Quote of the Day - 1/31/2012

Knowledge, if it does not determine action, is dead to us – Plotinus, 205-270 CE

~~~~~

Data

Information

Knowledge

Wisdom

No matter where we are along the continuum - action is required to translate our understanding into reality. Simply knowing is not enough. Today - think about how you can more fully leverage what you know to hone what you are doing.

Note: This is a widely used quote. I ran across it in a book by Philip Armour (The Laws of Software Process: A New Model for the Production and Management of Software) which proposed that software development should be viewed and managed as a knowledge acquisition activity. The author provides a thought provoking perspective on the history and future of the way we capture then transfer knowledge.

Quote of the Day - 1/30/2012

Absolute certainty is an intense and impossible demand that our emotions make on our intellect. - Stephen T. Asma in Stuffed Animals and Pickled Heads : The Culture and Evolution of Natural History Museums 

~~~~~

As we become more knowledgeable in an area, we realize that absolute certainty is quite elusive. When we feel strongly about that certainty, it becomes faith and additional knowledge ceases to be so important. We discount whatever ambiguity might exist and simply accept.

In those areas that we aren’t so emotional about, we can retain our knowledge-seeking mode for a longer time but even then we want things to stay simple. Assumptions are made and we move on. This has to be done to keep us from getting bogged down in the trivial; the assumptions enable us to make a decision and take action; it is ‘good enough.’ Later, we might remember the assumptions…or we may treat it is an absolute certainty.

The challenge comes when our absolute certainty collides with some new piece of information that is counter to our faith or assumptions. In the case of a collision that involves faith - the emotional element becomes extreme. For an assumption, the result could be an intense period of objective exploration of assumptions or result in emotional arguing against the new information.

It is healthy that our emotions push us toward certainty; it is even healthier to realize that increasing, rather than absolute, certainty is what drives us to discovery.

How can you leverage your emotions to drive your intellect toward increasing certainty in an important area of your life? Remember that the intellect may have to drive actions that feedback more information to result in increased certainty.

Recipe of the Week: Lemony Chia Seed Muffins

1 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup bread crumbs
3 tablespoons chia seeds
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons lemon zest
1/3 cup olive oil
1 cup honey
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon lemon extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. and spray muffin tins with non-stick spray.

Combine the flour, chia seeds, baking powder, baking soda, and lemon zest in a large bowl.

In a separate large bowl, combine the oil and honey. Whisk until smooth. Whisk in the milk, lemon juice, vinegar, and lemon extract.

Pour into the flour mixture and stir until just combined.

Pour into the prepared muffin tins and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool on a rack.

Notes:

• If you don’t have bread crumbs, use whole wheat flour. I’m making bread crumbs with my food processor rather than throwing stale bread away these days so I always have a container of bread crumbs in the refrigerator. Replacing 1/3 the flour with bread crumbs makes for a slightly chewy muffin.
• The chia seeds will almost totally dissolve as the muffins cook. I had originally thought these would have the look of lemon poppy seed muffins but they don’t. They are very moist with the extra oil from the chia seeds. I enjoyed these muffins without butter or cream cheese. Next time I make them I'll probably reduce the olive oil to 1/4 cup.
• I made my own lemon zest by cutting off the skin of lemon is was going to use for the juice and processing it into small bits in the food processor (see blog on making orange zest).
• I used a fancy form pan to make mini-muffins. They were about two bites each.

Quote of the Day - 1/29/2012

Scientific work requires intelligence, creativity, education and determination.  As a result, the history of science is always the history of a select group of individuals. - Margaret Alic in Hypatia's Heritage (Beacon Paperback)

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Which of the requirements for scientific work (intelligence, creativity, education and determination) is the most challenging for the US population today? Determination would by my top pick and the others lag behind it by quite a lot. There are plenty of intelligent people…lots of good ideas…education is available but linked to determination just as closely as scientific work is. Our high schools and colleges have plenty of capacity in science and engineering yet we hear frequently that there are not enough US students - even though scholarship programs that support science and technology studies are available to top students. So - it comes back to determination and perseverance.

And that is going against the grain of popular culture which has tended toward the sound bite, the quick gratification, instant feedback. After a while it becomes harder to focus on one thing for very long. Determination is needed for scientific work because it can’t be accomplished without deeper thinking…and that takes longer blocks of time. It takes a commitment that evidently few are willing to make.

