Prison spending bleeds education system

http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/04/07/jealous.prison.reform/index.html?hpt=Sbin

There is a bipartisan tide of lawmakers who are trying to fix our nation's out-of-control corrections system, and make funding for education the priority.

Prison spending bleeds education system

http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/04/07/jealous.prison.reform/index.html?hpt=Sbin

There is a bipartisan tide of lawmakers who are trying to fix our nation's out-of-control corrections system, and make funding for education the priority.

Technology and Music

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8294355.stm

It looks like something played by the alien musicians in the bar in Star Wars.
It can be made to sound like it too.
This is the Eigenharp - described by its developers as "the most expressive electronic musical instrument ever made".
One of my colleagues calls it more simply "a sci-fi bassoon".
The Eigenharp is the brainchild of John Lambert, a musician and software entrepreneur, whose Devon-based team has been working on the project for eight years.

10 October 2009

Today, the most interesting use of what I guess I should call modern technology, was at the cinema. My family and some friends went to see Toy Story and Toy Story 2. The fact that these movies were created entirely on computer is amazing. They are animated but the animation is quite different from the hand drawn animation I grew up watching. The characters and the sets appear to have depth. They don't appear to be two dimensional drawings pasted onto a painted background. To top it off, the movies were just re-released in 3-D. They handed out polarized glasses when we entered the cinema and it was very impressive to watch these movies in this format. Certainly, these movies could not have been made without computers.

9 October 2009

After the class discussion last night, I had to ask myself what I thought was technological before I thought about how it affect me. I woke up this morning on a mattress made by some sort of machine, to an electric alarm clock, dressed in clothes made by machine, drove to work in a car, sat in front of a computer, made copies on a copier, answered a networked telephone, and on and on.

All of that certainly makes my life easier but that's what I'm used to. I couldn't imagine my life without some of these items. If I lived one hundred years ago, I couldn't imagine a life with these items. Prior to the invention of the refrigerator, we never needed one. Prior to the invention of the computer, we never needed one either. Now, our lives would be dramatically altered without them.

I would find my job very different/difficult without the phone and the computer. At the same time, I don't think my job would even exist without the phone and the computer (or it would have completely different responsibilities).

What animal I want to be, and why?

I am quite happy being a Homo sapiens. This is the animal I want to be. I like my opposible thumb. The ability to create art and to think critically is something I enjoy.