tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-82049422009-11-26T19:58:42.387-08:00Kirby plays world gameKirby Urnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12114860457655013242noreply@blogger.comBlogger924125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204942.post-25131058637049316502009-11-26T19:30:00.000-08:002009-11-26T19:58:42.399-08:00

:: thanksgiving 2009 ::I meditate on karmic cycling this time of year, going through the winter tunnel.Earlier times blend with the present, foreshadow times yet to be.I think about my relationships, the people in my life, and I am grateful.I-5 not so rough going north, festive time with family, now watching Winged Migration in Stillaguamish country.I am thankful for birds, for cats, for animals

Kirby Urnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12114860457655013242noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204942.post-65490098180656453862009-11-25T16:05:00.000-08:002009-11-26T07:51:02.180-08:00

:: Wanderers @ ONAMI ::A posse of Wanderers caravaned to ONAMI today, Oregon's nanotechnology headquarters, situated on the Hewlett-Packard campus in Corvallis, but belonging to Oregon State. ONAMI is a non-profit tenant in this building, charged with managing a state investment fund aimed at assisting startups taking advantage of new breakthroughs in materials science.Robert D. "Skip" Rung, the

Kirby Urnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12114860457655013242noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204942.post-75799429238121363352009-11-23T19:47:00.000-08:002009-11-23T22:26:49.418-08:00

Calling it that ("a new quadrivium") is somewhat cheeky, which could backfire, however, be that as it may, I do have this cool new "math tetrahedron" developing along four inter-related tracks:Martian Math repackages a lot of the Bucky stuff, too good to lose or just shelve.Neolithic Math anchors simple concepts to simple artifacts from history (Earthling Math).Supermarket Math focuses on food

Kirby Urnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12114860457655013242noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204942.post-50746500958191507202009-11-22T12:15:00.001-08:002009-11-23T21:21:17.861-08:00

:: a childhood favorite ::I showed up with the ostensible purpose of delivering mom, who is running an informational meeting on FCNL today (in progress).Barb Frank roped me in on the middle and high school education program, lots of other adults present, wondering if we might use the meeting wifi to show that little Youtube rap song, filmed in Pendle Hill.I was happy to oblige and Betsey (our

Kirby Urnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12114860457655013242noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204942.post-90646505128405876512009-11-19T09:32:00.001-08:002009-11-19T09:33:56.843-08:00

Kirby Urnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12114860457655013242noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204942.post-55518671781748433042009-11-17T15:06:00.000-08:002009-11-19T09:08:11.341-08:00

Kicking a can down the road: Ernest Hemingway, Iowa.Hemingway joined the fight against fascism from the front lines in Spain, having sustained earlier injuries during WW1. His work on a film documentary about the attack against Spain by Hitler and Mussolini is mentioned in the movie Into the Fire.1, 12, 42, 92, 162..."Kicking a can" may be likened to generating successive terms in a number

Kirby Urnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12114860457655013242noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204942.post-51570220396043590762009-11-15T18:07:00.000-08:002009-11-17T08:08:15.448-08:00

I didn't write "big city" politics because Portland is pretty small, still suffers from that frontier town complex, takes its Wild West atmosphere as a mark of inferiority whereas, really, it's a tourist draw. People are still looking for the real deal, that authentic "out west" they see in the movies. Portland isn't quite that cliché, makes more sense when you remember that "Far West" also

Kirby Urnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12114860457655013242noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204942.post-74877652396722174742009-11-13T19:10:00.000-08:002009-11-15T22:05:38.403-08:00

We've got a packed house with a sweet duo doing great guitar and vocals. Following with punk R&B might be jarring, but that's the lineup tonight. LW is schmoozing on the couch with some guy from a music studio in Tacoma, working a dark beer in a bottle, going over some lyrics or whatever. I'm on a third cup o' jo, gazing into my Starling-1, not yet migrated to Karmic Koala (an Ubuntu distro,

Kirby Urnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12114860457655013242noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204942.post-48025568663964567902009-11-11T07:07:00.000-08:002009-11-11T17:16:05.909-08:00

