Board member behavior

As a card carrying member of the ACLU I was interested in an article in the New York Times for May 24, 2006, where Stephanie Strom reported:

The American Civil Liberties Union is weighing new standards that would discourage its board members from publicly criticizing the organization's policies and internal administration.

"Where an individual director disagrees with a board position on matters of civil liberties policy, the director should refrain from publicly highlighting the fact of such disagreement," the committee that compiled the standards wrote in its proposals.

"Directors should remember that there is always a material prospect that public airing of the disagreement will affect the A.C.L.U. adversely in terms of public support and fund-raising," the proposals state.

Given the organization's longtime commitment to defending free speech, some former board members were shocked by the proposals.

I found this an interesting spin on what would be a standard orientation speech for new board members of any American corporation. A board member has a duty of loyalty to a board to argue for the principles and opinions they hold to be in the best interests of the organization. Board members then vote on particular actions or positions taken. Once the vote is taken, a board member is expected to support the board's policy and business decisions and management in carrying out these decisions and demonstrate a strong commitment to the corporation, not publicly air their disagreement with that position. If a board member cannot in good conscience accept the consensus vote of the board, they have the duty to resign from the board - at which time they can be as public as they wish about the reason for their leaving.

I have heard this described several times for boards of non-profit organizations that I've worked for or participate in and I'm sure that it is the accepted policy at the New York Times board. This method of governance is in stark contrast with public legislative bodies where no member feels bound to support the position established by majority vote except where it actually becomes a governing law or regulation.

Unfortunately, with these guidelines, a lone dissenter on a board can feel frustrated and unable to make a difference. I've read some of the dissenting opinions from the board members of the ACLU and think many of them have merit. They seem to want the ACLU to stick to original founding principles rather than play politics or emphasize fund raising.

Maybe there's some middle position that would be better for all concerned. I'm thinking of something like the Supreme Court where the majority opinion rules but there is also a chance for the minority to express their opinion. Board member dissenters might be less tempted to publicly air their differences if those differences are publicly stated with the majority decision.

Travelogue vs Fond Memories scrapbook

Between my high school Junior and Senior years, I was able to participate in an educational bus trip which made a round trip from central Utah through the southern states to Florida, up the coast to upstate New York and then approximating the Mormon Trail west back to Utah. I just finished scanning the slides I took on that trip and was I ever disappointed. There were 80 pictures in the collection of which maybe half of which are properly exposed and focused. Of those half are of buildings, monuments, cityscapes, etc. with nothing to distinguish them from commercial photos of the same thing except that they have no artistic value, aren't straight shots, or are cluttered with unnecessary junk. So maybe 20 of the pictures I took have any value at all - not a very good batting average.

Now, granted, I was using the family camera and probably hadn't taken all that many pictures before. I could have used a roll of film to practice on. Cameras that we could afford in the early 60's weren't automatic in focusing or light metering. But the biggest problem with the pictures is the selection of the subject and composition of the picture. And these depend on the purpose of the picture series. If it is to be a travelogue you take pictures of monuments, streets, buildings, etc. and leave out familiar people (strangers are okay). If it is to be for remembrance you should get lots of familiar people in the photos. And try to catch them doing things representative of daily life such as eating, goofing off, sleeping, etc.

Even though it might be perfectly focused and exposed, a picture of the beach at Miami isn't any different from 100's of similar pictures. It has virtually zero value.

Add a couple of fellow travelers and it suddenly becomes a treasure.

A photo of colonial Williamsburg such as this might be interesting to compare to how it is now

but a photo of me and a friend in the stocks there is much more interesting.

And finally a series of shots at the end of our journey show what we really looked like, hair curlers & all and

how we held morning devotionals right by the bus.

The scenery, the monuments, the beaches can be photographed by anybody but a picture of the peoople can only be caught by someone there at the moment.

