It’s that time of year again when we gather with friends for some outdoor cooking and load ourselves up with a (healthy) dose of patiotism and (unhealthy) dose of beer and barbecue. What’s not to love? This year, Karen and I are taking Owen up to visit our friends in the L.A. area. We’ll be heading out in a couple of hours and staying the night in Hacienda Heights with her best friend. I’ll be sure to post pictures of the fun when we get back.

As for the meaning of the holiday itself, I’d like to direct your attention to a great editorial today by Joseph Galloway. Especially poignant and apropos are the following words:

The fact that British troops, operating on flimsy general warrants handed out by local magistrates, were kicking in the doors of ordinary Americans and rifling through their pantries and papers in search of smuggled, untaxed goods was a prime reason why our ancestors rebelled against their king and went to war.

This is WHY we celebrate the Fourth of July. This is why the vote on renewing the expanded version of FISA and whitewashing the egregious violations of the Fourth Amendment for seven long years by our government is important.

If you have not done so already, please take a minute or two and call your Senators and Representative. Make sure they understand that this issue isn’t going to go away, and even if they vote yes on the FISA legislation, we won’t let that kind of injustice stand.

The article “Evidence Faulted in Detainee Case” in today’s New York Times made me chuckle. The administration’s lawyers tried to argue that evidence should be considered reliable on the basis that it had been repeated in at least three classified documents. I checked the court’s written decision to see their exact response.

First, the government suggests that several of the assertions in the intelligence documents are reliable because they are made in at least three different documents. We are not persuaded. Lewis Carroll notwithstanding, the fact that the government has “said it thrice” does not make an allegation true.

Priceless!

The reference is to Lewis Carroll’s Hunting of the Snark:

“Just the place for a Snark!” the Bellman cried,
As he landed his crew with care;
Supporting each man on the top of the tide
By a finger entwined in his hair.

“Just the place for a Snark! I have said it twice:
That alone should encourage the crew.
Just the place for a Snark! I have said it thrice:
What i tell you three times is true.”

Trashing a ridiculous argument by pointing out the similarity to a silly poem about hunting imaginary creatures. That’s more than pwned, that’s pwned in the face. I’m guessing this court heard about all those classified documents that said there were WMD in Iraq. *chortle*

As I thought about and planned my attempt to recover the highlights of my own jouney through mathematics, I wondered whether there would be anyone who might be interested in reading along. I could always just read my old textbooks if I wanted to recover the material, so it’s really only interesting to write about it if I have the possibility of an audience. Upon reflection, I decided that I really do want people to read along and, hopefully, to develop an appreciation of their own for the beauty of mathematics. I think it’s really only possible to have that audience if I assume as little as possible about previous math knowledge and start from the very beginning in a way that is as approachable as possible.

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This weekend I travelled to Watsonville, CA. to attend a memorial service for my friend, Robin Palmtag. I left San Diego around 9pm on Friday and drove through the night to attend his memorial Saturday morning. Although Robin and I never met face-to-face, I doubt it’s an exaggeration to say we spent hundreds of days together playing and talking online over the past six years. All these things were abundantly evident in spite of the physical distance between him and his online friends: his pleasant voice, his calm disposition, his generosity, his eagerness to help others, and more. The only regret I have for our friendship is that I never made the drive to see him until it was too late. His family has my sincere condolences for their loss.

He was 51 years old.

Rest in peace, my friend.

One of the reasons that I wanted to start this blog–perhaps even the primary reason–was to talk about mathematics and how I made the transition from mildly math-phobic to mathematician. I’d like to be able to take those who care to read such posts on a journey through the fundamental theorems of arithmetic, algebra and calculus. What’s more is that I’d like to do it in a way that doesn’t require a lot of previous knowledge about math to follow along.

There are a lot of reasons why math would be a reason for me to blog. One of them is that I have some very specific ideas about the pedagogy of mathematics and why so many people leave primary and secondary school with so many hangups about math and such a paucity of mathematical skill and knowledge. Another is that I enjoyed my journey through undergraduate mathematics so much that I’d like to take another trip past the now-familiar “landmarks” of major results and theorems. A third reason is that it gives me a chance to solidify the ideas in my own thinking as I ponder the right ways to explain them to non-mathematicians.

