AMTNYS

The Association of Mathematics Teachers of NYS has its annual conference at the Rye Town Hilton in Portchester, NY on November 8-10.

I highly recommend this conference for any and all who have anything to do with math education, whether in New York State or not.
More information at www.amtnys.org

Fairy tales

1st pitch in 9 minutes.
Fairy tale prediction: Rodriguez hits pinch hit game winning homerun.
Smack on the back of the head prediction: Tigers win World Series.

Are paper books dead?

If you think paper book's are on the way out, read this.

Poltical Ads

This year the political ads have been the biggest garbage I have seen.

I have yet to find a single ad where a candidate says anything of a positive nature. By positive, I mean something he/she would try to do or establish with the goal of fixing society's ills and making this world a better place. All I see are slams at an opponent, generally with fictitious stories or out-of-context comments or just general blather.  Dozens of ads about "gutting Medicare" that demonstrate a willingness to not communicate the truth in order to help slam an opponent.

If a candidate needs to lie to try to gain votes, they've lost mine.  I am no great fan of those in office, but I am no great fan of their opponents, either. Maybe someday someone will run somewhere in a manner I can commend on a platform I can support.

I am still waiting for a candidate for any office to acknowledge that their village, town, county, state, country all go together and are part of the big wide world and cannot be treated as disjoint. If we are to thrive in this world, we have to get our act together as a country, and fast.

When you vote this year, I suggest you strongly ask yourself how your voting choices, taken as a group, will help enable us to live and grow in the world as a whole.

As a matter of fact, before you vote this year, at least read Friedman's and Mandelbaum's That Used to be Us.  Although I for one don't agree with everything they are after, I strongly agree with the way they place everything in a global context.

The very first question you should ask yourself is this: will my candidate selections work together in a positive way? If you find that you select your choices because of single issues and without considering the overall context, then you are part of our polarizing politics, and have nobody to blame as we continue our downward spiral.  Remember: two people rowing in opposite directions will not move a rowboat no matter how strong they are. Yet, one will claim success because the current for a time will help move the boat in his/her direction.

Fiction or fiction?

Does anyone believe any political ad this year?

A bit about Phoenix

I discovered last Sunday that, although I know about Frank Lloyd Wright, I knew nothing about his history and his Arizona connection. His establishment outside of Scottsdale he called Taliesen West, where we took a short tour. I must admit that most of the architectural talk leaves me cold, but the historical aspect was interesting.

We also took a drive that afternoon down to South Mountain, where we hoped to get some good vistas for photos of the Phoenix area with the sun behind us. Wouldn't you know: this was the one Sunday in September chosen for "Silent Sunday", when all roads in the park are closed to automobiles. Not interested in 100 degree hiking, we moved on. (This goes along with our trip through the Panama Canal a couple years ago, which got cancelled becasue the canal was closed for a day or two due to too much water. The first time that had ever happened)

Note that use of "two due to too". Ain't English great?

The best of times, the worst of times...

The Grand Canyon, both rims, have the most stupendous views imaginable. If you don't like the view, wait one minute. The sunlight ever changing, clouds filtering the sunshine at rare moments, the picture never stays the same. Sunset especially. We saw sunset from the Grand Canyon Lodge on the North Rim and Yavapai Point on the south rim. Both were spectacular.  I would have enjoyed even more were it not for my acrophobia. I get nervous when other people get near the edge. Strange place for me to go on a vacation. (But flying doesn't bother me.)

The key drawbacks to our visit to the north rim had to due with the human aspect of the place: the food was terrible, and the lodging was less than good. Dinner at the Lodge consisted of the lamest "prime rib" I have ever encountered. We chose it because it was recommended by the waiter. It actually made my last airplane meal seem gourmet.

In addition, I ordered what was allegedly a Lumberyard Hefeweizen beer. It came with the color and consistency of Coors Light. The waiter said that it was a special filtered beer. The Lumberyard web site specifically says its beer is unfiltered.

The other drawback was in our cabin: i was a good thing we delayed showers, because in the morning as the john was flushed the sewage came right up through the tub's drain.  Nasty.

Despite the dinner complaints and the sewage issue, nobody made an offer of a discount or partial refund. The apparent message was "situation normal". Evidently they confused that with SNAFU.

More later...