I certainly wish now that all 80 of these pictures had been taken of my fellow bus travelers 46 years ago. Oh, and by the way, as usual if you click on any of the pictures you'll be able to see an enlarged version and maybe even be able to tell which one of the group is me.

Changing Christmas traditions

As our family continues to grow (13 grandchildren and 1 on the way) there comes a time when you have to change traditions to keep things balanced and fair and workable. Our six children and their spouses have been really good about giving presents to each other in a way that doesn't overly burden any family. Each couple gives to one other couple with the recipient and givers changing each year in rotation. That also keeps them from returning their gift to the same couple they got it from the previous year.

However, giving to the couple AND their children becomes somewhat of a problem when some couples have no children and others have four. So it has been decided that this year we would start a tradition of the grandchildren drawing a name to give to.

Since you all couldn't be present for the drawing we took pictures so you'd know it really happened.

Grandma prepared the name slips and put them in a pie tin.

Then she drew the names while

Grandpa listed them on the computer and sent out an email for everyone to know who they were giving to and getting from.

It turned out really well this first time around with no one giving a gift to his/her sister or brother and no two kids giving to each other. We originally suggested $5 to $10 but the feedback we're getting indicates it should be more like $10 to $15. We're hopeful that it will work out well this way and the tradition can continue for a few years at least.

Lunch time skateboarders

If I take in all the offerings of the Renaissance Society at Sac State, I have to either take or buy my lunch sometime around noon. The last couple of weeks I've taken my lunch so that I could eat outside on the Library Quad and enjoy the sights and sounds of the students.

This Friday I was treated to a show as this young may demonstrated again and again how he could make that skateboard fly. I've never been able to figure out how the rider can make the board jump two feet in the air when his feet are simply standing on the board. But as you can see in the following pictures, he makes the whole jump look effortless and ordinary.

Coming into the picture on your left.

Levitating with the skateboard in tow.

Rolling on the cement platform for about 10 feet.

Turning.


Dismounting.


And back on the ground again.

However, things did not always go as smoothly as he'd have liked. The kid usually caught himself and rarely went down like this. You'll notice, however, that he is wearing no protective gear at all.

Dental computer

I had my teeth cleaned this morning. George, my dental hygienist, picked up my chart from the reception area and directed me back to the chair he was using today. He asked me to sit and when I was comfortable, he clipped a napkin around my neck then lowered the back of the chair. He directed the light onto my mouth and picked up his tools to begin inspecting my teeth. He then did something I had never seen or heard of before except in science fiction movies. He said, "Computer, listen". I was astounded. I was impressed.

For the next 2 to 3 minutes as he checked the gum pockets around each of my teeth, he called out numbers such as 2, 2 to 3, 2 to 4, 4, 2, etc. Every once in a while he would call out a tooth number such as "tooth #9". I kept expecting a reply by the computer like "Yes, master George" but it never came. Finally, George said, "Computer, exam save. Computer, sleep."

At previous visits, George has measured my gum pockets and called out the numbers but it has always been an assistant who has written them down, a human assistant. Then someone, either George or the assistant, had to input the numbers into the medical record. This time, thanks to voice recognition software integrated with the medical record system, the entries went in directly. George said he really liked it.

As we finished up and George suggested that we get together in 4 months, he made the appointment right there rather than having the receptionist involved. It felt a little more personal and didn't take much of his time. He also gets a feel for how business is going as he looks over the upcoming appointments.

I've been very impressed with this dental practice and highly recommend Arden Oaks to anyone in the northeast Sacramento area.

Recycled lizard

I was really startled the other day when I was taking the recycling trash out to the curb. Before I do that, I try to gather in all the recycling trash from around the house into the green bin by our back door. I was startled to see this little fellow looking up at me. I don't have any idea what he could subsist on in that green bin. Maybe he was just looking for a little snack.