The ‘select group of individuals’ that make scientific history is becoming more and more self-selected based on determination rather than anything else. Statistically, it is still possible to see gender bias in some fields of science but there has been tremendous progress over the past 50 years that has accelerated in the last 20. The instances of women doing scientific work but not receiving appropriate credit are gone.  

The future health of the economy, both in the world and the US, is highly dependent on the innovations that come from the scientists and engineers among us. There needs to be a cultural inflection point toward viewing determination….thinking and acting for a longer term objective…as a positive attribute for more of our population. It would improve our capacity for scientific work and a lot of other endeavors as well.

January Extremes in Howard County, Maryland

Within less than a week, we’ve had the extremes of weather for January. The first was a few days in the 20s with wintery mix on the ground. As it started to slowly warm up there was lots of fog in the neighborhood and back into the forest. The deer were in the yards noshing on the grass and anything else that wasn’t covered by the ice.

The warming trend culminated in a day that was more like March than January; the temperature actually reached 60 degrees F and the flags were fluttering wildly in the wind as I walked into my local library. There is a new-to-me mural on the side of the building near the athletic fields. Looks like spring…but it’s not quite that time yet.

Quote of the Day - 1/28/2012

Art is a method of laying claim to the physical world. - Joan Aiken in Morningquest

~~~~~

Maybe this is why I enjoy photography so much. It has become a favorite method for me to ‘claim the physical world.’ I know that with camera in hand, my attention is more focused on details of light and intensity (or not) of color. And then when I look at it later on a large screen, there is often more in the image than I realized.

Fortunately for me, digital cameras are a technology that has advanced rapidly; it no longer takes a lot of fiddling with technology to capture the images I want. Being in the right place and composition are the challenge. The camera I’ve enjoyed for the past year of so is a Canon PowerShot SD4500IS 10 MP Digital Camera with 10x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom and 3.0-Inch LCD, Brown . All the problems I’ve had with it have been self-inflicted (leaving the SD card in the laptop or the battery in the charger). It’s small enough that I carry it in a padded area of my purse or a pocket of my travel vest; it’s always near at hand to capture an image I want to keep in more than my memory. The only extra purchase I’ve made is a second battery for a long day/lots of images captured.

What is your favorite ‘method of laying claim to the physical world?’

Gleanings of the Week Ending January 28, 2012

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles I read this past week:  

• Psychology of Color infographic - Hmm…never paint a baby’s room yellow because it will cause them to cry more…other factoids. A snapshot (unreadable) version of the infographic is at right...follow the link to get more explanation and larger size (if it still isn't large enough on your monitor - click on the graphic to enlarge further)
• Food Combining - for optimal health and weight - Goodbye meat and potatoes in the same meal (not a good combination). This article is an easy read with good embedded graphics. Maybe what we eat is not as bad as how we combine it?
• 2011 was 9th warmest year on record - A video that shows global temps from 1884 to 2011 from NASA
• Paper Models of Polyhedra - Wow…lots of shapes you can make with paper with templates to help you do it.
• Smithsonian fire in January 1865 - report and pictures of the event…lessons from that fire applied to the restoration of the building and other museums.
• Nutrient Lists - From the USDA Nutrient Data Laboratory. Lists of foods either alphabetically or sorted by content for common nutrients.
• American Verse Project - An electronic archive of volumes of American poetry prior to 1920. If you are in the mood for poetry and don’t have a book already bought, this a great place to go.
• The Digital Blue Ridge Parkway - Lots of photographs from during the Blue Ridge Parkway construction. This site is also an example of richness of presenting information digitally where it can be accessed from many perspectives rather than in book form.
• Great Meals with Great Grains - a blog about using whole grains to ‘provide culinary excitement without hours of labor.’ I’ve tried amaranth, quinoa and rolled oats; maybe it’s time to try some others too.
• How to store fruits and vegetables without plastic - A fact sheet from the Berkeley Farmers’ Market
• Lisa Harouni: A primer on 3D printing (TED talk) - Is this the future for manufacturing in America?

A Surprise in Every Day

The old proverb for physical health

'an apple a day keeps the doctor away'

has a parallel saying for creative/mental health which goes

'a surprise a day makes for an interesting life.'

What I mean by that is that if your life has a few things that are unexpected you will never be bored for long.  Make an effort to notice anything that is different than you expect. It will 

• Increase your focus on the present
• Prompt associations which lead to
  • Creative bursts - sometimes extreme
  • Memories of similar situations
  • Linkages that are new to you
• Open another path into the future 

Here are a few of my recent 'surprises' - 

• I discovered that the panel below the sink in my bathroom actually opens up and there is a bin there for toothpaste and other sundries. I’ve lived in the house for over 15 years and had never used it! I promptly put some things that had been on the counter into the new found space.
• Chia seeds. I remembered the chia pets from years ago but was surprised when I read a about the seeds being edible and highly nutritious. I’m now trying a tablespoon a day for a month. The second surprise was how good they taste even just rehydrated in water. Will they work as a substitute for poppy seeds in muffins? Hmm…an experiment for another day.
• At the grocery store I noticed that there were only 2 types of people shopping at mid-morning on a Friday: the group about my age that was leisurely shopping and parents with children that had come in for a single purpose. There were several surprises in that observation:
  • Why weren’t the children in school? (I found out later that it was a day off between quarters for some schools)
  • Are there more people like me (happily and newly free of the M-F work week) than I realized?
• As I drove through the light rain this morning, I thought about how much like dusk is looked with the thick clouds and the trees in silhouette. The surprise as I scanned the scene was a hawk in the top of a tall tree. I’m happy that hawks are around in the area where I live; I enjoy having the rabbits, squirrels, and chipmunks too; it’s good to have the balance. 

Have your enjoyed your moments of serendipity today?

Quote of the Day - 1/27/2012

A desert is a place without expectation. - Nadine Gordimer

