In an attempt to study somewhere other then my desk which has a few too many distractions, I tried studying in the upper levels stacks of the library. In the midst of these countless textbooks, I have found my new study place. It’s a place where I can hear every keystroke on this computer, the water rush down my throat, my breath taking in the musty smell, and not a sound more. The atmosphere of old desks and engravings from the ‘class of 81’; the lack of power ports and Ethernet plugs; the single cushion wooden chairs and low ceilings all do nothing more than enhance my desire to study.

If you’ve never tried studying in the stacks, I suggest you do. Just be sure to avoid working on the floor where I am.

More than any time in recent history, America’s destiny is not of our own choosing. We did not seek nor did we provoke an assault on our freedom and our way of life. We did not expect nor did we invite a confrontation with evil. Yet the true measure of a people’s strength is how they rise to master that moment when it does arrive. 44 people were killed a couple of hours ago at Kennison State University. Three swimmers from the men’s team were killed and two others are in critical condition. When, after having heard the explosion from their practice facility, they ran into the fire to help get people out. Ran into the fire. The streets of heaven are too crowded with angels tonight. They’re our students and our teachers and our parents and our friends. The streets of heaven are too crowded with angels, but every time we think we have measured our capacity to meet a challenge, we look up and we’re reminded that that capacity may well be limitless. This is a time for American heroes. We will do what is hard We will achieve what is great. This is a time for American heroes and we reach for the stars. God bless their memory, God bless you and God bless the United State of America.

The speech gave me patriotic goose bumps but even more memorable was, “I Don’t Like Mondays”, sung by Tori Amos which played in the background. This song was originally written by Bob Geldof of the Boomtown Rats in the late 70’s.

One morning in 1979 a 16-year-old California girl named Brenda Spencer took out the rifle she’d been given for her birthday by her father, and loaded it. Her home happened to be across the street from an elementary school, so she aimed the gun out the window and started firing. By the time police had broken into her home, raced up the stairs, and stopped her, she’d killed the principal, a kid, and a teacher, and injured sixteen kids. Things like that didn’t happen back then, despite the ready availability of guns and violent TV. The police, of course, asked her why she’d done this. She replied “It was something to do. I don’t like Mondays”. The Boomtown Rats were touring the United States when this tragedy occurred and quickly wrote a song which became an overnight hit everywhere in the world except the United States which banned the song.

The album, “The Fine Art of Surfacing” in which Bob Geldof’s song was released is perhaps one of the best albums ever released. It is an album which was released in the era where the lyrics of rock songs were like poems — not devoid of meaning. Few bands today release albums with lyrics that are worth listening to let alone buying. The Boomtown Rats is a forgotten band who were brilliant when they innovated, but never even remotely needed to.

Brenda Spencer was denied parole for the third time on March 15, 2005.

Lyrics
The silicon chip inside her head
gets switched to overload
and nobody’s gonna go to school today
she’s gonna make them stay at home
And Daddy doesn’t understand it
He always said she was good as gold
And he can see no reason
Cos there are no reasons
What reasons do you need to be shown

[Chorus:]
Tell me why
I don’t like Mondays
I want to shoot
The whole day down

The telex machine is kept so clean
and it types to waiting world.
And Mother feels so shocked
Father’s world is rocked
And their thoughts turn to
Their own little girl
Sweet 16 ain’t that peachy keen
No it ain’t so neat to admit defeat,
They can see no reasons
Cos there are no reasons
What reasons do you need to be shown

[Repeat Chorus]

All the playing’s stopped in the playground now
She wants to play with her toys awhile
And school’s out early and soon we’ll be learning
That the lesson today is how to die
And then the bullhorn crackles
And the captain tackles
With the problems and the how’s and why’s
And he can see no reasons
Cos there are no reasons
What reasons do you need to die

[Repeat Chorus]

The design is what intrigues me most. Instead of the typical red, white and blue spot colors and rippling American flags, this ‘identity’ is squarely aimed at the high-end shoppers, Saks Fifth Avenue / Kenneth Cole urbanite. The stickers aren’t the traditional rectangular shape either, but a crisp, bold square block with a black background and reverse type. They’re completely devoid of obviousness, and much more abstract with emphasis on a large, simple, capital ‘W’ instead of the name “Bush.”

And then of course there is the subhead — “The President.” Not “For” President, but “The”, as if there isn’t a choice in the matter. “W” — for all intents and purposes — isn’t a person per se, but a mindset.