Not so endearing was a black spider I saw in our sandpile as I was covering it up with the frame covers we have. It looked like it had a bright red marking on its abdomen although I couldn't tell if it was an hourglass shape. Needless to say, I sprayed the area with "death to spiders" spray and hope that the grandkids won't meet up with the same kind of spider.

Dozens of bibles

Do you have trouble understanding the 17th century English of the King James Bible? Do you like to compare translations of literary works? Do you speak or read a language other than English? Then you might want to check out Biblegateway.

In doing some research on the Internet I stumbled across this wonderful link which has 98 versions of the Bible in 44 different languages, such as Norwegian, Swahili, or Malayalam. That should be enough to satisfy almost anyone's thirst for the Bible. It also has a good search engine for locating specific words or topics.

Banned Books Week

You didn't think I would let this one go by, did you? I keep a list of the 100 most frequently challenged books in the USA for 1990-1999 (I guess that's the most recent one that the American Library Association has compiled) so that whenever I feel I haven't checked out enough interesting books, I can go online and reserve a "banned" book.

But isn't book banning a thing of the past? you ask. Well, according to the American Library Association:

"If you think book bannings don't happen in America anymore, think again. In 2006 alone, 546 books were challenged or banned in U.S. public libraries and schools - and those are just the ones that are reported to ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF). We estimate that only 20-25% of all challenges are reported to the ALA or reported in the media."

There's little organized bans on books above the local level but there is a great deal of individual action. Books that are deemed offensive are "borrowed" from libraries or schools and then never returned. Of course many people file formal complaints with the governing authorities who will unilaterally remove the offending book from circulation or strike it from a school reading list. But Americans in general react strongly to acts of censorship and such actions are usually reversed when publicized enough.

So take a look at a banned books list and decide to read at least one book on the list in the coming week. And enjoy your freedom to read!

How to talk with a blogger

Tiffany has made a significant comment on the September 18, 2007 post. I originally thought I'd answer with another comment but no one is going to go back that far to read our comments and besides my answer got so large, I thought it deserved it's own post.

One of the things that used to bug me about old people is that they would tell you the same thing several times. I used to think that was because they thought we wouldn't remember unless they repeated things several times. Now that I am an "old people" I know that isn't the case. We simply can't remember who we talked to when and what we said. And it isn't limited to extended family or work colleagues or strangers. I'll tell Carolyn about my day when she gets home and 4 hours later I can't remember if I've told her about my day.

So reading this blog doesn't exempt you from hearing about things again and again. Nor does it mean you'll hear about everything that is going on. I find lots and lots of things simply not blog-worthy. But reading the blog does give you an edge up when we do get together because you have some idea of what has been going on in my life and in my head. Sort of like reading an author's book before you interview him, you have some conversation starting points. And I NEVER take offense when someone stops me in mid-sentence with the comment, "Yes, I read about that in your blog." I may say something like, "But that wasn't the half of it! I didn't dare go into the details of ....."

I love face to face communication. Seeing the other person's face gives you a lot of instant feedback so that you can modify what you're saying or how you're saying it. And we can talk much faster than we can type on a computer keyboard. But face to face has severe limitations, too. You both have to be available at the same time. You're limited to 3 to 5 people for a meaningful conversation. You are expected to respond with well thought out answers and comments in a short time. No one is taking minutes so there's a great loss of information about the discussion and probably a significant number of misunderstandings, which may or may not be important depending on the topic of the conversation.

One last thing I want to comment on about Tiffany's post was her comment that I am "checking up on" you, the blog readers. I want to make it clear that I have no capability of doing that. I get a report of the Internet Service Providers that have connected with my blog but unless you have a unique Service Provider, that doesn't tell me much. Unless you leave a comment with your name on it or tell me that you've read my blog, I can't tell or find out. I can only tell how many people have looked at the blog.

So please read my blog but don't do it out of duty or because of guilt. And I'm even happy to get critical feedback like Tiffany gave me. Thank you all for reading my blog. And yes, I get notified about any comment no matter how old the post being commented on.

