Weather extremes seem an experience many of us now share. A year ago we were in the middle of a drought followed by a winter that wasn’t. Many days with record high temperatures. Now, the midwest has experienced so much rain with widespread flooding. Our own situation is summarized in the following graph. This is the second-highest year for precipitation (second line) which would possible have been the overall record if the winter had produced more snow.
Sometimes there are upsides. I like gardening. The frequent rains and reasonable temperatures have been perfect for getting our garden up and thriving. The following image is our new addition. It is called a garden tower. What you cannot see is the tube that runs down the middle of the tower. This tube holds worms that turn vegetable matter into compost that both feeds the garden and can be collected at the bottom of the tower to use elsewhere. It is amazing how quickly plants in the garden grow and produce a wide variety of vegetables.
The recent decisions of the NCAA concern me. Where will the money for college atheletes come from and what will not be supported as money moves in this direction?
“The financial hit for athletic departments, especially among power conferences, will be exorbitant. The NCAA will take on a lion’s share of the cost via reserves, insurance and budget cuts, but the schools themselves are still on the hook. According to documents obtained by Yahoo Sports, power-conference schools are expected to fork up as much as $30 million per year over the next 10 years to cover revenue-sharing distribution, back damages and expanded scholarship costs.”
First, it was the transfer portal and NIL and now the decision in the House vs. NCAA court case. I don’t see the present situation in college athletics as beneficial to college athletics or to colleges.
I have always been a fan of college sports. I went to the games even in some cases to watch teams from schools I did not attend or work for. The “work for” part is significant. I also spent 40 years working in higher education and 8 more as a student. Like any academic, I hear the complaints about the high cost of college. Consider this combination of economic stressors for a few minutes. Add the requirements of Title IX and you have a toxic mix of pressures each of which seems oblivious to the conflicting demands.
I worked for most of my career at the University of North Dakota. Collectively the teams of this institution won a few more games than they lost. If anyone outside the region heard of UND sports it would probably be of the dispute over the team name (Fighting Sioux now Fighting Hawks) or the perennial national contending hockey team. For a few years, it also had a great women’s hockey program which was closed down. I think I am correct is noting that 7-9 UND women hockey players played in the last olympic games. As is, college sports simply lose money. New expectations certainly will not improve this situation. It is already difficult to be loyal to a team that has mostly new faces every year. Programs have already been cut to try to stay within the earning potential of existing revenue sources and external mandates. I keep looking for a reason for optimism, but I don’t see anything.
One interesting component of the wave of Timberwolves mania sweeping Minnesota is the Naz Reid phenomenon. The Wolves don’t get a lot of national attention because of past history and the location of the team in a midwestern, small market city. The Wolves have a good deal of talent that is a mix of the experienced and the rising stars who seem to get along and take a significant role when needed.
Naz Reid has been selected as the league’s 6th man recipient for the year. He has some big games in the playoff run. All that aside, the name itself has taken on mythical properties and is now a popular tattoo and just shows up displayed in different places. The name has become a meme.
I watch nearly every Presidential debate and typically come away annoyed. I wish these events were given a different name. You may disagree and find the time spent watching a debate is informative whether you disagree or agree with my position on the label.
As a starting point, here is a my description of an actual debate:
A debate is a structured argument where two sides present their positions on a specific topic. Typically, one side supports the topic, known as the proposition or affirmative, and the other side opposes it, known as the negative. The goal is not only to present arguments but also to effectively counter the arguments of the opposing side.
I equate debate as a special case of argumentation and I have written multiple posts about the value of argumentation in an educational context. In this context, debate is an experience that develops content knowledge and critical thinking skills in the debaters/learners. It offers this impact because it depends on mastery of evidence and impromptu analysis and response to positions and rationales made by an opponent. It is about evidence and reasoning. It is about careful monitoring of the positions and supporting evidence presented by an opponent and the generation of well-reasoned and evidence-based counter-arguments. Academic debates are competitions evaluated by knowledgeable judges who consider the quality of the evidence and the logic of both the case made and the criticism of the case made by the opponent. If the public is the judge in a political debate, is the public evaluating the same characteristics?
I did debate a long time ago, but my more scholarly interest was largely influenced by the work of Deanna Kuhn who wrote a book based on her research and analysis of the literature titled “Argue With Me”. Some of her research could be described as a study of the development of argumentation skills. More immature behavior contains more of the following characteristics:
Ignoring Counterarguments: People often ignore counterarguments or opposing views. This can lead to a one-sided argument and doesn’t allow for a comprehensive discussion of the issue.
Lack of Evidence: Arguments often lack evidence or supporting information. People may make claims without backing them up with facts, data, or logical reasoning.
Personal Attacks: Instead of focusing on the issue at hand, people sometimes resort to personal attacks or ad hominem arguments. This can derail the argument and prevent a productive discussion.
Emotional Reasoning: People often let their emotions guide their arguments, rather than logical reasoning. This can lead to heated arguments that don’t necessarily lead to a resolution or understanding.
