The Future Is Upon Us

 Since school is starting this week for many it's only fitting that we devote a posting to an educational theme, courtessy Google and George Washington's blog, for this first paragraph.  It seems that education will take a rather Orwellian term.  I don't think having a research source do ALL the thinking for you is necessarily a good thing because you might encounter a situation in life sometime when you actually have to USE your native powers of seat of the pants reasoning, as well as having a good memory of facts you need to know.  For instance how long would it take an imperitive algerithmic computer program to solve a SUDOKU puzzle?  You would have to do a program that plugs in every number and then eliminate all other logical possabilities in meeting the rather simple criteria of the puzzle solving specs, and hopefully after the computer ran down the zillions of possible numeric combinations and permutations - it would yield the one answer.  Maybe.  But it strikes me that this new Google technology will make people "mentally flabby".  With Google glasses on their faces, students won’t even need to type in a query to get information. They can simply ask the glasses what year a battle was, to calculate sums, or find pretty much any kind of information. That doesn’t mean that memorization will become obsolete, but it will continue to decline in importance as information becomes ever more readily available for reference, anytime and anywhere. Students will increasingly be able to focus on finding ways to use that raw information to solve problems, be creative, or answer more in-depth questions, all tasks that will be essential in the coming decades. 5. Who needs a classic textbook when millions of books are available right in front of your eyes at the touch of a button? While tablets are already bringing e-books and e-textbooks into the classroom, Google’s glasses technology may turn the entire format on its head. Instead of reading books in a traditional format, students can have text, images, and even videos streamed right to their glasses. Students won’t need to bring books with them to class, as everything will already be available, on demand. 6. Equipped with Google Glasses and a wifi connection, teachers can take their classroom just about anywhere. Since presentations and other visual and textual information can be viewed right from the glasses, teachers don’t need to bring along hefty projectors, white boards, or laptops; they’ll have all the media they need in one small device. What’s more, students who can’t make it to the actual classroom might even be able to participate virtually though a Google+ Hangout or other service. 7.  Visiting a historic landmark is cool, but it gets a lot cooler when students have the ability to instantly get information about the site as they move through it. Location-based information systems already exist in some places, but Google Glasses would help take them to the next level, making the information part of the visual and spatial experience of visiting just about anywhere. Even better, any questions about the trip that students have can instantly be answered, just by asking them to the device. It could build a much richer educational experience on field trips that can’t quite be replicated in classrooms today.  8.  Learning a foreign language is an important asset in today’s global economy, and it can also seriously expand your mind and improve your language skills in your own native tongue. Yet, tools like Google Glasses may change how students view the language barrier, literally. Using Google Translate through the glasses, it is possible for students to instantly see and read what someone is saying in another language. This could make it possible for students on opposite sides of the globe to talk, share, and even collaborate. More importantly, it could foster a sense of global unity and cultural understanding that will prove incredibly valuable in the modern economy.

Randy Rhodes mentioned something I hadn't exactly thought of.  In my talk of parrellel universes I once said that ALL POSSIBLE universes would have a certain 'comonality" about them because, after all, they were all Created by the same Deity.  As such math and geometry and all that would necessarily have to work the same in every universe, and the rules of scientific method would have to work the same anywhere.  As such one could argue that something CANNOT exist in ANY Universe that is an "inherently logical construction" of human verbal ramblings, of the sort that Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan engage in.  Randy has accurately pointed out that Ryan and Romney's answers to the questions they were asked on their respective news interviews last Sunday were completely Unsatisfactory.  But be assured:  Joe Byden and Barock Obama won't let them get away with their verbal nonsense.  And if this is true- - how much less would a foreign diplomat let them get away with such verbal nonsense?  People in the military also need to be clear.  They can't speak in double talk and somehow, as if by telepathy or empathy, that the troops "understand what they were really trying to say".  Take the Bin Laden raid they interviewed about on Sixty Minutes.  There you had to have a plan, and also clear contingencies drilled into you, that you would then pursue, should the primary plan fail, by virtue of the unforeseen such as a helicopter crash.  Say what you want about logic, but in point of fact, success in anything is "the art of the possible".  Any military man will tell you that the Unknown is the enemy of success, and the more you can decrease the Unknown factor, the better your chances are.