Track changes on a blog

People who make it a practice to visit several blogs on a more or less regular basis usually do this in one of two ways. The simplest is to visit each blog every day or every other day. Well, now, on blogs such as mine this is probably best since I've been a fairly regular poster. If you check in every day you're likely to see a new post. If not, then the next day you're likely to see two posts.

But what about those blogs where the posting is very erratic - every day for a week then nothing for two weeks, then a 5 day break, a 3 day break, 4 posts on the next day... You get my drift. For these blogs I find the best thing for this is a blog tracker. A good one that I use is http://www.blogarithm.com/ It's free and easy to use. You have to register with a username and password. Then it's as simple as copying and pasting the URL (address) of the blog you want to track onto the blogarithm form. I don't know if there's a limit but it is probably bigger than the number of blogs you want to keep track of.

Power when you need it

Recently Carolyn said to me as she was leaving for work, "Arnold, could you keep an eye out for the keys to the red rocket?" (Red Rocket is her name for the Honda Civic that Steven deeded back to us when they bought Richard's old pickup truck. I had such a busy day that I barely thought about the missing keys, let alone actually look for them or find them.

When Carolyn got home, I asked if she had looked in the car itself although I could think of no reason to drop keys in there. Going out to the Civic with a flashlight and my keys, we quickly discovered that she had indeed left the keys in the Civic... in the ignition switch ... with the switch turned to Accessories. She managed to drain the battery completely.

Fortunately, I thought, we have these battery power packs so we don't need to use jumper cables. I pressed the power check on each of these backup batteries and got no reading on the most recently purchased power pack and barely a flicker on the other, older one.

Fortunately, Carolyn could make do with the white van instead of the red rocket so we could plug in the power packs. After charging overnight, they were up to starting the Honda's engine which could then charge up the original battery.

I guess the moral to this story is that even backup batteries aren't very helpful if you don't keep them charged. Or maybe the moral is, keep more than one backup battery even if one of them is inside another car.

Speaking of Faith - book review

Krista Tippett, who wrote Speaking of Faith, must be an extraordinary person. She is able to speak and write about a highly sensitive topic with very opinionated people who are not used to their opinions being questioned and still come off sounding like a mild-mannered reporter or, even better, a good friend. For those familiar with the PBS series "Speaking of Faith" this will not be news nor will Ms. Tippett be unfamiliar as she has written, hosted, and produced this series intermittently from 2000 and weekly since 2003.

With this book Tippett appears to want to lower the temperature of the whole debate around religion, especially the fundamentalist flavor, while raising the visibility of spiritual needs and resources. The book is peppered with humor and insight. For example she writes, "I define a fundamentalist as anyone who not only has the answers for himself, but has them for the rest of us, too." Later in the book she explains that "There is a profound difference between someone saying 'This is THE truth', and hearing someone say 'This is MY truth'. It is easy to disagree with the opinion or doctrine of another but much more difficult to disagree with his experience. Thus, Tippett spends a lot of time on experiences and little on dogma.

She points out the vast differences in how different religions came to be and how impossible or impractical it is to apply the template of, say, western Christianity to, say, mid-eastern Islam. We know little of Christ except from the Bible and his history is hundreds of years prior to Mohammad. What we know of Christ centers almost entirely around a 3 year ministry followed by his brutal death at the hands of the Roman empire (albeit with encouragement of the ranking Jews). Mohammad, on the other hand, is documented by the Quran as a husband, father, prophet, general, friend, poet, in short -human. "Proof texting" an irritating but well-worn practice in Christianity, is new to Islam, says Tippett.

Rather than separate religions and ideologies between liberal and conservative or radical and moderate, Tippett sorts them our into the categories Mean and not-Mean and most of us have no trouble knowing what she means. One of my favorite quotes from the book which Tippett quotes from Yassi Klein Halwvi: "You can't outhate a fundamentalist. He will win."

