Odds and Ends, #5

A.  I am relieved to hear that the NBA lockout will be coming to an end.  I am missing the Bulls run to the championship and have had to fill in with watching episodes of the Wonder Years on Netflix streaming. It's a poor replacement, folks, and I need some real basketball to keep me going. Although the Big Ten - ACC matchup has been interesting this week, with Ohio State whacking Duke big time last night.     

2.  I made it to the Muppets Movie Saturday night with the whole family - it was as good as expected. If you or your kids grew up with the Muppets, this movie will be a delight for you. Lots of cameos by stars (we all love Neil Patrick Harris), lots of good jokes (when someone mentions September is 6 months away, Fozzie Bear tells everyone, "Once I had to wait almost a year for September.") Now that is a Muppet joke. And lots of goofy songs and dancing.    

Jim Henson's daughter Lisa is now CEO of the Jim Henson Company and she describes the movie: “I think the movie is like a big, glorious love letter to the Muppets,” she says. “The whole gist of the movie is, ‘These guys are important—let’s bring them back!’” Hear, hear!    

Next.   I've lost chances to do blog posts because of the online class I'm taking in Artificial Intelligence. Ten to twelve hours a week to keep up on video lectures and homework - much of it spent looking through Google because I didn't want to spend $145 on the textbook.  But I've learned a lot about how computer science people are building the next generation of robots. And recently a story appeared in Sky News about Google's attempt to get robot -  driven cars to be legal in Nevada.  

Last year the company traveled 140,000 miles across California to test the self-driving cars and was encouraged by its findings. Specially-adapted Toyota Priuses drove from Google's Mountain View headquarters in northern California and down the scenic Pacific Coast highway to Santa Monica.  They crossed the Golden Gate Bridge and drove down San Francisco's Lombard Street - among the steepest and curviest roads in the world.  The cars remained manned at all times by a trained driver ready to take control, as well as by a software expert.    

Google engineer Sebastian Thrun (who coteaches my AI class) said: "Our goal is to help prevent traffic accidents, free up people's time and reduce carbon emissions by fundamentally changing car use.  Our automated cars use video cameras, radar sensors and a laser range finder to 'see' other traffic, as well as detailed maps which we collect using manually driven vehicles to navigate the road ahead."    

So we are getting closer to the point where I don't have to feel guilty about texting while I'm driving. Wooo!    

Last.   For those of you with IPads, IPhones, or IPods, there is an APP called Geo Walk HD World Fact Book that is pretty interesting. From TechRadar. com comes this review:  

Encyclopaedias: not the most exciting of books. And that's a real shame. What if you could take the most interesting bits of knowledge and browse through them in a more visual, engaging way?    

As luck would have it, Geo Walk HD is a fun little app that does just that. Spin the globe interface and tap a hovering object to zoom into its image card; tap again to reverse the card for a brief commentary on the subject. Use the dock to switch to the carousel card mode or turn on a category filter (architecture, for example).   

For $2.99, it seems like a nice add-on to your Angry Birds player IPhone. And it also might help you find out where you are after you made a mistake putting your destination into your robot car. You know, there's a Lima in Peru, too, not just Ohio. That might explain why your drive took so long.  

 

Farewell to the Dragons of Pern

Locus Magazine for Science Fiction and Fantasy announced today:  

SFWA (Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America) Grand Master Anne McCaffrey, 85, died November 21, 2011 of a massive stroke at home in Ireland.   

McCaffrey is best known for her long-running Pern series of SF novels and stories. She was the first woman to win both the Hugo and the Nebula Awards, with “Weyr Search” (1968) and “Dragonrider” (1969) respectively. Pern novel The White Dragon (1978) was the first hardcover SF novel to make the New York Times bestseller list. Many of the later books in the Pern series were written in collaboration with McCaffrey’s son Todd.  

She was a great storyteller.  According to her website, she wrote her first novel as a reaction to how poorly women were depicted in 1950's and 1960's science fiction. At last count she had written or coauthored over 100 titles. 

She said in a Locus interview in 2004,   

I think the best story I ever wrote was 'The Ship Who Sang'. It still causes people to cry, including me. When Todd and I were reading it at Brighton, they had a BBC crew filming it. So there were these BBC cameramen hunkered down filming us, and comes the end of the story (which Todd always reads, because I can't go through it without weeping), I saw that these cameramen had tears rolling down their faces.