Good hearted and strong willed Norte Americanos (gringos) take it into their heads to check out the worst of the worst, or so is Sudan's reputation to the south. Their claim is to have no special video making skills, however by the time this one gets produced, they're a veritable Werner Herzog collective, so I can't vouch for "low skills".They find a hot, boring place with nothing going on for

Kirby Urnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12114860457655013242noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204942.post-63163269243113711712009-11-09T16:24:00.000-08:002009-11-09T19:01:59.900-08:00

Transcript from Facebook:Kirby: Thinking might approach Sisters of the Road for advice on this charity purchase at Andy & Bax. On the horn with the latter this morning. Wide assortment of cold weather gear inexpensive enough to merit a bulk discount, not just sleeping bags. We already have the sealed envelope from Laughing Horse, could still add to the kitty thoughAimee: Aimee Ford Conner: likes

Kirby Urnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12114860457655013242noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204942.post-35967665137672614632009-11-09T08:19:00.000-08:002009-11-09T10:00:10.701-08:00

This movie bridges the "feel good" genre, so profitable to capitalism, with a more socialist family value system, wherein boys will change history itself to keep future shock from shocking mom.The first shock was when the dad suddenly left, during a time when East Germans were joining an elite inner circle of international space travelers on TV. That story kept changing, as to why the dad left,

Kirby Urnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12114860457655013242noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204942.post-10276522637379594462009-11-08T16:26:00.000-08:002009-11-16T08:41:06.553-08:00

The ISEPP group has finalized plans for an ONAMI visit, sorry about the acronyms. These were a theme at Oversight as well (different ones), me taking the position that we don't need to spell 'em out so much, just link, let a reader choose whether to perform a lookup.My day started with Bridge City Friends, then continued on this other side of the river (Willamette), where I joined the Oversight

Kirby Urnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12114860457655013242noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204942.post-42424747774554799392009-11-07T06:30:00.000-08:002009-11-09T19:47:21.368-08:00

:: sleeping bag fundraiser ::Last night was the sleeping bag fundraiser at Laughing Horse Books, the kind of event activists attend just to see who else is in the business. This event was promoted all over town.I thought LW played a great set, to lots of applause (cite recording), but she was mostly focused on the mistakes, plus this new song that's haunting her lately.Tansy and Tarweed sang

Kirby Urnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12114860457655013242noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204942.post-24392500852717017312009-11-06T09:56:00.000-08:002009-11-06T17:57:35.575-08:00

Lots of semi-Gothic themes intertwining, in the aftermath of Halloween. Mom is in Boston via Alaska Airlines (a non-stop).I'm enhancing a Python page at WikiEducator.I should be at the office... packing up now, still on my beat (Facebook, Twitter...).Some friends and I got together to watch Over The Hedge on a big screen TV. Pretty sharp.Wrote some more on textbooks for the Math Forum.The other

Kirby Urnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12114860457655013242noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204942.post-76384025537801617182009-11-04T08:37:00.001-08:002009-11-13T10:42:25.033-08:00

:: soldering job ::Steve Mastin had just attended a conference organized by ICO (Innovate | Collaborate | Oregon) and is talking about medical research companies involved in brain research and so forth. The Vollum Institute gives OHSU an international reputation. Electrical Geodesics, based in Eugene, makes those "hair net" EEG devices with 256 receptors, now being used in sleep disorder

Kirby Urnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12114860457655013242noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204942.post-23022185820281819042009-10-30T17:31:00.001-07:002009-10-30T20:14:21.014-07:00

I was watching a vid of DNI Blair yakking about the Cuban missile crisis today. He was in junior high at the time, is somewhat older than I am. He told the story in an interesting way (as if it were unfolding today), making sure to include the bit about Turkey, which many readers of the public press were clueless about at the time.The DNI position was a consequence of 9-11, was first held by

Kirby Urnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12114860457655013242noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204942.post-22571941891093080972009-10-29T14:46:00.000-07:002009-10-30T10:22:44.946-07:00

Of course it's easy enough to read the date and time on the poster below (previous post) given the back-lit nature of illuminated text. But black on purple is well neigh unreadable once the posters are printed, so how might our team succeed in generating turn out? That's the perennial question when it comes to the live performance circuit. Then there's the politics of type font and size, the