An excellent book if just for the calming and reassuring spirit it evokes. You CAN be religious and faithful without stirring up hatred and starting World War III. I'm going to have to watch the PBS series of the same name to see if it is as good.

When will I die?

We've all given some thought to this question, haven't we? I was thinking about it a little more than usual recently because I had been looking over the idea of buying a pre-paid cremation funereal. There are at least two active cremation centers in Sacramento so I was trying to see if there was a significant difference between them. But that's another story.

In my Internet wanderings that day I came across a Real Age and Longevity Calculator that is sponsored by Poodwaddle, a web portal company. To use this calculator you simply enter your age and then slide a control button up and down in response to a couple dozen questions such as the one pictured here.

The end result shows your "real age" and estimated longevity. It's always nice to see the latter number larger than the first. And in this case much larger. As you can see, this calculator shows that I'm over 6 years younger than the calendar says and I'll last another 20 years or more. Try the calculator and see what it says for you.

New rain gauge

There comes a time in a product's life when it just isn't worth keeping it. Our old rain gauge has seen it's last rainy season. If you click on the picture and look at a magnified view of the old rain gauge (on the left) you will see that the plastic is barely transparent now. This made it really difficult to see how much rain had fallen even if we put coloring in the water.

And speaking of visibility, the old gauge used the top of the rain collected as the measuring line and an inch of rain meant pretty close to an inch of water in the gauge. The new gauge has an orange float that will rise with the water. Also, the top is like a magnifying glass in that water which falls inside a collecting funnel 96 mm in diameter but then drops into a tube considerably smaller. Since the tube is 46 mm in diameter, an inch of rain doesn't raise the float by just 1 inch. It raises it by more than 4 times 1 inch. Can you figure out exactly how many inches it would raise?

Another countdown

The other night we had Edward, Tiffany, and the boys over for after-dinner desert with Steven and Lisa. The boys were really hyper, like they had something to tell us but couldn't. Finally they blurted out something that made no sense to us, or at least to me. Seeing our frustration, Tiffany said, "Well, we thought you should know that you're expecting another grandchild."

What a surprise! We knew that Ed and Tiffany have been talking about another baby but they were having trouble figuring out where in their busy career schedules another baby would fit. With Tiffany having just gotten her B.S. degree and having just been accepted into a two year graduate program in Speech Therapy, it looked like it would be at least 2 years away. On the other hand, the clock is ticking both for her and the rest of the family. They were concerned about the new baby fitting in with the family and not be 10 years younger than the older boys. I think they finally decided that there was no "perfect" time to have a baby. Children rarely come at "convenient" times. So they decided to leave it to God's will, fate, luck, or whatever you believe in. And it didn't take long for "it" to happen. Tiffany says she's not been sick yet and hopes this pregnancy will be different from her previous ones.

They're already discussing names even though the little one will not make his/her appearance until late Spring next year. I believe they're trying to construct a name out of pieces of names significant to the family sort of like what they did for Tim's middle name which is made from the first initials of four men in the family.

So congratulations are in order for Ed and Tiff.

Apple Hill adventure

With Steven and Lisa in town, we decided we'd make an early trip to Apple Hill. It isn't REALLY early since many of the apple ranches open up to the public the week before Labor Day. But it seemed earlier in the season than we usually get there.

We picked a perfect day! The sky was cloudy and it was drizzling when we pulled into the parking lot at High Hill Ranch. Nothing like a little drizzle to keep the tourists away. It stopped drizzling a few minutes later and, although we weren't very warm, we stayed dry for the rest of our excursion.

Apple Hill had the usual assortment of artistic vendors but our first stop was at a hat makers booth where both Carolyn and Lisa selected and bought hats to keep their ears warm while making the perfect fashion statement. I selected a couple of belts at the next booth. Losing weight does have some associated costs.

Carolyn also found a necklace she really liked, made out of a 1949 silver dollar that had been gold plated in places and carved out in other places.

