And I thought Ralph Waldo was my friend...reading his essays for some comfort and deeper thinking and ran into one where he idolizes Napoleon. For ruthlessly killing people without hesitation. Emerson, really? What is wrong with you?
So much for comforts of the past...we're gonna have to think our way out of this thing ourselves, ladies.
This variation on Twenty Questions teaches kids a bit of information theory and lets them take a different approach to powers of 2.
First, the kids should be familiar with the regular game of Twenty Questions.
Then, ask as an open-ended question: "Suppose instead of the whole world. you were only allowed to think of certain objects. How many questions would it take to find the right one? What if the questions had to have only yes/no answers?"
Here is another opportunity for discovery: one-third. For kids who have learned how to divide and get decimals (or show a child briefly who has learned long division and knows what decimals are). Ask simply, what is one-third in decimal?
The discovery that 1/3 = .33333333... the repeating decimal, is surprising enough on its own for a child who has never seen an infinite series before. What usually will tweak their curiousity, though, is to continue - ok, what is 2/3? Then wait a moment, and see if they think of 3/3 by themselves. The idea that 3/3 = .999999999... may get the child saying, wait a minute - 3/3 = 1!
They have just proved that an infinite series can equal a whole number; if your child doesn't want to accept it, that is ok. Just assure them that if the series stops anywhere, it is less than one, it only equals one if it is really infinite.
The fun thing is, this can be done by a 4th grader.
For kids who have been introduced to exponents but haven't been taught specifically about what it means to take 'N to the zero power', this is an opportunity for a small 'Aha!' moment.
If a child already knows what is ten to the 2 (10^2 = 10 * 10 = 100) and 10^1 = 10, ask them what is 10^0.
Let them think a bit. Many kids will answer 'zero'. Ask, well, then what is zero times 10? If its not 10^1, then that can't be right.
Explain that 10^0 must be the thing that you multiply by 10 to get 10^1. This should be enough of a clue that they realize that 10 to the zero is 1.
Then, without any other explanation, ask something that sounds hard - "what is eighty-seven to the zeroth power?" With a bit of thought, your child may be able to come to the sudden realization that everything to the zeroth power is 1!
(This only works if they haven't already been taught this fact in school - it is fun to discover things that no one has told you. So don't be afraid to try this somewhat early, before
Here is a fun way to introduce kids to the concept of modulus (without ever saying the word): ask, why does a week have 7 days? Suppose you could change it - how many days would you put in the week? Then ask some questions about 'in X days, what day would it be?'
It helps to ask the child to consider the days as being named by number at first, to look at the patterns, starting with Zero-day and continuing as One-day, Two-day (which conveniently becomes Tuesday if Sunday is Zero-day), etc.
Start with simple questions like "So if your week has 5 days, and today is Three-day, what day will it be in 6 days?"
Make sure to ask several with the modulus "If your week has 4 days, and today is Zero-day, what day will it be in 4 days? 8 days? 16 days?"
Once they realize that it always goes back to the same day every time the number is a multiple of the days in the week, kids can have fun answering what sound like 'hard' questions: "So your week has 9 days, today is Seven-day, what day will it be in 80 days?
something I wrote in 2007 and just found now
Swoosh! The thrilling sound of a near-miss filled Hal Bjordman's ears as he wrestled against the G-forces pinning him to his seat. Nothing like a game of Supersonic Pursuit to get one's blood moving! Not really dangerous, either, if everyone obeyed the rules.
Hal turned his small craft into a nosedive out of his opponent's likely flight path, angled into a cloud bank and reversed direction, nearly cutting his jets as he did so. It was a daring move and succeeded in surprising his opponent and best friend, Skag Elmore. Skag had done just what Hal thought, hovering
over the cloudbank in wait. Hal's craft emerged angled perfectly, straight towards Skag's and just below. Less than a second later, the nose of Skag's ship was shot off, and Hal's friend was floating ignominously down in a large white puff of chute fabric.
Later in the bar, Hal crowed gleefully while buying drinks for the two of them.
"Pure skill, I tell you - and the luck that follows. That turn in the clouds - you never even saw me coming!"
Skag smiled ruefully into Hal's infectious grin. "You got me all
Saturdays are for unwinding, expanding - my dad once said, the part that means you're human. Yet for me now it still means typing on a keyboard, only typing things that spiral outward and don't have to pass tests.
Today I found Ngugi Wa Thiong'o on the library display shelves, and given that is where I discovered Gene Sharp, and the whole literature of protest and democracy movements, stopped to read him. He spoke of keeping humanity by writing a novel on toilet paper in a Kenyan jail (now Kenya does have democracy - there must be a story there) and struggling to maintain spirit and self-worth thru words. Even outside of jail this need is universal, no?
I am glad that my project outside work, the what's cookin', is to help people express and connect, to create for each other. No amount of consumer goods produced in efficient factories can fill this need. Some of the modern sharing tech approaches it, but then turns around and uses it to manipulate the users. I am so motivated, to keep going on the work because the entire approach I want to succeed - the shared ownership, decision making - the problem
Wrote a quick LTE this morning - I am such a Municipalism fan right now - ------ In a small ray of hope during this contentious time, our city government seems to be genuinely responsive to the neighborhoods. A group of Rio Vista neighbors asked for the city's help to restore the natural desert and block off wildcat trails; as a result, parts and rec staff brought us brush that they've trimmed in other parks and coordinated with a volunteer group of neighbors and civilian conservation core folks to distribute the brush according to a plan that will help restore the ecology.
And when the traffic stops that were used last time to help protect trails wound up scaring some horses, the city adapted and gave us low key wooden sawhorses instead. Its this - government responsiveness to regular people - that gives me hope. --------- (posting this with a delay to see if the LTE makes it in first)
wrote this in response to a NYT op-ed calling for a grand strategy in American foreign policy:
Our grand strategy should be driven by our core principles: liberty and justice for all - not only for those who happen to live in America. If we can achieve that, the world will indeed be much safer, and more prosperous. Madison understood tyrants - the bill of rights is needed everywhere. Freedom of speech provides a corrective mechanism against corruption. Our grand strategy should be to support these rights universally. Whether that means we should act as a policeman, is a matter of tactics.
It seems so obvious to me, I don't know why the democratic candidates and others are not saying this. Elizabeth Warren comes the closest, I think.
i have become am becoming adept at exploring small spaces in small moments when time is short to climb a new mountain trail turn longing sharply right and down into nearby wash surprising a rabbit in its run desert broom pushing up through a rotten log I've never seen before
sand shoved tracks telling some mystery about chase and run exploring the space I am always confined in the grey folds inside and thinking about codes for opening spaces and aspects to let all the lonely potentials flower