Ken Nelson

The real problem

You wouldn’t know it from the main stream press, but the United States doesn’t supply 90% of the guns Mexicans use in crimes. It supplies 90% of the guns they can TRACK the origins of:

OF COURSE AMERICA IS THE ONLY ONE WHO APPEARS IN THE PAPERWORK YOU BOURGEOIS BOOB! We’re the only ones who keep paperwork! Mexican gangs get their guns from South Korea, China, Spain, Israel, Russia, South America, Guatemala and yes, The Mexican Army. Good luck tracing anything back to any of those groups. When all the untraceable guns are factored into the total, America’s input goes down to a whopping 17%.

My source for the above is an interesting article on the drug war in Taki’s Magazine.  The author describes two ways to end the violence in the Mexican drug trade – legalize drugs or just let them fight it out.  He says we will accept the default of let them fight it out.  I suspect he is right.  But there is another way that he hasn’t considered,  probably because he doesn’t mind drug use.

We could punish drug users. They are, after all, the ones causing the problem. The dealers are just servicing a market, not making it.

For instance, we could require drug testing for a drivers license, including random checks throughout the 5 year validity for the license. We could require drug testing before any benefit from the government.

There are lots of things we could do to not have to fight a drug war. I favor legalization generally, but would gladly accept a mix of legalization of marijuana and aggressive testing for more dangerous drugs.

The default, of continuing to create American police forces that look and act like military forces, and the continuing erosion of rights is something I’d prefer to avoid.

The terrifying part is that the President is promising to do something about it. Mr. President? Please. Just. Stop.

Ace of Spades on the new 9.6% August unemployment data

Online physics

Bill Gates and his son use the Khan Academy – and you should too!

"This guy is amazing," he wrote. "It is awesome how much he has done with very little in the way of resources." Gates and his 11-year-old son, Rory, began soaking up videos, from algebra to biology. Then, several weeks ago, at the Aspen Ideas Festival in front of 2,000 people, Gates gave the 33-year-old Khan a shout-out that any entrepreneur would kill for. Ruminating on what he called the "mind-blowing misallocation" of resources away from education, Gates touted the "unbelievable" 10- to 15-minute Khan Academy tutorials "I’ve been using with my kids."

I’m not exactly a fan of Bill Gates’ allocation of Microsoft investments or his own personal philanthropy.  Tens of billions of dollars wasted.  But I do think he is correct here about the Khan Academy.

I’m going threw Physics now so I can be refreshed to address topics with my kids, who are enrolled in a high school physics class online.    I was just going to re-read Asimov’s “Understanding Physics” but I’m not sure where it is after the Nelson flood of 2010.

Me, outside my hotel. Not!  Actually it is Bikram Choudhury

Yoga is REALLY good for you. I can testify to that. Hot Yoga has helped me avoid chronic hip pain, sleep better, lose weight, and surprisingly, improve my complexion.

Lacking a Hot Yoga studio in St. George (which I may just remedy!), I’m taking advantage of our 107 degree summer, and I just practice outside in the shade of the hotel.  I don’t sweat nearly as much due to our 20% humidity ( a normal Hot Yoga studio is at 60% humidity).  But it still helps.

So what does science say?

Practicing yoga may do more than calm the mind — it may help protect against certain diseases, a new study suggests.

In the study, women who had practiced yoga regularly for at least two years were found to have lower levels of inflammation in their bodies than did women who only recently took up the activity.

I recommend it, although like many physical activities the first few times may be shockingly difficult (especially Hot Yoga). Keep on trying and you soon wonder how you could ever miss a session.

Another good thing… unlike other exercises, I’ve never been sore after a Yoga Practice.

Give it a go!

about traffic is wrong:

This idea, that making roads less safe leads to less accidents appeals to me. I can’t help but wonder if a lot of the problems people, states and the country face can be best addressed by ignoring what “experts” tell us we need (higher taxes, more regulation, more central control, more of others deciding for us) and that we should instead just let individuals get on with their lives in their naturally cooperative fashion.

I would welcome Mr. Monderman’s traffic ideas in St. George. We already have a fair number of traffic circles, but no traffic “squares” that I’m aware of.  Watch the video above, it is eerily cool how cars just approach 4 way intersections with no controls on them and do the right thing.

Down with traffic lights!

I’m going to miss hot yoga when I return to St. George.  There is supposed to be a hot studio opening, but they haven’t responded to my queries.

The folks at CorePower Yoga, a chain in California, Colorado and other states, should open a branch in St. George!  I’d certainly sign up.  Here is a video showing highlights of their Hot Power Fusion class. This class, which is the one I’m attending here in San Diego,  mixes the 26 asanas of traditional hot yoga with vinyasa flow movements and breath.

I doubt the room was that hot in this video, they are wearing way to much clothes. At the end of my practices here in San Diego, my yoga shorts are as wet as at the beach, my yoga slip pad is as soaked as if it were in a pool, and there is a puddle of sweat surrounding my Yoga mat.

Here is a video showing more of the hot Yoga poses:

They look hard, and the maximum postures are close to impossible, but each posture has “outs” or “alternatives” that you can do.

If a hot studio isn’t open in St. George, I’ll convert a space in my house to do it.  I’m eager to keep this going, and to keep the back, hip and other body pains away as they are now.