Overgeneralization: People sometimes make sweeping generalizations or absolute statements in their arguments. This can oversimplify the issue and ignore nuances or exceptions.
Straw Man Fallacy: People often misrepresent the opposing view in order to make it easier to attack. This is known as a straw man fallacy and it prevents a fair and honest discussion of the issue.
My recommendation is that you consider how frequently the content of a Presidential debate typifies such characteristics.
So, Presidential “debates” resemble the argumentation interactions of inexperienced and untrained adolescents. Instead of presenting well-structured arguments supported by evidence, candidates often resort to tactics such as personal attacks, deflection, and empty rhetoric. Given the preparation candidates spend in preparation and the expertise they can consult, it seems they are preparing for something other than an evidence-based given and take on key issues. Candidates realize it is not really a debate.
So how should we think about these televised events?
These events are less formal in structure and often adapt their format to suit television broadcasting and public interest. They usually involve timed responses to questions posed by a moderator, with opportunities for rebuttal and follow-up questions.
There are no official judges or scores. The “winner” is often determined by public opinion, media analysis, and subsequent polls rather than by a formal judging system. The objective is more about swaying voters and less about scoring technical points on argumentation. Reactions include responding to more than evidence and position, but perceived personality characteristics such as “toughness”. Accepting this as a goal of the process encourages hyperbole and personal attacks.
The content often includes broader policy discussions and can be more about appealing emotionally to voters. Candidates might focus on soundbites, personal anecdotes, or attacking their opponents rather than detailed policy exposition.
I wish this situation was not the case, but my wishes have little to do with what television and political organizations believe attracts viewers and encourages voters. It seems the process is more about motivation than education.
I don’t know how the process might be changed. I like the Democratic proposal for the two scheduled debates. Turn off the mikes when it is not one candidate’s time to speak. This might limit the interruptions, but I expect participants will yell at each other anyway. Moderators seem unable to control the process even though they try.
Politics is not my personal area of expertise so I asked Perplexity about research that evaluated the impact of Presidential debates on voting behavior. A summary of the response follows:
Presidential debates generally have a small to negligible effect on shifting voter preferences or changing election outcomes. A large-scale study across multiple countries found that debates neither helped undecided voters make up their minds nor caused voters to switch candidates. Similarly, an analysis of U.S. presidential elections from 1952-2012 found that a candidate’s standing after the debate season was best predicted by their standing before the debates.
Maybe I should quit worrying about the impact and just enjoy the show.
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I have followed the development of digital technology from the beginning. Yet, I continue to be amazed by new capabilities and services. The newest addition to this list is baller.tv.
We have 7 grandkids and all are involved in at least one sport. We attend games when we can, but there are always conflicts and distances to travel.
We first watched soccer games when parents streamed Addie’s soccer games from their iPhones. It was not really possible to see much because of the size of players in the image, but someone usually narrated what was happening so we knew when she was on the field and when someone scored.
Baller.tv is a whole other level. Sid who is in 4th grade plays AAU basketball. Watching a kid of this age playing point guard and regularly sinking 3s is pretty cool. The equipment that broadcasts these games on the Internet is sophisticated. It automatically follows the action (most of the time) and the image size is similar to watching a game on television. There is no play-by-play but you see the scoreboard and can easily follow the action. We share the video from an iPhone to our television. Sid is #43.
No, it is not a free service, but grandparents who I would guess purchase the most subscriptions can pay.
I am not certain how I feel about TikTok, but I find it frustrating that legislation to ban the site is confounded with support for Ukraine. I would prefer that decisions by informed legislators be clearly communicated and not clouded by what seems a form of bargaining. Who is trading what for what? https://apnews.com/article/tiktok-ban-congress-bill-1c48466df82f3684bd6eb21e61ebcb8d
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This is a situation I did not anticipate. We have been spending the winter in Kauai. A few days ago I started getting notifications from our security camera. The notifications were frequent. My first thought was that there had been a snowstorm and the guys who clear our driveway were doing their job. They shovel off the deck. Examining the video this was not the case. There was nothing to see.
It took me a while to figure out what was going on. The light/camera has a microphone built in so I listened for a while. Eventually, I figured out what was going on. Birds were building a nest on top of the light fixture. There is also a speaker and a siren built in. I tried yelling at the birds which seemed to have no impact. I decided not to try the siren because I was concerned about freaking out the neighbors.
I removed the nest when we returned home. No eggs were in the nest so I moved the entire thing to a nearby tree assuming the birds were watching me.
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I have titled this post a complaint and it is. The Curmuedgeonspeaks seems the appropriate location for complaints. The problem with this complaint is that it is difficult to identify a specific target. It seems more like a situation in which someone within a group should take responsibility, but everyone blames someone else.
I believe in owning my own content and this is why I rent server space to host several blogs and other content I have written. Some of this content appears elsewhere, but I want to control the original material I offer to others.