 If you want to read "The Ship Who Sang", you can download it or read it here.    

It's Holiday Movie Time 2!

The second movie that I am excited about (after Hugo on Nov 25) comes out on December 21 - The Adventures of TinTin.   Based on a children's book from Belgium, the plot centers around a cub reporter who follows his stories to the ends of the earth. According to MovieInsider,     

There will be three back-to-back films, which will be in full digital 3-D. Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson will both direct an installment of the trilogy. The movie is animated, motion capture 3-D. The full-length film will be similar to the motion capture elements in The Lord of the Rings, Beowulf and King Kong.

Which explains why Andy Serkis (Gollum) is in the movie. Also in the cast are Daniel Craig, fresh from Cowboys vs Aliens, and Jamie Bell, who appeared in the sci-fi movie Jumper.   We also get to see our favorite indy actor who is suddenly appearing in mainstream movies, Simon Pegg.   


      


Best of all, the writers for TinTin  look great. Edgar Wright was a writer for Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and Scott Pilgrim. Even better, the head writer is Steven Moffat, who brought Doctor Who back to TV from 2005 to 2011 with a marvelously engaging set of storylines. He also wrote the new Sherlock Holmes TV show on Masterpiece Theater. If you have not downloaded them from Netflix or Amazon Prime, you should. They are delightful. Martin Freeman from Hitchhikers Guide and soon to be Bilbo in The Hobbit plays a 21st century Dr. Watson.    

So, all in all, a movie to look forward to. Couple it with the new Sherlock Holmes movie with Jude Law and Robert Downey, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which was a very interesting, but violent, series of books. We will see how that gets expressed on the screen. I keep thinking The Game of Thrones.    

So, lots of good choices to schedule in November and December. Make sure you see them all. If you need encouragement, call me and you can go with me. I just don't want to see you sneaking out of TinTin at the multiplex to sneak in to Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chip-Wrecked. Mistakes like that are hard to ignore and could get you banned from further movie trips.  


 

Poverty in America

An article appeared on CNN's Belief Blog a couple of month's ago entitled "5 Misconceptions About Poverty in America". It was authored by Rev. David Beckmann, who is President of Bread For the World and the Alliance to End Hunger.  

Here are a few of his 5 misconceptions:

1. “Poverty doesn’t exist in the United States.”
Although poverty often appears less extreme in the United States than in other countries, it is nonetheless real. There are 46.2 million Americans living in poverty, according to data released last week by the U.S. Census Bureau.

The poverty rate increased to 15.1% in 2010, from 14.3% in 2009. That's nearly one out of every six Americans — the highest rate since the Census began tracking poverty data in 1959.

2. “There is no such thing as extreme poverty in America.”
Deep poverty means living below 50% of the poverty line, which would be an income of $11,157 for a family of four and $5,672 for a non-elderly person living alone.

Many think this level of poverty is exclusive to people living in developing countries, but the number of people in America living in extreme poverty has reached a record high: 20.5 million in 2010.

3. “If you live above the federal poverty line, you’re doing just fine.”
$23,000 a year is too little for most two-person households to live comfortably in America, let alone a family of four. Most people don’t understand that having a job doesn’t mean you’ve made it out of poverty.

In fact, working full-time at minimum wage earns you only $14,000 a year. But there are also millions of Americans living above the federal poverty line who are struggling to make ends meet.

It is a hard time of year for many people. Many of us make plenty of money, but feel poor because we can't buy all the things we want to or have the kind of car we want.  In fact, we are doing fine. But some of us aren't doing fine and they could use our help. Around here, that may mean the Northern Illinois Food Bank, which accepts donations here.   

NIFB is proud to say that 96% of its budget goes directly to feeding the hungry. This efficiency has earned NIFB a four-star rating by Charity Navigator, an independent evaluation of charities.  

In St. Marys, Ohio, where I grew up, that means the AGAPE Food Pantry, where my dad, at age 90, still volunteers by packing boxes of food on Tuesdays every week.    

So find a place near you and help out. Children should not go to bed hungry.   

It's Holiday Movie Time 1!

