Last week we watched our grandson and one of the activities we had planned was to go around Portland in a streetcar – an experience that he has not had so far since most transportation to and from school or other activities happens by car. It was a fun and educational experience with many questions […]
The trees are waving at you Read More »
ObservationsWe have grandkid duties this week – since the school is closed for the summer. My wife developed a little program of activities that we are following. It has plenty of playtime on different beautiful playgrounds in the area. On one of these our grandson was very interested in experimenting with sound devices. They are
Missed learning opportunity Read More »
ObservationsOne of our favorite hobbies is kayaking on the Deschutes River. To simplify the logistics of a kayaking outing we usually find a launch spot, park the car and paddle upriver for as long as we can or have time for and then we turn around and let the current carry us back to where
I am listening to an audio book by Thomas Friedman “Hot, flat and crowded”. The book talks about the need for energy efficiency and conservation. One example illuminating the implementation of projects along these lines takes the listener to Indonesia, which is home of the orangutans – a species that has been decimated significantly in
Chicken and egg game Read More »
Book reflectionsBilly is the name of a dog. A little Schnauzer that, by my judgement, was still a little puppy. We saw him and his owner, a young woman, on a walk along the Willamette River. The little dog was all over the place checking things out and running crisscross on the walking path and by
This weekend we had the opportunity to watch the annual closing ceremony of a Portland dance academy. Our friends’ daughter is part of that school along with way over one hundred children and also some adults that take classes there. Some of the older kids – high school juniors and high school seniors – perform
Most recently I completed the book “The Fabric of reality” by David Deutsch. It is a challenging read. The book explains and promotes a whole new world view – anchored on several very fundamental discoveries over more than a century. It was published in 1997 – so quite a while ago. Looking at the bibliography
The way companies deal with phone inquiries has become a differentiation claimed in advertising. The ads mostly distinguish automated answering systems versus real people taking the call. I do believe that this is an area of application where artificial intelligence will eventually gain traction in the future since the scope of the activities and their
Meeting many friendly people Read More »
ObservationsAttached to an article about the very recent protests at Columbia university was a short video depicting scenes of the demonstration including the police engaging the protesters after announcing the event was not legal. While there was not too much detail to be discerned from the tussle between the police and the protesters – the
Last night I got hung up on a game show on TV – it was called “The wall”. I had never seen it before and was curious as to its schema. In essence it is a trivia show with a contraption like a pin ball machine, except the user cannot influence the trajectory of the
