaged in the conversation every time they talk to you. Ok, so that game of kickball at recess means more to them than to you, but if you don’t listen to your seven year old, they will know. And when they are 14 and really want to talk to someone, they will chose someone they think will listen. What do they think about your listening? Start early and lay the groundwork.

Parenting is a job, treat it like one

"Well of course its work!", you say. But that’s not what I’m talking about. Being a parent is work. It can be hard work, especially when they are young. But parenting is a job, a career, and a commitment. It should be afforded the same effort, thought, and energy that you put into career advancement.

Think of children as a small business. When they are born, its a struggle. You are learning new things and finding problems you never even considered. It takes the majority of your time getting things up and running and constant supervision to ensure that the business (child) stays healthy. As the child gets older, the time commitment lessens but the emotional and mental commitment grows. In business you would begin to think about how to make it flourish and grow. How to establish your business as a solid and profitable endeavor. Kids are like this from age five to age 12 or 13. You are laying the groundwork for long term success. Once a business has matured, all you really need to do is pay the bills and make sure the deliveries are made on time. Similarly, kids in their teens should not require constant supervision. They should be able to handle the day to day tasks of living and get your input on big decisions. If you spent 15 years running a candy store and then decided you really wanted to be in the antique business you wouldn’t start selling your candy as "antique candy" and yet I hear so many parents say "I just don’t know what to do with my teenager. How did they get like this?" It shouldn’t be a suprise. You spent 15 years building this person up from scratch. Who and what they are now is a reflection of that. If you don’t understand how they got there, then you didn’t give parenting enough attention when you should have.

As expected, I rambled on a bit longer than I should have. But this is a topic I have a lot of passion for. Parenting is both the easiest and most difficult job you will ever undertake. The rewards are great and so is the risk. But it doesn’t have to be complicated. All it takes is love, determination, and a few simple guidelines.

Great article at Wired News about a last minute radio satellite that has just celebrated its 20th anniversary.

Coming, as it does, on the heels of the latest announcements about the Mars mission, it sort of puts a different perspective on the whole idea of space travel. Now, its true that the satellite was put in orbit by a NASA rocket, but the fact that a group of hobbyists could throw something together in six months that has lasted 20 years is pretty remarkable.

Makes one wonder what would happen if NASA held a contest to design a prototype for a reusable moon lander.

Having spent the last several days actively searching for a content mangement system (CMS) for the Kansas City Clay Guild I have come to a realization.

PhpNuke is a brute. Its huge, to the point of being bloated. Now, the plus side of that is that it is amazingly flexible and expandable. The downside is that the overhead on maintenance and development is staggering (as I can attest to).

I don’t have any plans to migrate to a different CMS because I am eyeball deep in this site and I’ve spent too much time tweaking things to my liking. The photo gallery, comics, music section and news reader are all great additions. But if I had to start over again, I’d be a little more discriminating.

I ended up using AngelineCMS for the Clay Guild site. Its small, clean, fast and the layout and appearence can be handled really easily. Its basically blog software with a gallery integrated and a simple forum and link manager. It can also handle multiple levels of access and rss feeds. Perfect for what I needed.

So a word of warning to all of you looking to run a website. Choose well. I highly recommend opensourceCMS as a tool for making this choice. They have over 20 different CMS’s installed and availble for a test drive along with helpful reviews on many of them.

So both of NASA’s rovers on Mars have found evidence of water. In one case, the evidence seems to point to water "rushing" over the surface at some point in the planet’s past. H.G. Wells must be smiling someplace.

At first this seemed to be another NASA fumble. The first probe to land on Mars abruptly stopped working shortly after leaving its lander, and a critical software failure was to blame. The failures of recent years were called to mind, and you could just see the reporters asking about the rover’s fate smirking through their questions. Most of them didn’t seem to believe that there was much chance of repair, certainly not from such a group of ‘incompetents’. Turns out all of them were wrong, and after what must have been gut-wrenching work from millions of miles away, the software fix was implemented successfully, and since then both of the rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, have been working essentially flawlessly.

And now they have found evidence, it seems, of water, something absolutely required for any kind of life WE know of. That’s not to imply that life definitely existed on the red planet, but if it doesn’t get your imagination working overtime a bit, then you don’t have enough imagination. In galactic distances, going to Mars is just about like walking the five feet from the couch to grab your television remote, and yet here we seem to have discovered at least the possibility that this neighbor may have harbored life. Or, on some level, may even still do so. Consider that for a moment, if you will. Suddenly the prospect of a galaxy filled with life, teeming with life, doesn’t seem nearly so farfetched. It’s like looking out over a vast expanse of beach and saying, "Someplace, somewhere out there, lies a buried treasure. We have but to find it," and then just as you’re gearing up to search for months to do just that, you trip over a gold doubloon and realize that the treasure could well be all around you.

All this at a cost of $800 million? What’s that, about four bucks a person in America? Criminy, if all I have to do is spend the cost of a Grand Slam at Denny’s to have THIS sort of news, sign me up for one a week. One a day, even.

Read a very interesting interview with Cory Doctrow today. The guy still ranks as one of the most interesting people I’ve come across on the Internet. Giving Richard Harter a good run for the title.

In the interview Cory is talking about the digital Utopias described in his two most recent works (you can get them in the downloads section on this site at craphound.com). His views on networks, both social and technological, as well as the current state of copyright law and the use of digital distribution are extremely though provoking.

I think one of the things I find so refreshing about him is that he is more of a social theorist with a solid background in technology and economics. Knowing that he is involved heavily with the Electronic Frontier Foundation gives me a much better grasp on what that orgaization is trying to do. Namely, not to destroy the copyright law but to modify it to better suit the changing environment around us. He sites examples from history in which any new form of technology is seen as a threat by the incumbent technology.

The best example is one I’ve used before in discussions. The Gutenburg Bible was a serious threat to the status quo when the printing press was unveiled. It effectively eliminated the monopoly that the church had on copies of the Bible and rendered an entire class (clerical scribes) irrelevant within a generation. Doctrow follows this with examples from more recent times.

We have this history in technology of copyright being created to enshrine ways of rewarding artists that grew up in the last round of technological change. So we had copyright rules for helping people who made sheet music and then someone came up with a piano roll. And they completely screwed the sheet music people because what the piano roll people used to do is buy one copy of the sheet music and then they would rip it to a piano roll … to a digital format … and then they would sell it without giving any money back to the music publishers. And there was no copyright law that could make that work. And so we created a new copyright law, a compulsory license or a blanket license where if you gave a penny to the person who published the original sheet music you could make as many copies of the piano roll as you wanted. And then this happened again with radio. The Vaudeville artists sued Marconi for inventing the radio. People talk about how music file sharing is disruptive… oh you can make infinite numbers of perfect digital copies. Well, yeah it’s disruptive but think about the change from live performance to radio. You went from where you controlled 100% of who got to listen to your music to where you control 0% of who got to listen to your music. You went from where only people who bought a ticket could listen to you to where anyone who could build or buy a radio could listen to you. It made Napster look like kids’ stuff. And after the music industry pulled its head out of its ass it proposed something called the voluntary blanket license. So rather than insisting that people who run radio stations should pay lawyers $300 an hour to figure out whether they should pay them 15 or 25 cents to run a song, we’re just going to have a blanket rate ï¿œ a flat rate ï¿œ for all the songs that you could play.

Check out the whole interview. Definately worth the time.