~~~~~

Are we so full of expectations that we don’t notice instances in our lives when there should be none at all?

Personal Rhythms - Weekly

This blog item is the second in a series about the rhythms we choose for our lives. Today the topic is weekly rhythms.

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There are activities that are generally done on a weekly basis…almost always associated with a particular day of the week. They serve as infrastructure to other activities so must be done sometime during the week although they can be moved to other days if necessary occasionally. The three that are nearly constant for me are:  

• House cleaning on Wednesdays
• Groceries shopping on Fridays
• Laundry on Saturdays 

If I make a batch of muffins, it is generally on Sunday. Visits to museums, galleries, or gardens are most often on Sunday afternoon.

For young children, it is worthwhile considering a weekly cycle to provide a bit of structure for activities that would become boring or overwhelming if they happened every day. The idea is to have a theme for the day that can be repeated in subsequent weeks. For example: 

• Family activity on Sundays
• Seasonal craft on Mondays
• Baking/cooking on Tuesday
• Painting/drawing on Wednesday
• Farm or other extended outdoor activity on Thursday
• Grocery shopping on Friday
• Music on Saturdays 

Think about the weekly rhythms most important to enable your life to move along the way you want. Are they firmly in place or ad hoc? Could they be honed to better meet your needs?

~~~~~

Last week, the post was about daily rhythms. I’ll post an item about annual rhythms next week and there will be a final post for rhythms that don’t quite fit into daily/weekly/monthly/annual cycles or the rhythm is set by a metric other than time.

Quote of the Day - 1/26/2012

WHEN all the panes are hung with frost,
Wild wizard-work of silver lace,

I draw my sofa on the rug
Before the ancient chimney-place.

(Poems Of Thomas Bailey Aldrich)

~~~~~

When Aldrich published these lines in the 1880s, fireplaces were a major source of heat in the home. Now our houses are heated in other ways primarily but the majority of houses are still built with fireplaces. Maybe the rationale is articulated by this poem. When we visualize a ‘cozy place’ on a cold winter’s day/night, there is almost always a fireplace in the picture. Maybe the sofa is replaced by a wing back chair or a rocking chair. Maybe there is a footstool or a cuddly quilt. Is there a cat or dog with you? What about a good book/eReader….or is the television on? Next time there is frost…’wild wizard-work of silver lace’… make your ‘cozy place’ a reality and then enjoy.

The book is also available to read online at American Verse Project at the University of Michigan http://quod.lib.umich.edu/a/amverse/.