One of the best things about the Thanksgiving - Christmas season is the increase in the number of movies worth watching. After weeks of choosing among blockbusters like Real Steel, Three Musketeers, Johnny English Reborn, and, this week, Jack and Jill starring two Adam Sandlers, we finally get a flock of movies that don't make us throw up. We haven't looked forward to a list of movies like this since the start of superhero summer.    

It all starts the week of Thanksgiving with the arrival of two interesting movies (yes, I skipped right past Happy Feet 2 the week before) in Hugo and the new Muppet Movie. I've already shown some trailers of the Muppet Movie, so let me tell you about Hugo. It is based on a book by Brian Selznick called The Invention of Hugo Cabret that won the 2008 Caldecott Award. It is an interesting book; here is a description:     

This 526-page book is told in both words and pictures. The Invention of Hugo Cabret is not exactly a novel, and it’s not quite a picture book, and it’s not really a graphic novel, or a flip book, or a movie, but a combination of all these things. Each picture (there are nearly three hundred pages of pictures!) takes up an entire double page spread, and the story moves forward because you turn the pages to see the next moment unfold in front of you.      

Hugo is a 12-year old orphan who lives in secret in the walls of a 1930's Paris train station. The synopsis of the book at the author's website says:  

ORPHAN, CLOCK KEEPER, AND THIEF, twelve-year-old Hugo lives in the walls of a busy Paris train station, where his survival depends on secrets and anonymity. But when his world suddenly interlocks with an eccentric girl and the owner of a small toy booth in the train station, Hugo’s undercover life, and his most precious secret, are put in jeopardy. A cryptic drawing, a treasured notebook, a stolen key, a mechanical man, and a hidden message all come together...in The Invention of Hugo Cabret.

The movie is directed by Martin Scorsese of Goodfellas, Raging Bull, and Taxi Driver fame. Seems like a bit of a stretch for him, but I'm sure it will be interesting. I'm sorry to say, kids, but this one is at the top of my list (Muppet Movie will have to be a close second).  

I'll look at more movies in the next few days. In the meantime, enjoy the trailer from Hugo: 

    

My 30 day trials

I have recently added the TED app to the IPad. For those of you unfamiliar with the TED Seminars, (according to their website)  

TED was born in 1984 out of the observation by Richard Saul Wurman of a powerful convergence between Technology, Entertainment and Design. The first TED included demos of the Sony compact disc and new 3D graphics from Lucasfilm, while mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot demonstrated how to map coastlines with his newly discovered fractals.  

Since then the conference held yearly in Long Beach, California, has been a chance for people with innovative ideas to get their ideas out. When I first heard of the TED Conferences 4 or 5 years ago, I looked into attending a conference because it seemed really amazing. Unfortunately, the current cost of registering for the conference is about $6000. Even so, it's hard to get solid info about the next year's TED because it has been sold out for some time. Luckily, starting a few years ago, the TED website has videos of the seminars. So you miss out on the discussions at the conference, but still have money for food and clothing.    

In the last few days I have watched seminars that dealt with  

"The strange tale of the Norden bombsight" by Malcolm Gladwell, 

"The real reason for brains" by Daniel Wolper,

and a funny speech by Hasan Elahi titled "FBI, Here I Am".


The seminar shown below was one I watched a few days ago and thought was especially interesting. It is short and somewhat simplistic, but I liked the idea.   


     



So I decided to start with playing the piano every day for 30 days. I have a piano system I think will work in which the right hand plays the melody line and the left hand plays only chords that are marked above the staff (no reading of notes for chords - that's too much work). I have some music that is printed like that, so we will see where we go.  

So what's next? The speaker lists both additions (bike every day or take a picture every day) and subtractions (no sugar for a month or no TV for a month - let's not get carried away here - what if the Bulls end up playing this season). So let me know in the comments if you have any suggestions for me or for yourself. My piano playing runs out in mid December. I'll need something new, like cook something new every day or add a new blog entry every day. Let me know what ideas you have. I'll let you know how it works out.   

Pandas Demand Equal Time

After last week's dog video, it seems that pandas are out there doing interesting things as well (thanks to Nate for the video). It's nice to know that regardless of the species, the preferred method for getting to the top of a slide is to climb the slide rather than climb the ladder. Mike and Nate rarely used the ladder.       

          

You Did What?

 From The Talking Animals Channel: