Death Valley Days

This post will also be found in Tehachapi's The Loop Newspaper.

I've been doing a lot of thinking about Death Valley lately. I've been working on a big writing project dealing with Death Valley in the early 20^th Century. Actually it's a musical (working with Gary Mazzola) which I'm going to be working on for a while yet. And I've got another project I'm getting ready to start which will deal with a fictional event taking place in Death Valley in the 1930s. 

Fair is Fair

This post will also be found in Tehachapi's The Loop Newspaper.

The Kern County Fair just recently ended where Sharon Wood and I participated in some of the food contests. Now for many of these events (most baking and all preserved foods) you have to be signed up back in August though there are some you can sign up for the day of the event (such as pies and some cakes). But we tried several things, from jams and jellies to breads and pies. And we did OK.

Hidden Causative Agents

  This post will also be found in Tehachapi's The Loop Newspaper. 

The world is full of causes and effects. The wind blows and the trees sway. The wind blowing causes the tree to sway. The wind is the causative agent. Now biologically there is a strong adaptive reason for being able to recognize causative agents. If you're a monkey and a tree branch moves it is useful to be able to tell if the branch moved due to wind or if the branch moved due to a snake or other predator.

Hologram from Izzy

  This post will also be found in Tehachapi's The Loop Newspaper. 

Izzy Asher recently gave me a gift of a bolo tie. He'd wanted to give me one with stars in it. That sounded cool, and when I saw it, it was indeed pretty cool. And then he explained how it was a one of a kind. He'd made it out of an old TV picture tube and a bag with holograms of stars on it. “Recycled”, he said. Wow.

Better Angels

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I've just recently finished Steven Pinker's new book The Better Angels of Our Nature. This is a large book covering what many people may feel to be a mythological topic. The subtitle is “Why Violence Has Declined”. Yes, violence has indeed declined. 

Little Fuzzy

 This post will also be found in Tehachapi's The Loop Newspaper. 

There is a mathematical concept called “fuzzy sets”. Normally in mathematics (or logic) an object either belongs to a set, or it does not. If we talk about (counting) numbers the concept of an even number is precise enough that a number either is even or it isn't. But in everyday thinking we are constantly dealing with things that aren't so simply categorized.

Happy Birthday Woody

 This post will also be found in Tehachapi's The Loop Newspaper. 

On July 14^th 1912 Woodrow Wilson Guthrie was born in Okemah Oklahoma. Now virtually no one knows him by that name. We just know him as Woody. Every year on the weekend closest to his birthday, there is a folk music festival held in his old home town. This year was the 15^th annual Woodyfest. The festival celebrates Woody's life and music. And I was lucky enough to get to go again this year.