You couldn’t pay me to put one (or any sticker) on my car, but nonetheless, I’m impressed by the idea. I’ve never seen a political campaign veer so far from the norm — in color, shape, typography, and content — that has pulled it off as well as these do.

Works out cheaper then Costco. Say the gas price is $2.50/gallon they will refund 5% (12.5 cents) to your next months statement. It’s just like an actual credit card, the same APR and all if you don’t pay. Except 5% rebate on all gas purchases.

Might not seem like a bunch, but you’ll save more then a buck a tank. Everything adds up. Oh, and obviously, only works if you fill up at Shell.

http://www.877myshell.com

–

EDIT: Irvine people, the cheapest Shell around here is the one next to Costco on Sand Canyon. They are always trying to compete with Costco so their prices are like 2-3 cents more expensive, but when you take into consideration the 5% rebate per gallon, it works out to be 10-12 cents cheaper per gallon then Costco.

Yes, I’m cheap.

Recently a guy beat the world record for running the most miles in a single day. He collapsed 8 minutes before 24 hours, and had 1/3 mile left to beat the record. Got himself up and beat the record by 5/16th of a mile.

154 miles with just water in 24 hours. Unbelievable.

Pictures and more at: http://www.chapmanlogic.com/treadathalon/

Check it out -> Stores around I

The authors of math text book strive for a perfect definition at the cost of verbal simplicity and coherence. While their definitions and rules are definitely correct mathematically the way they are presented with their exceptions and boundaries, makes it extremely hard for the student. The reader who is usually new to the subject is not trying to prove or refute an argument but rather understand the basis of it. He isn’t interested in when the law is no longer valid, but rather wants to understand what the law actually does.

Not including the exceptions and boundaries would be ridiculous, but a better method of explaining needs to be put into place that doesn’t lose a reader due to the level of complexity at which it is stated. There needs to be a major shift in math books that attempt to be user-friendly while still maintaining a high level of rigor.

After three minutes, the programmer had a headache. After three hours, the programmer felt ill. After three days, the programmer destroyed his database. When asked why, he replied: “That system put the world at my fingertips. I could go anywhere, see anything. Because I was no longer limited by external conditions, I had no excuse for not knowing everything there is to know. I could neither sleep nor eat. All I could do was wander through the database. Now I can rest.”

As the Internet advances further and further we’ll either have to choose with remaining ignorant with unlimited resources or trying to understand it all.

Who says famous people don’t blog? Its the new thing.

Not saying you have to, but to me its a hobby. I find it far more interesting what is happening in the world I live, rather then who Brad Pitt is marrying. Most people disagree with me, so I leave it at that. All I claim is that it is naive to say “I choose to remain ignorant about it because it doesn’t effect me”. The only valid claim is that it bores me, thus I don’t follow it. The second is a perfectly valid claim, even though most choose the prior.

“The pollution is LA is so bad. All these damn industries putting harmful gasses into the air”.

Firstly, people in their cars put 5 times more pollution in the air then do the industries/factories.

Things come side by side. You choose to live in LA and LA comes with pollution. Deal with it. If you hate it that much, move to Montana to a city where there are more cows then people. You’ll have more fresh air then you can breathe but the nearest blockbuster will be 30 miles away.

When things are tied together it is stupid complaining about one of them.

Anyhow, I was wondering all you people that write poetry how do you do it? Is it spurred by some event in your life or do you just randomly write poetry? Does it have any purpose? Drop a line to me@askthefool.com

Basically all Artificial Intelligence (AI) games in essence are the same. Depending on a personality (aggressive, defensive, etc.) the computer calculates in the limited amount of time what would be the best move n number of moves in the future. Sounds easy, but coding AI its no easy task. Many ancillary functions are added into coding it, but in essence most work based on assigning points based on a usually dynamic point table for each possible legal move.

For those of you who are coding literate, picture a binary tree which more than two nodes for each move. Each parent node would have a maximum of 16 possible moves (child nodes) even though usually 16 moves are not possible. Based on one move, that child node would have another 16 possible moves, n+1 moves into the future. It gets even more complicated because you have to make a move for the opponent as well, because the game can’t proceed unless the board changes on the opponents turn. As you can imagine the tree of possible moves becomes huge.

The brute force of calculation verses intuition, difficult battle.

Yesterday I told a guy in my class, ‘I hope we get out of class early, so I can get home and watch the State of the Union address’. He asked me is that a new TV series.