Like 3rd Grade Recess

We all know 3rd grade recess is a mix of bullies and nice kids.  The bullies are loud and destructive. The nice kids share their silly bands with you and teach you how to climb to the top of the monkey bars.  In the world of US politics right now, the loud bullies are the pundits on TV.  The louder and more obnoxious they are, the more people watch and the more ratings they get.  They’re not interested in civil discourse.

And there are the nice kids, quietly building the community, obeying the rules, and making the playground an enjoyable place to be.  In the world of politics, no one can hear them above the screech of the bullies.

We wonder why Congressional and Presidential confidence is only in the 30ies.  But everyone’s listening to the bullies.  Think how much confidence you’d have in your security if the nice kids were always getting beat up (I’m assuming you’re a nice kid).

Well, anyways, here’s a group of people who are hard at work building a snow fort and avoiding the bullies.  Let’s wish them success in taking down the bullies.  They have a website: http://www.fiscalcommission.gov/meetings and their last meeting is straight out of nice kid parties 101.  But if you’re rooting for the nice guy, and you’re tired of the bully – it’s a good watch.

Coworking Say What?

Rights of Way is a local Portland blog that does a great job of capturing local pedestrian and public space issues.  In the latest post, they show a developer’s plan to update the old Binga’s Wingas block with a new coworking building.

Coworking offers an alternative to individuals who would normally work at home.  They get some people interaction plus shared resources – copier, wifi. 

I Like to Draw … but This Guy Really Likes to Draw

Drawing aside, there’s some really cool nuggets of knowledge in this little video.  Are you present hedonistic, past negative, past positive, or future oriented?

This will Change our World

Hello Hal.

Hello Mugaz reader.

Imagine a scenario where your computer knows who you are and can answer any question you ask. Think it's 100 years in the future?

Think again. IBM has developed Watson, a computer which can compete against past winners in Jeopardy! And it's not doing poorly. In fact, it can take the Jeopardy question "A ‘Green Acres’ star goes existential (& French) as the author of ‘The Fall" and return Who is Eddie Albert Camus. Not in minutes, and not like Google which returns similar pages where you might find the answer. You get the answer in seconds. The potential for this is enormous, and if you want to know what the future looks like, read this article.

And then there's the Kinect, the soon to be release Microsoft gaming system which recognizes faces (and motions of players). It can log you into your system and queue up your world without you ever entering a password.

What this means is that in the not-too-distant future, you'll be able to logon to a computer and have the computer recognize you. It will bring up your medical history and combine it with all of its knowledge on symptoms and probabilities of your condition, then render a diagnosis on the spot. Add Netflix-like shipping of medications, and the doctor is the next horse and buggy. And this isn't science fiction.

In 1981 Time named the computer the machine of the year and it was no mystery what was about to change us in the 1980s. I suspect Watson should be this years' machine of the year, for he will certainly change our world.