Quote of the Day - 1/25/2012

History can’t give attention to what’s been lost, hidden, or deliberately buried; it is mostly a telling of success, not the partial failures that enabled success. - Scott Berkun in The Myths of Innovation

~~~~~

History is often taught in timeline fashion with milestones of wars as major drivers of change…and always written by the victor who throws away much of the context from the other side. We need more than the this kind of documentation to understand the how and why of the changes that occurred. Some changes were not driven by war at all.

We also should strive to remember that the perspective of the historian is always embedded in the telling; no one is totally objective. We can solve the problem of ‘single perspective’ by getting multiple viewpoints of the same events or time period. This is why we are intrigued by the connections that the ultimate success had to seemingly unrelated or partially related events. Check out James Burke’s Knowledge Web project site for an update on his work since the Connections television shows he created.

In your own personal history - think about your successes? Were there partial failures (or successes) that led to that success and do you include them in your personal history? 

The Luxuries in Life

What is your unique perception of luxury? Suspend the outside influences on your perception (and there are a lot of them so this can take some effort).

When I did this for myself recently – I was surprised that the luxuries of my life are plentiful and often easily achieved. Here’s my list: 

1. Seeing a beautiful sunrise or sunset and not having to rushing off to some other activity (picture at right is a rainbow at sunset)
2. Confident enough of food availability to not eat excessively – ever
3. Dark chocolate for breakfast
4. Visiting my daughter on my birthday
5. Hot tea on a cold day
6. Having time to celebrate or grieve rather than soldiering on bravely
7. Spending the majority of my day on things I choose
8. A new computer that is working exactly the way I want it to
9. Beauty and function in the same object like the leaf coaster I have in my office (picture on right)
10. Naturally long fingernails  

Analyzing my list of 10, I discovered some themes: 

• Food (2, 3, 5)
• Relationships (4, 6)
• Visual beauty (1, 9, 10)
• Choices (7,8) 

Recognizing and acknowledging the luxury in life is closely linked to feelings of thankfulness and happiness for me. Maybe this exercise of taking a snapshot of luxuries is worth doing more often!

Recipe of the Week: Orange Zest

I enjoy eating oranges more than orange juice so I almost always have a few in the refrigerator. After noticing how expensive orange peel was in the spice section of the grocery (and thinking of reducing food waste) - I decided to always collect the zest off the orange before I ate the inside. After trying several different techniques, this is the one that works best for me.

• Wash the orange with soap and water and let it dry before starting.
• With a sharp knife peel off the outermost layer of the peel (the orange part). I always play a game with myself on how long a ribbon a peel I can get.
• Place in a small food processor and process it until the bits are the size you want. Sometimes I leave it with variable sized pieces. Other times I continue until it is all relatively small bits.
• Let the peeling air dry on a plate, breaking up occasionally if the bits are clumped.

Oftentimes the orange will be thin skinned enough that what is left of the 'skin' after the zest is removed can be eaten along with the pulp so only the thickened ends of the skin is left as trash.

So far I have not had to worry about storage of the orange zest because I use it for cooking pretty quickly. As long as it is thoroughly dry, it could be stored in a the cabinent with other spices. Here are my favorite ways to use orange peel:

1. Bake with an apple
2. Add to your favorite salad 
3. Use as a seasoning for stir fried or baked chicken
4. Mix into pancake or muffin batter
5. Stir into cool cucumber/yogurt soup 

Quote of the Day - 1-24-2012

The Plains

Indians never rode on wheels although they lived

in round tents set in circles, made mounds

(and danced around them) for those whose throats

had shut, in dust, mouths filled at last.

-- Pamela Alexander in Navigable Waterways (Yale Series of Younger Poets No 20)

~~~~~

Today’s quote, like yesterdays, is snippet from a poem. This one was published in the 1980s. What is the first thing you think about as you read these lines? And the second thought?

My first was about the circle shape. It is the universal round for motion (wheels) and dwellings (tents, hogans, yurts). How different from our homes today full of rectangular shapes!

The second thought was about starvation…the very last phrase ‘mouths filled at last.’  Would this have been the time of year it would have most likely occurred on the plains? 

Note: This books is also available online here.

10 Years Ago – In January 2002

Many years ago I started collecting headlines as a way of honing my reading of news. Over the years, the headline collection has been warped by the sources of news I was reading…increasingly online. I recently looked back to the January 2002 headline collection and picked 10. 

1. Dave Thomas (Wendy’s) dies
2. Ford cutting 35,000 jobs
3. Enron scandal
4. Cuba base for war on terrorism detainees
5. The color of the universe is light turquoise
6. A 984-foot-wide asteroid, discovered Dec. 26 and labeled as being potentially hazardous by NASA, came within 516,000 miles of hitting Earth
7. Dead Sea is Sinking Lower
8. Kmart files chapter 11
9. Amateur satellite doing well in orbit
10. Ex-UK PM Thatcher suffers stroke

Were these the most important things in the news 10 years ago? Some may have been (Enron and Cuban base). Others were simply things I was interested in at the time. I enjoyed looking at the whole list and forcing myself to pick 10. It somehow gave the current news more perspective.

Quote of the Day - 1/23/2012

 I'll not confer with Sorrow

   Till to-morrow;

But Joy shall have her way

   This very day.