One reason that isn’t a reason to study or talk about math is “what it’s used for.” I’d go so far as to say that I hate that expression. There’s no use for climbing mountains. You climb a mountain to test your will and endurance, and to enjoy the view from the top. You get a different perspective of the world from a high place. Mathematics is like that for me. I exercise my brain, test my will to comprehend difficult concepts, and enjoy the broadened understanding of the world of numbers that I experience in the high places of math.

I aim to climb that mountain again–at a leisurely pace–and anyone who cares to read my posts is welcome to follow along.

It’s not every day that I can say–and mean–that I’m fed up and won’t take any more. The Bush administration and their enablers in Congress have brought me to that point. The House vote last week to continue the Bush administration’s brand of fascism was the final proof that both parties are broken. Possibly irreparably so.

It’s now all but guaranteed that the Senate will vote to approve the House bill and the “FISA Bill” will be signed into law. They’ve tried to sell it as a bipartisan compromise that will ensure the liberty of US citizens while keeping our nation safe. It is not. It is an evisceration of our 4th Amendment right against unreasonable search and seizure of our “persons, houses, papers, and effects.” The Constitution guarantees our right to be free of searches unless we are suspected of a crime and a lawful warrant is issued. Once this bill becomes law, our communications and electronic “papers and effects” will be preemptively preemptively searched and then the government will decide if we are suspected of a crime.

It turns the rule of law on its head. It rolls back the protections that were enacted after the Nixon administration was caught spying on innocent Americans during the Watergate scandal.

There are a few brave souls who are still trying to prevent this from happening. One of them is Senator Dodd from Connecticut. Here is a link to his passionate and powerful speech in the Senate on this topic. I wish Senator Feinstein had his (metaphorical) stones. Or Senator Boxer. Or even the House Rep from my district, Brian Bilbray.

Only ONE Republican in the House voted against this horrible, fascist bill. Only ONE Republican stood up for the 4th Amendment rights of his constituents: Tim Johnson of Illinois.

I’m not just going to complain about this, though. I’m done with the Republican Party. I refuse to be associated with or vote for the party of torture, illegal spying on Americans and all the other crap they have pulled over the last eight years. It has become clear to me that they are bankrupt of morals and ideals and have brought us nothing but war, deficits and erosion of our Constitutional protections. This goes against pretty much every aspect of the image I’ve had of myself and my politics, but this is just too important to lay down and let Bush and his Congressminions have their way.

I’ll be making a donation to the ACLU and finding out what I can do to help Nick Leibham oust Congressman Bilbray. It’s time to donate a little time and money to make things better instead of just being pissed about how things are.

I waxed nostalgic this month and added Journey and Boston to my music collection. I had forgotton how good 70s arena rock could be. I also (finally) replaced a Social Distortion album that I loaned out at some point and never got back. Their cover of Ring of Fire is good times.

This week I picked up the new Alanis Morissette album. I have to say that I like it more than anything she’s done since Jagged Little Pill. Her style has certainly evolved–her latest sound is like a cross between her older music and Goldfrapp’s Supernature.

The last artist to mention isn’t new at all, but I’ve somehow lived under a rock so long that I had never heard of Stacey Kent. Her album Close Your Eyes from back in 1997 is nice vocal jazz. She covers ten old jazz songs and has a very appealing voice.

One of the members of my team had his girlfriend take pictures of the race. I’ve included some good before and after, plus a few of the course itself. You can see more in my Picasa album.

Well, I got really sick the week before last. I had a double whammy ear plus throat infection that really knocked me on my butt. I used my recovery time to play through Bioshock and Call of Duty 4. Both were outstanding, but it would have been nice to enjoy them without needing them to distract me from my misery.

No sooner did I get done being sick than I needed to take a business trip to Virginia. I got back around 11pm on Thursday and spent the day resting on Friday for….

The World Famous Mud Run at Camp Pendleton.

In spite of the fact that I have not run much more than a mile in, say, a decade, I did pretty well. Our team finished the 10K race through rivers, up hills, over tire obstacles, walls and through mud pits in a little under two hours. They want $35 each for the official pix (crazy talk!), so I’ll post some of the ones our team took as soon as they get passed around.

I am tired and sore.

I’m enjoying the Cisco class I’m taking this week, but the hours are killing me. The class is a tuition reimbursement thing instead of paid training, so we all have to put in our usual 80 hours for the pay period on top of the 40 hours for the class. This whole week, I’m in the office from 6am till 7-8pm. Yuck.