Since getting that fitness watch, it has been plaguing me with a certain metric:
VO2 max
Apparently this is a metic of how efficient you are at using oxygen while you are exercising. The first time I used the device, it said I has the cardio-vascular system of a 54 year old (ouch!). I have been working hard at getting this thing to read closer to my actual age and after a week of jogging on the beach, I finally got out of the "poor" range and I've gotten my cardio-vascular system to be only one year older than I actually am...
Goal: get it to say I am younger than I am (after all, my mental image of myself is of a 17 year old!)
On the left, two former students honeymooning in Corsica.
On the right, Ton-Ton and Ta-Ta.
I know that restaurant well - one of Irene's favorite locations (on the beach near the winery!).
I have often wished that I had started blogging earlier (or, full disclosure, that blogs had been invented earlier) so that I could have documented many things in my life with fidelity, unblurred by the passage of years.
I used to travel a lot and I used to (in my mid-to-late 20's) jog recreationally. I love to run on beaches and have often thought that I should have documented the where's and when's. Since my bro recently got me started again, I have a recent entry from the recent family vacation:
(imagine if I had had this device all those years ago!)
My original jog-on-the-beach is, of course, in Corsica (begin 1994):
Also while visiting relatives, Cannes (1996?):
Visting ND @UCSD (1995?):
All the rest are while on assignment for Visctotek (circa 1998):
Mexico:
Malasia:
The only time I wore shoes (that beach was rough!): India:
There are probably others, but these are places and events that I can recall clearly. I have been to many other beaches and have jogged many other times, but the intersection of the two is limited!
I am a straight white male raised in Alabama in the 70’s and 80’s. Needless to say, I heard (even participated) in racists and sexists jokes. My friends and family were all progressive and there was no question that all races were equal, that men and women were equal, and that homosexual and heterosexual were equal as well. (there was no awareness of the concept of being trans at that time in my world). However, having this intellectual conceit gave us all a free pass in a way. “Well, I did laugh at that racist/misogynistic/homophobic joke – but, I’m a progressive voter and don’t personally discriminate. Besides, the joke was funny, right?”
(Thanks to student BH for introducing me to this gem)
I knew there was something wrong with the systemic racism and misogyny but it was simply in the air we all breathed. The homophobia wasn’t as clearly wrong in my mind until a friend joined some version of the gay-straight alliance in college and started to school me. Then, one of my best friends came out as gay to me when I was a junior at Purdue (1991). Around me, very slowly, society was also changing and it became less acceptable to make discriminatory or objectifying remarks and jokes. These changes were invisible to me, but in retrospect I can actually recall the last racist joke told by a friend that went unremarked on by me (1993 Pittsburgh). From that time, I also recall the last time I made a sexist observation without any self-awareness. (I had assumed the one girl in our physics graduate class was in the wrong room or had a different role from my own on orientation day).
Fast forward to marrying Irene (an ABC, “American Born Chinese”) and us having two beautiful “halfie” kids. My good politics and bubble of white privilege making my ride through life painless. Meanwhile, Irene tells me what it means to be a “Model Minority.” She also gives me a great litmus test for racism in general since Americans have been sensitized to racism against black people: simply repeat the phrase/joke/idea with the minority group replaced with the word “black people” and see how it sounds to your ear…
Meanwhile, I experience workshops about anti-racist teaching which I can easily dismiss as being overly-accusatory, or irrelevant to the teaching of physics, or “for-others-who-don’t-get-it-like-I-do”. A whole lot of noise about some issues that society is slowly taking care of anyway (n.b. that Barack Obama fella!). One workshop activity hits me hard though: Choose four words that define the core of your current identity and write them on the corners of a piece of paper. Now fold them down and tear one off at random. See what’s missing and try to imagine going a day without acknowledging that aspect of yourself. My torn-off corner said “Father” and I was distraught at the thought of suppressing that part of me. Oh, they went and got some empathy out of this self-confident, mediocre white guy (one of Irene’s favorite expressions: “Oh, to have the confidence of a mediocre white man”) with that trick!
Then Trump happened and we all became meta about race and gender issues. Irene had me read “So you want to talk about race?” and my teenage halfie daughter comes home from school and explains non-binary identities and all kinds of 21stcentury stuff to me. At school, I have a growing confidence now to address issues of race and gender with students. Even to apply my trademark humor style to try and diffuse a situation. Tell stories about being in a multicultural family and raising biracial kids.
It’s almost enough to make me buy a pack of Virginia Slims and light up in celebration:
Just read this piece in the Atlantic ("Better Schools Won't Fix America" by Nick Hanauer) and it sounds like some rich people may finally be getting the right idea about which comes first, the cart or the horse. Rather than opening charter schools and increasing teacher accountability and student testing, I've been arguing for years that you lead with economic policies rather than educational policies (see blog post here, book review here, blog on lack of STEM crisis here).
image from the Atlantic article
Great quotes from the article:
"We have confused a symptom—educational inequality—with the underlying disease: economic inequality. Schooling may boost the prospects of individual workers, but it doesn’t change the core problem, which is that the bottom 90 percent is divvying up a shrinking share of the national wealth." "...multiple studies have found that only about 20 percent of student outcomes can be attributed to schooling, whereas about 60 percent are explained by family circumstances—most significantly, income. Now consider that, nationwide, just over half of today’s public-school students qualify for free or reduced-price school lunches, up from 38 percent in 2000. Surely if American students are lagging in the literacy, numeracy, and problem-solving skills our modern economy demands, household income deserves most of the blame—not teachers or their unions." "The job categories that are growing fastest, moreover, don’t generally require a college diploma, let alone a STEM degree. According to federal estimates, four of the five occupational categories projected to add the most jobs to the economy over the next five years are among the lowest-paying jobs: “food preparation and serving” ($19,130 in average annual earnings), “personal care and service” ($21,260), “sales and related” ($25,360), and “health-care support” ($26,440)."
Yesterday, I noticed our electrical meter had zeroed out. Here's a picture of the reading this morning (after some night-time usage of electricity):
Only 3 KWhrs used in three years!
So, in the three years since we had our solar panels installed, we have been a net-zero electric household! (In July 2016 a new meter (reading zero) was installed that counts down anytime we send electrical power back into the grid).
(When it goes below zero, it doesn't read negative like it should, instead it rolls over and counts down from 99999 which kind of freaked me out the first time because I was worried the electric company was going to charge us for a MASSIVE use of electricity that month (turns out they just give us a credit on their bill)).
Teaching high school physics and trying to teach astronomy.
Married with two kids.
Ex-microplumber.
Ex-wine importer.
Beer Brewer. Lived in 7 states. Spent time in 19 different countries. Have bald spot - getting old.
Really three somewhat interesting books crammed into one:
-A history lesson on, the modern politics of, and an analysis of the Nobel prize (along with recommendations to make it better).
-An autobiography of the author
-A history of 20t...
Part a loose exposition of the inspiration that Jazz can take from physics and vice-verse and part an autobiography, this is an interesting read that doesn't have too much new material for anyone with a physics background. However, the p...