 
Approximate sweat flow

I just did my first “hot” yoga class this morning. I quite enjoyed it.

I did it at CorePower Yoga on Rosecrans in San Diego. Melissa, the instructor, was very patient and helpful with those of us not that familiar with yoga.

The session lasted an hour. I lasted about 50 minutes. I stayed in the room the last 10, but pretty much just did rest poses. I’d made the mistake of doing a full work out at 6AM this morning – I had nothing left.

I can’t remember ever sweating that much. Basically a shower was coming off me.

But I feel great after and I’ll definitely be back on Sunday morning at 0800.

My entire month on sabbatical in San Diego starts tomorrow.  The pictures above represent my tentative plans… sitting at beach, kayaking, reading my iPad at cafes (minus the expresso), biking everywhere, and 90 minutes of Bikram yoga every morning.

It should be refreshing. During this time this blog will become less active and probably just have photos and reports about stuff I’m doing or seeing around San Diego.

This should be on your reading list.

One of the things I’ve seen over the years is that work experience does not correlate to high quality and efficient software engineering.

So how can programmers get better?  Todd Hoff, a programmer known for his C++ coding standard (among other things), says they can get better like pretty much anybody else – with practice.

Deliberate Practice, or Experience, to be precise:

Rather than mere experience or even raw talent, it is dedicated, slogging, generally solitary exertion, repeatedly practicing the most difficult physical tasks for an athlete, repeatedly performing new and highly intricate computations for a mathematician, that leads to first-rate performance. And it should never get easier; if it does, you are coasting, not improving.

This is true, whether in programming, or in skating or shooting. Deliberate practice to build unconscious skills (aim/shoot, make ever more difficult figure skating jumps) leads to excellent performance.  Repeat at higher and higher levels to raise the performance bar.

Yet most programmers go home and forget about work. They don’t read about software engineering. They don’t expand or hone their skills.  They really aren’t interested in software engineering beyond paying the bills. And while most managers would like software people to get better, sending them to training and giving them time to practice and expand their skills can be really hard to fund.

Some say we need to require certification and continuing education, like doctors or lawyers, but I don’t think that really necessary or helpful. It would just drive up costs of an already very costly and inefficient occupation.

Frankly, I don’t think there is an answer that is satisfying. Other than for software engineers to step up and take an interest and pride in their profession and want and try to get better at it.

For now, as I hire, I try to bring in those that are interested in computer science and software engineering. They read about it, and have memberships in professional organizations, and at a basic level have a self-motivated desire to improve.

I think I’ve just discovered my next topic for the software engineering class I present to each year.

The inventor of T9 texting has come up with “Swype”; a faster way to type on a virtual keyboard.

Cool. I’m going to try this, in some form, in July. No promises for August. And digital.

http://photooftheday.hughcrawford.com/

I encountered two gals doing a 365 pictures of themselves project recently. They were quite creative and used radio remotes.  We met them at the Utah State Capitol building, where they were using the architecture to good effect.

My project for July will record a sabbatical I’m taking there for all of July. I’m toying with photos documenting each SD Trolley stop as one “concept”.  Alternately, I may strap a GPS watch on and sync my photos to my location and map them on a map of SD.

Something to do anyway (-:

We buried my Uncle Ray yesterday in a short, but moving, ceremony at the Riverside National Cemetery.

Given that not many people play the bugle any more, and also given that the cemetery does 40 to 50 burials a day, normally Taps is played by recording.

Our excellent funeral director, Bob Hansen of Crippen Mortuary, arranged to have a live bugler be part of the honor guard with an organization called “Bugles Across America”.

Craig Bryant, of Bugles Across America, drove from Anaheim to Riverside to play Ray’s funeral.  He did a lovely job and we thank him.

You can donate to and learn more about Bugles Across America here.

Heading elsewhere

Apparently, illegal aliens are fleeing Arizona. This is what happens when immigration laws look like they will be enforced. If only our Federal government would show similar resolve.

But alas, it doesn’t look like their homeland is where they are heading:

Juan Carlos Cruz, an illegal immigrant who has worked in plant nurseries for 20 years, huddled with dozens of relatives over the Memorial Day Weekend in the backyard of his brother’s Phoenix-area home to plot out the family’s next move to avoid what they say will be harassment by police. Virginia and California are the front-runners.

20 years hear illegally… that says a lot about our government doesn’t it?

The next step, naturally, is for more states to do as Arizona did.

Hayek’s classic is the #1 book on Amazon (thanks to Glenn Beck).

But, lets say you have a liberal neighbors, you know.. agreeable, he has a goatee, she separates their trash, but…. the Obama sticker on their Prius shouts to the world “we don’t get it!”.   And while they have signed copies of Saul Alinksy’s work, their heads would explode if they dug into Hayek.  Take heart… a comic book version is available online:

H/T: Instapundit

Salman Khan may be the future of education. He has developed over 800 videos explaining everything from the banking crisis to calculus.

Here he explains an alternate approach to the banking bailout (one I like quite a bit):

He covers lots of stuff… here he explains “Standard Deviation” in statistics…

Is this the “future” of education?  Yes – this or something like it.

All his videos can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/user/khanacademy#p