KIDS SAY THE DARNEDEST THINGS

I went out to the courtyard for coffee and Sarah was so prompt in her arrival, (and I salute her for that) a long line didn’t have time to form.  I had two cups from Sarah and she told me about that lady psychologist who isn’t just a figment of Joe Drisco’s immigination.  Except I didn’t know she was a woman.  They were talking about Elvis when I walked in.  One guy had a Picaso on the fireplace mantle and right next to it sharing equal space was this yarn drawing of Elvis done on black velvet that was purchased in Tijuana.  She then gave us this draw picture riddle about the school bus and “which way is this bus traveling?”  Have you heard it?  I looked at the drawing of the bus and it was perfectly bi-latterally symmetrical and I concluded that the question couldn’t be answered.  Then she said ‘It’s easy- - kindergarten students get it”.  That was all the hint I needed and my mental wheels engaged.  I’m going to frustrate you by not giving you the answer, particularly those of you who are “geometrically challenged”.  Then she began talking Art Linkletter’s “Kids say the darndest things” program, with all the raunchy humor kids come up with.  If you ever want to really embarrass a new pastor just put little kids in the audience because they come up with the simplest but smartest questions to make that pastor look like an ass.  Here is some of the raunchy humor.  One kid tells Art that there is a dead cat outside the studio.  And Art asks him, “How do you know the cat was dead”.  And the little kid says, “I pissed in its ear”.  This went out over Live TV.  But then after a while they arrived at the truth of the matter and what the kid meant was I leaned over and whispered “pssssst!” in the cat’s ear and he didn’t move.  That’s like the one about the kid asking his mother how you spell “Whoom!” like the noise a plane makes.  But the mother thought he meant the other word and said “W O M B”.   Oh, the teacher also talked about heteronyms, which are not homos that have gotten therapy.  They are words that are spelled identically but are pronounced differently and English has five thousand such words.  The teacher then spoke of ways we people use the word “Up”.  FH came to me afterwards and he informed me “We Romulans have the identical word for almost all of those examples she used”.   Apparently this kid saw an octopus and then remarked about how he had a lot of “testicles”.  And Art says, “An octopus has eight tentacles” and the kid says “Yeah- - he has eight testicles”.  There was a little boy who told his mother what he learned in math the first day in class.  And she wanted an example.  So he said “2 and 2; the son of a bitch is 4.  3 and 3, the son of a bitch is six, four and four, the son of a bitch is eight”.  The mother hurried down to the school to complain to the teacher and she says “What I was saying are the words “the sum of which is - - - “ and the kid got confused.  And there is that old story about the little girl who is afraid during a loud thunderstorm - - this is back in Indiana where they have really bad thunderstorms.  She wants to sleep with mommy tonight.  And the mother says “I’m sleeping with your daddy tonight” and the little girl says “Oh - - - “Is Daddy afraid, too?”  She was here till a quarter to three- so conducts a fairly long class.

TODAY'S DOINGS IN SOAP LAND

OK in soap land today we learned that Abigail is still a virgin.  She strikes me as one of those girls who’s “been having sex forever”, if you know what I mean.  Also Melanie turned down Chad’s proposal of marriage because of her latest trauma with Andrew.  She’s wandering around the Kiriacus mansion looking for somebody there when who shows up but “Nick” the “hardened criminal” whom she is deathly afraid of.  At that point I’d pinch myself to make sure I wasn’t dreaming.  By the way does THAT ever work?   Do you EVER think to pinch yourself when you’re having a nightmare?  If Sammy had had another two minutes with Raphael she’d be rolling around on the couch with him.  But instead Elvis walks in and she drops Raphael like he was never there and throws herself at Elvis.  Nichole found a way to “get to Daniel” like the song says.  “Don’t you see that I’m just trying to get to you”.  All she has to do is talk about babies and Daniel has all these “Parker flashbacks” and naturally Nicole has the perfect way for Daniel to fill this void in his life, by being Godfather to her newly ultra sound discovered son.

AN EDUCATIONAL LOONEY TUNE

If you want another "hit" to the answer of that bus direction riddle, there is a little hint on one line near the end of "The Trial" track on "The Wall" album.  Also there is another macro hint about life's reality of near Beatle-esque perportions is you listen to the 'ambient chatter" and isolated words.  Just a word to the wise.  Of course Bruce Bushman must be in charge of remixes of Dark Side of the Moon.  An old saying of mine is that each time the album is remixed the wierdnesses and babbelings get louder and louder.  Many people think I no doubt plumbed new depths of mental illness in referring to imaginationary conversations by people that itself was somebody who was austensively imaginary, even to them!.  Here are some more clues for you all.  If we view the entire "tenure" of "Howard" as months odd short of seven years  My "walk in" for "the first half" had the initials of J C, who was another of those southerners with the initials J C in a previous life, if you use Allan White logic.  You remember him- don't you?  The original drummer in the Plastic Ono Band.  You know the most common reference about Him is- don't you?  (logoc- brother!)  Anyhow one incident in the life of J C in December of 1970 was that he went on a money spending spree.  He bought a brand new Mercedes Benz and also bought out a lot of gun shops and amassed quite an arsonal of weapons.  And it says "His wife and his father ganged up on him to grill him about the expenditure".  And for "The Second half" the initials were D D for that individual.  By the way J C's initials in that previous life that straddled the turn of the twentieth century- - - were C Y.  Those initials will keep youall on the right track.

When I was young I used to wait
On Master and give him his plate
And pass the bottle when he got dry
And brush away the blue tail fly

My house he run he jump he pitch
He throw my Master in the ditch
A jury convened to find out Why
The verdict was the blue tail fly

"You say you are HOW old??  And you believe you once knew all of the verses to this song you say you learned in Kindergarten?"

"By the way how did a guy who once attended the University of Nebraska end up at Cal State Fullerton, which is where he met Pete Richards?"  I honestly don't know the answer to this question, except to say that to attend Nebraska, J C must have had a specific interest in this school.