(Thomas Bailey Aldrich in The sisters' tragedy: with other poems, lyrical and dramatic)

~~~~~

Short poems like haiku and lines of poetry, excised from the longer poem, often stand by themselves. We like the ‘short and sweet’ of these things that take longer to think about than to read or hear. We like that they are rich in associations and can stick in our memories. These were the original ‘sound bites’!

The quote for today was published in the early 20’s. What does it say to you?

There are two things I think about: 

• See the ‘joy’ of today by really living in the present rather than worrying about what might come in the future
• No matter what happens, choose to always see the ‘joy’ of the situation first (i.e. take a ‘glass half full’ perspective rather than a ‘glass half empty’).

Note: This book is also available to read online via Project Gutenberg here.

The Year of Little Snow (so far)

Here we are past mid-January and we have gotten almost no snow in Maryland so far. On Friday night it was forecast. I woke up at 2 AM and I got up like a child wondering if Santa had indeed arrived; yes - indeed - the skylight was covered. I crept back to bed.

I was up a little before my alarm and dressed for the day quickly so I could see more of the snow. I was taking pictures on the deck in the darkness a bit after 6! The snow had already turned to ‘wintery mix’ as forecast so the icy top crunched underneath my feet. 

And then the dawn came. It was a gradual increase in light without the sun actually making its appearance through the gray clouds. There was no color associated with the sunrise but it did make the crystals of ice easier to see. These were on the front step.

Once the trees got a bit of flocking, is stayed in place the rest of the day with the temperature only getting up to freezing and the stillness of the day doing nothing to dislodge the accumulation. The tulip polars and cherry tree (below) seemed to catch the most; the maples have more verticle branches.

Quote of the Day - 1/22/2012

There is a hint of desert in the yellow plains, a measure of openness and the suggestions of surprises. - The Kookaburras' Song: Exploring Animal Behavior in Australia, 1st Edition

~~~~~

This quote is from a book about Australia but it could just as easily be about ‘yellow plains’ anywhere in the world.

I am familiar with the yellow plains in North America. The ones that I think of first are the seemingly endless fields of ripe wheat. The wind ripples through the grain creating waves and eddies that are visible nearby but further away the eye smoothes the vision. The vastness of the wheat field is the same as the fastness of the blue sky above. Both appear infinite. And so it is that anything that breaks the monotony of the field or the sky will be a surprise - a hawk…a row of telephone poles…a combine beginning the harvest.  You notice these things more when the background is just the wheat and the sky.

The other area is the high plains of the Texas Panhandle where scrubby grass grows. It is green when the rains come but turns to a straw yellow when it is dry. In this land there are miles and miles of very flat land broken only by the highway and the yucca along the fence rows. There may be some occasional cows and derelict grain elevators along railroad tracks. And then, the biggest surprise of all, Palo Duro Canyon.

Do you have images of ‘yellow plains’ in your memories…what were surprises for you?

Gleanings of the Week Ending January 21, 2012

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles I read this past week:

Office Workers Spend Too Much Time at Their Desks - A study that provides some numbers to what we intuitively know. This is why I try to get up at least once an hour and have a Black Swopper Chair  chair at my desk!

Fill in the gaps--bird the road less traveled this January - hmmm...there is a county near me that is white (a city…so this would be birding in parks) surrounded my dark gray. Maybe I should plan an outing to look for birds and complete an eBird checklist. They promise maps for February around the 1st of the month so this could be an outing for next month too.

Sewer Mining - reusing wastewater in a decentralized, small scale way; example projects from around the world

The Parrot Trade - Lots of pictures of parrots included chicks/juveniles…and the disturbing wild-caught trade that persists

49 ways to save water - The ongoing drought in many parts of the US and other parts of the world prompts us to take a harder look at how we, as individuals, use water

What is your state good at - Map of the US with graphics associated with each state. Text follows to explain what it means

Photosynthesis Fuel Company Gets a Large Investment - plant being built near Leander, TX. The goal is to produce 20,000 gallons of ethanol per acre per year rather than the 2,000-3,000 gallons per acre achieved with cellulosic fuels such as grass and wood chips.

How Coffee Changed America - an infographic with the history (you’ll have to click on it and enlarge to read the text) followed by a write up on modern issues surrounding coffee

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week - from the Wild Bird Trust of South Africa…and there should be more in the weeks to come

Video of recent Solar Flare - colorful close up from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory

Making origami paper cubes - This has a video made by two girls to show exactly how it’s done.