Right Brain

For me, the dancer is spinning clockwise.

Via Mark Bernstein, who has side by sides, which sometimes provides a peripheral shift, meaning that you may be able to adjust the spin direction of the figure. In the side by side, if I glance back and forth and hold, the figure will go counterclockwise. Come back and it’s back to right brain perception.

Science Questions

Chris Mooney asks some good questions

As a prerequisite, the next president must grasp how science flows into a democracy at all levels. Whoever wins the election—man or woman, Democrat or Republican—will face profound science-based challenges and questions. Will space become militarized, or remain a neutral zone of unfettered international access? Will we successfully protect our populations and cities from the threats of nuclear and biological terrorism, as well as from emerging pandemics? Can we bring the AIDS crisis in Africa under control? How can we foster continuing biomedical advancement without crossing moral lines?

Will there be enough jobs available to employ the nation’s scientists? If foreign researchers are better qualified for those jobs, will they receive visas so that US companies can benefit from their skills? And what of research in areas of pure science? As Europe’s Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Geneva—the world’s most powerful particle accelerator—heads toward a slated May 2008 startup, will the US revisit the idea of building its own collider, and willingly take on that next phase of research into the very nature of matter? More important, will the next president understand the significance of such scientific questing? And if so, will he or she also know how to tell that story to the public?

College Growth

About college growth:

But few states have experienced student growth as rapid as Arizona’s. In 1990, about 31,000 students graduated from the state’s public high schools. By 2005, there were nearly 52,000 graduates. This growth is expected to continue, even if the local high schools do nothing to solve their dropout problems.

Although there are two other state universities — the University of Arizona and Northern Arizona University — Arizona State, with campuses in Tempe and three other sites in metropolitan Phoenix, has agreed to absorb 90 percent of the additional demand. That means it will continue to focus largely on in-state residents. Over the last 10 years, in-state students have made up 72 percent to 76 percent of the student body.

Antonio Garcia, a professor of bioengineering, said that he supported the university’s intention to expand and improve, but that it needed to continue hiring more professors to lower its student-faculty ratio, currently 22 to 1.

Some students and professors question whether it is possible to handle so much growth so quickly. “Ninety thousand students is a lot,” said Trevor Bergeron, a sophomore. “Right now it’s pretty huge.”

The same article claims that ASU is at 64,000 students. Western states have seen upward enrollment trends for the past ten years. What will the ratio be between retirees and job hunters in a few years?

I’ve visited the ASU campus a few times and it’s a wonderful place; it doesn’t feel massive. Western universities have a much different feel than do those in New England. Orders of magnitude are experienced differently, such as at New Mexico State, where the distant mountains wall the light and band it pink and orange against the purple sky. But walking to class is walking to class, unless you must do it uphill as one must at Cornell. Sixnut, for me, is just the right size.

See Dean Baker for more on the economic context of my last remark about jobs. Economic scales do matter in enrollments.

Space and Justice

This is a description of the LATWIDNO exhibition at Just Space(s). Interesting to quote in full for Louis Gottlieb’s act and its implications:

In the case People of the State of CA vs. Louis Gottlieb (1969-73), the defendant Gottlieb asserted his right to donate the land he owned, Morningstar Ranch, to God. In doing so, Gottlieb intended to offer “Land-Access-To-Which-Is-Denied-No-One, land whereon permission to live is not required; land from which no one may be ordered to depart.”

This audio piece is a “reading” of transcripts from several of the court hearings. Rather than a theatrical re-telling of a divisive Plaintiff v. Defendant court drama, the voice score speaks of Gottleib’s aspirations and the fundamental legal paradoxes of the court grappling with humanistic, not-for-profit ideals.

The Sonoma County Court opined on the legal issues concerning dedication. Dedication in the proper sense involves giving a gift to the public. In common law, the intention to dedicate may be made in writing, orally or by virtue of the owners conduct. Generally, a “dedication” must be accepted by the public, though public use may be used to indicate acceptance.

In this fascinating, though virtually unknown appeal, Gottleib’s defense, legal counsel and Amicus Curiae raise First Amendment Freedom of Religion claims, as well as Evidentiary and Due Process ones. Specifically about: whether the court may be allowed to assume God is a material being when God’s existence remains an unsettled question of fact and, if/how the court has the right to determine whether God is or is not the legal owner of the land if God is not likely to appear before the court to make a statement. Since the court must first establish it has the legal right to interfere in any disposition before it may rule on it, the case People vs. Louis Gottleib teeters between the edge of judicial absurdity and that which is outside the scope of the law.

How Big is the World

Wally Rorschach tells me that, proportionally, what we do to ourselves probably wont matter all that much. Some celestial tourcraft will come by and mention that cinder smoking at the corner of the window. “That’s where life struggled to get going over a billion years ago and a few billion years after that bickered itself into oblivion. Now off to the center of the galaxy.”

People are fond of comparative expressions about Renaissance makeup and childcare. In 300 years some anthropologist with a chip in his brain will proclaim our own silliness and dispositions and laugh about it. This Wally image came to me after happening on a reel of swarming photographers chasing after a celebrity with a child in her arms, the mother and child slapped by the non-stop flash of bulbs. Everyone offering advice, judgment, and penalty.

Really rich.

The bulbs are a wonderful and terrible metaphor.

Profile: Fierro as Examplar

I think sometimes I throw a profile out here. Here’s one.

We have a lot of standout faculty at Sixnut (soon I’ll be able to link back to it once the website is redone by someone who knows what they’re doing) so it’s hard to single them out.

Recently a Ph.D in History from the University of Connecticut, Rafaele Fierro, who runs The Independent Thinkers weblog, is the kind of professor we should all learn from. This professor sees something and doesn’t have to be convinced that it could be useful, helpful, or interesting. He makes that decision on his own and runs with it, amplifying minimal direction or conversation into his own application of the concept, such as the weblog. If he doesn’t like something or find it interesting, he can channel that into something positive, or tell us to take a flying leap. He’ll soon be giving a techtalk on weblogs.

He’s also an excellent leader, going from the new guy to “let’s get Fierro in on this” because he’ll make things happen or provide us insight we hadn’t considered. The presentations and programs he puts together are things to look forward to. He’s part of a daunting team of historians on campus who are all collegial and deserve profiling themselves. All have earned respect.

Fierro’s proven himself a student advocate. But he doesn’t treat students like dolts. He knows that our grand theories and soaring talk will somehow have to get back to the classroom.

Fierro is the second best dresser on campus, too, behind W and perhaps tied with DA. These guys know how to wear a tie.

Salutes to you.

More profiles coming.

Hypertext and Reading

Susan Gibb, via an old download from Hypertext 07, is having an interesting time with Ham Sandoval over at Spinning. She’s seeing things I could not and treats the form from the point of view of a serious reader.

In a few days I’ll have up a small review of a study on Hypertext and dialogue from Narrative that comes at the form in ways I find goofy.