Before having our lunch and leaving for home, Carolyn picked a few apples (the easy way).

We also dropped into the Fudge Factory where this magnificent chocolate carousel horse reigns over the front lobby. Makes your mouth water just to think about it.

Dark Cosmos - book review

Dark Cosmos, In Search of our Universe's Missing Mass and Energy by Dan Hooper is one of those books that I read with wonder and excitement while understanding about 10% of the content. It's not the author's fault either. There have just been so many changes in physics since I was in college that I keep trying to apply my old knowledge to these new ideas and coming up short.

According to Hooper, observations of our universe indicate that about 70% of the mass and energy that should be observable is energy that has not been detected. Scientists are calling this "dark energy". A majority of the remaining 30% of the universe is "dark matter", so-called again because it has not been detected. While there are some candidates for dark matter such as the neutrino, there is only speculation about how the dark energy can exist undetected.

Hooper does claim that "skepticism is one of the most important qualities a scientist can have". Since the existence of dark matter and dark energy depends upon our observations and the current theory of gravity, it may be that that theory needs to be modified in certain cosmological situations. In fact, one group has done that with a theory called MOdified Newtonian Dynamics, or MOND for short. This theory comes closer to predicting no dark matter or energy but does not eliminate them.

It's exciting to read about the latest developments in cosmology, especially with a writer who can write about such things in very understandable terms.

Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast - book review

My heart sank as I saw the book on the New Books shelf at the library. Someone had used the title I thought I'd use someday for a book I hadn't even started to think about. The title Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast by Lewis Wolpert refers, of course, to the conversation between Alice and the White Queen in "Alice Through the Looking Glass". The White Queen has just been telling Alice that it isn't that hard to believe impossible things but it does take some practice. The Queen then says by way of boasting a little, "Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."

These days when we're asked to take so much on faith, from weapons of mass destruction in Iraqi hands to non-political firings directed (or not directed) from the White House, it is important to consider what exactly does belief consist of and why are some things more easy to believe and some people easier to convince.

Wolpert has written a fascinating book that would be even more fascinating if it were organized and edited better. Although he has a topic for each chapter, some of the subchapters are more important than several whole chapters. The entire chapter on health, for example, is a rambling discussion about anecdotal medicine and how little science was used to improve medicine until just the last 100 years. And how, even now, there is as much spent on non-scientific "cures" than on ones developed or proven effective by science. He claims that cultures want reasons and causes but not necessarily truth or reliability.

Wolpert would have us believe that believing is a necessary trait that evolution selected for as humans began to use tools. Belief in cause and effect allowed humans (or proto-humans) to build complex tools and design complex cultures because of their ability to believe, to see the end result from the beginning inputs. Animals, he claims, have little or no such ability. Wolpert's case would be stronger if he didn't himself admit that his "analysis is speculative and my evidence weak".

The book tells us that it is somewhat of a fortunate accident that the Greeks invented science as a method for getting and proving causal effects thus giving human belief systems something better to use than trial and error. The latter works but approximately at the same pace as evolution.

I would like to see Wolpert team up with Richard Dawkins or Daniel Dennett to develop a really good book about the evolutionary origins of belief.

Horowitz Accuses UCSC Of Being Too Un-American

I've been accused of being a communist sympathizer because my kids went to UC Berkeley. Now it looks like I should have been more worried about my youngest son who decided to go to that hotbed of liberalism UC Santa Cruz. Of course, how many political lectures he would have gotten in Chemistry is a whole 'nother question.

Go banana slugs!

A happy grandchild

Nothing says "I love you" better than a picture unless it is a video clip of a grandson laughing. Gavin is only 4 months old but already has discovered the way to worm himself into grandpa's heart. Here you hear Philip, his father, talking to him in Japanese while his mom Jenny patiently holds little Gavin. Do you think Philip might be telling a good joke?