When I began putting my content online, I did this from a server that sat on my desk. For those of you who post to Facebook, X, Instagram, or some other location, this may seem surprising. How did you do that? Well, anyone can run a server and it used to be easy. I used to do a lot of workshops for educators and I would demonstrate how I could turn any Macintosh into a server in 10 minutes. This used to be easy and it is still possible. The problem is how others will find you. Most situations now make use of what is called dynamic IPs. The address (your URL) is a name that actually is useful only for being connected to an IP number (a dotted quad). At this moment I happen to connected from 166.196.68.84. The problem with dynamic IPs is that this number if assigned when you connect and it changes. So, to get my classroom demos to work, I had to distribute the dotted quad I happened to be using so the teachers do use it instead of words to connect to my temporary server. Anyway, because I worked at a University and did research with my server I was assigned a permanent IP that allowed my “address” to be worth sharing.
At some point, I began creating free content to be posted in association with textbooks I wrote and received money based on sales. So, even while free, I considered this material might be considered a conflict of interest with my university duties and I began to purchase server space from a company that provided this capability.
One thing about running your own server, you learn a lot about how things work and must take responsibility for many things. I wanted to do things beyond just posting web pages and had to develop the skills necessary to install and maintain server software, database software, and application software. This was something I had to do anyway because I wrote the applications I used in my research from scratch (sometimes with the assistance of graduate students) and taking advantage of application software is not that difficult if you already write applications. Still, there was always something to address. Any update to any of the components of the system (server, database, application) had to be applied as a change in one component may impact whether another component worked.
At some point, the hosting company I used began to make use of scripts that would take care of these installs and updates automatically. I took advantage of these scripts and that ended up being a tremendous time saver, but also the beginning of my present problems. Once you give up control and responsibility, it becomes difficult to go back. You are not exactly certain what the script has done and what you have to do to take care of your own maintenance.
So, here are some specifics. Among them is the culprit.
As I explain above, I had created a lot of free content to provide interested educators related to our textbooks, but available to anyone. This material was originally developed with a sophisticated web authoring environment (Dreamweaver). Things worked great. At some point, Dreamweaver (now owned by Adobe) decides it was going to a subscription model rather than just selling me the software and the price for access to professional tools was far more than I would really justify paying. So, I decided to switch to a content management tool (Concrete) that was open source and I could install it with a script. With a content management system, I can use a browser to work online rather than creating content on my own equipment and then uploading it. All of this kind of makes sense, but you can probably predict where this is going.
Last week, I noticed that the link to my Concrete system was no longer responding and no one could see the content. I contact Bluehost and after an hour or so, the tech person decides he cannot help me. Bluehost has always been great with support and has helped me address some issues with my blogs (WordPress applications). I was surprised there was nothing Bluehost could do after my previous experiences, but it now seems they have decided to focus mostly on WordPress installs and while the scripts are available, the script company is who you need to contact. The script company which is not who I remember being responsible for the initial install indicates that users need to contact the application developer for any assistance that is required (not something I knew was the case before). The application I am using is open source so they have a community help system which indicates the problem may be an incompatibility between the php or mysql version being run by the host and the version of the application I have installed. OK, updates are often accomplished easily with a functioning app and there is an update, but my app does not let me in so I cannot update. One suggestion the help group suggested was that I roll back the version of PHP I on the server. I am not certain I can do this and I am uncertain how it would impact the other installs I have that are working.
Lessons learned I guess. Hundreds of hours of content writing time were lost because I made the wrong assumptions. I run backups on my other apps, but I was not doing this with Concrete and I am not certain such a possibility exists. The Wayback Machine has saved some, but not all of this content. I can locate some of the content by exploring the database associated with Concrete, but the database is very complicated and getting text out is not that easy.
At least, I am left with an idea for a Curmudgeon blog post. 😉
Save your content locally.
Posted inUncategorized|Comments Off on Sad computer lesson
Trump makes the argument that a President needs total immunity to do his or her job. He uses this same phrase over and over. It is important to consider this claim carefully. Just what behaviors are covered by the phrase “his job” and importantly what behaviors are being justified based on this claim? The examples his behavior has presented is that the job of a President can involve efforts to overturn the will of the people in electing a President by way of an insurrection and by lies about what the outcome of the election determined. Next time you hear Trump’s claim try substituting different actions the term “job” supposedly allows.
Curmudgeon Speaks has received little of my attention lately. We have been spending time in Kauai and my personal blogging has been focused on my travel blog. Feel free to take a look if you miss the type of thing I would post here. I try to add some interesting information to the photos of the places we visit.
Surf warnings are part of weather shows here and everyone was put on notice to beware today and tomorrow. I have yet to figure out exactly what conditions create huge waves but this knowledge must be part of what you learn here to qualify as a meteorologist. You could tell that a front went through last night as it was colder and very windy. Wind must be part of what is predictive, but it is no longer windy today and the waves arrived as predicted. We drove to several different places to get some photos.
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