Kirby Urnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12114860457655013242noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204942.post-49736528072592149882009-10-27T23:26:00.000-07:002009-11-04T10:55:07.148-08:00

This was a good session. Allen Taylor swung by. I entered late, having watched CBS, and Taylor hit me with Python vs. PHP questions. I paraphrased Michelle Rowley saying PHP was more of a pajama language, good for slumming in bathrobe and slippers.Lindsey made an appearance mid stream, met Allen. They got heavy into SQL-speak, mixed with BI, went out on the porch to finish their business,

Kirby Urnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12114860457655013242noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204942.post-28706060008945938722009-10-23T10:17:00.000-07:002009-10-28T10:59:39.458-07:00

This excellent little documentary traces the emergence of an organized resistance to the Vietnam War within the USA's own military during the Johnson and Nixon administrations.The rank and file GIs distributed numerous underground publications at the risk of court martial. Many refused orders and went to jail. Others came home to inform the public of the war crimes going on in Indochina, where

Kirby Urnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12114860457655013242noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204942.post-32311058437736150202009-10-21T19:59:00.000-07:002009-10-22T18:26:17.711-07:00

About ten of us are sitting around the Pauling House table, yakking about Richard Feynman a lot. Steve Mastin knew him personally. We're also talking about bias versus prejudice, their various connotations. I'm not taking the lead in these discussions, am relatively quiet. Bias relates to "lawn bowling" in some contexts.Earlier we discussed the hidden military draft in the form of "stop loss"

Kirby Urnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12114860457655013242noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204942.post-56572885686967895422009-10-17T18:22:00.000-07:002009-11-11T17:23:03.362-08:00

:: burn out 2009 ::These anarchist-libertarians or whatever species mix (some pirates) are pretty good at organizing. They're mostly here for each other, even though the general public (GP) is invited.Thanks to minimal promotion, the event is more like a private party than a tourist attraction. The venue could clearly handle a bigger crowd. As the night wears on, perhaps more will join us [a

Kirby Urnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12114860457655013242noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204942.post-62401273625714723332009-10-16T10:49:00.000-07:002009-10-16T13:25:16.875-07:00

I went into this event a skeptic for some reason, but Andrew Weil is just telling us what he knows, being as honest and direct as we'd expect from a medical doctor. I came away more of a fan.Weil thinks we should disallow direct advertising of prescription pharmaceuticals to consumers. Very few countries allow that (New Zealand another sucker). He also worries about the lifestyle we're exporting,

Kirby Urnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12114860457655013242noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204942.post-5199418527649999892009-10-13T19:39:00.000-07:002009-10-14T22:11:00.802-07:00

Tonight's meeting is really well attended. We're double deep around the table on two sides. The topic: American myths. Our presenter: Roger Paget, political economist, and Asianist.The notion of "myth" is frequently confused with the notion of "falsehood" i.e. to tell myths is to tell lies. Other namespaces honor myth-making a lot more, take a more sophisticated view.Paget's thesis is the

Kirby Urnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12114860457655013242noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204942.post-40175050341348265922009-10-12T16:11:00.000-07:002009-10-13T09:31:12.518-07:00

Our favorite doctor, with us through thick and thin, is thinking of dropping our insurance company. The whole practice is. There's this foolish myth that private insurance entitles you to any doctor you like, a freedom some public option would supposedly take away. But doctor practices drop insurance companies all the time, are under no obligation to slave away for unethical biz partners.

Kirby Urnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12114860457655013242noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204942.post-5351696901185493912009-10-10T10:53:00.000-07:002009-11-18T14:18:20.163-08:00

:: on piano forte ::Yesterday was a whirlwind, starting with gutting the garage, then realizing we were down a mic stand (as in gone missing). Obviously I'd left it at Ladd's Inn, still green at this job (setting up takes a pro, and LW is one -- me too, but not as a rock star per se, more as a geek).The hypothesis proved correct, so I was able to relax through an evening in Men's Club (Multnomah

Kirby Urnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12114860457655013242noreply@blogger.com