Solvation

Crash - a review

I loved Crash.  I loved its ambiguity.  Detailed and huge spoilers, if you continue.

A Force More Powerful

Personally, I feel that the stage kids go through where they run around violently exploding things is just more scatalogical humor along the trajectory first defined by "peepee" and "poopie" and migrating towards belching, armpit sounds, inventive expressions for various body parts, leading up to sexuality and violence.  In the same sense that everyone appreciates an adult who no longer thinks farting is hilarious, the expectation is that sophisticated men move past the concept that blowing things up is fun.

But then what is that obsession all about? All these other things are physiological urges, the lack of control of which creates a sense of humor about it.  When kids are young, they think that "beating up the bad guy" is the way to be protective. However as we age we realize there are all kinds of ways to protect one's society and family.

The Entertainment industry as a whole, like any industry, goes where the money is.  Hollywood has become sophisticated enough to have found markets for intellectually compelling stories, social commentary, romance, and adaptations of classic literature.  Is the game industry starting to break out of its constraints with A Force More Powerful, based on a TV series discussing successful campaigns of non-violent social change?

The world's most modern management is in India

In Japan, businesses using Kaizen principles -- from which came "Continuous Process Improvement" circa the 1970's and 80's -- held that anyone on the line could stop production, and the Human Resources function was about deploying people to optimize performance.  Employees who had what, in the US, would be called "personality conflict" were mediated by Human Resources, with the result that line-level employees had the ability to remove inept managers. 

The only issue that I can see with HCL Technology's implementation, as described by David Kirkpatrick in CNN's Fast Forward: The world's most modern management is in India is that some subsequent manager would come in and choose to use prior commentary as grounds for a massive layoff. 

In the meantime, making a safe and secure method for employees to evaluate people in positions of power over them is simply an extension of the concept "protection of free speech," and enables continuous improvement throughout the organization.  In other words, good, modern management.

42

I'm trying to find a way to explain what I'm thinking regarding social networks' fractal nature, and how the topology of these fractal social networks is complex.  Of course I thought I'd go see what other people have said on this topic, and ran across "Connecting the Fractal City," by Nikos A. Salingaros. 

You know how sometimes you run across something and you see that it's so relevant to so many things on so many levels you just can't isolate one yet?  Like that.

He does give public policy suggestions, but in the meantime, because I think there's importance here in all kinds of areas beyond policy, A TEENY excerpt:

Rapid Prototyping

In my previous post about Math I alleged that part of the point is to train and evaluate the ability to make logical leaps, and because of that tutoring is seen as something to help children catch up but also as something that works against the student if it's used to allow them to "preview material" before the course. 

I decided I needed to elucidate.

My assumptions throughout will be indented in Bold:

1. The idea of having something that the student hasn't seen yet is to encourage them to reach toward the next step or two.  It is actual training for them to make logical leaps.

If a child is eligible for honors classes because they're actually a half-year ahead of everyone else, in other words if they make logical leaps almost always because they've already formally learned the material, they're missing this part of the educational process.

And this leads me to the entire concept of honors, gifted, talented students in the U.S.   

Math

After having an hour-long conversation with a concerned mother from India about her children's education in math, I checked around and have added a few more books to the list.

Are Software Patents Evil?

An excellent essay on the value of software patents in specifics, and IP in general: Paul Graham's Are Software Patents Evil?