Kendall Giles

Ever wanted to read more, but never seem to have the time?

If so, you may be interested in DailyLit, a site that will break up a book you want to read into easily-digestible chunks and send you one chunk per day (or more, if you like). The chunks are small enough that you can read them in less than five minutes, and so by reading a little each day, in between your moments of busyness, you can complete books that you have been meaning to read, but never quite have the time for.

The books you subscribe to can be sent to you via email or RSS. The service is free, and the books are free too.

Because if you are like us, you spend hours each day reading email but don't find the time to read books. DailyLit brings books right into your inbox in convenient small messages that take less than 5 minutes to read. This works incredibly well not just on your computer but also on a Treo, Blackberry, Sidekick or whatever the PDA of your choice. In the words of Dr. Seuss: Try it, you might like it! (Oops -- it would appear that the actual quote from Green Eggs and Ham is "You do not like them. So you say. Try them! Try them! And you may.")

Do you believe in elves? They are not just for Tolkienites, you know.

As an Icelander, I am aware that invisible creatures are lurking about all around us. Growing up in the countryside, I lived on a farm at the foot of a mountain, where consideration toward the hidden world was as common as the courtesy you pay any other farm denizen.

"Don't touch the cows while they're milking!" 
"Don't handle the lambs or the ewes won't take to them!" 
"Don't climb up on that rock because you'll disturb the
 elves!"
"Don't feed the horses before you ride. It'll make them
 gassy."
"Don't make so much noise by that hill there. Someone 
might be trying to sleep inside it!"

I've been to Iceland, and I believe!

Note that it's never to late to pursue your dream.

Recently, the famed guitarist for the music group Queen, 60-year old Brian May, handed in his PhD thesis, 36 years after interrupting his studies to play in the band.

His area of study is Astronomy at the Imperial College, London, and the title of his thesis is "Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud". He still has to defend his thesis, which will happen on 23 August of this year. Nevertheless, the completion of his thesis, especially with such a significant gap in this studies, is a significant accomplishment.

From the BBC article:

The rock star is also preparing a concert to mark the inauguration of a telescope at the Observatory of the Roque de Los Muchachos in La Palma, Tenerife, where he completed his studies last month.

Finally, for a bit of Lord of the Rings humor, you may find the following animated gif amusing:

Technorati Tags: academia, book, culture, living, spirit

Officially called Mount San Antonio, but known as Mount Baldy because of the absence of trees at the summit, this mountain has the highest peak in the San Gabriel mountain range. This mountain range is located in northern Los Angeles County and western San Bernardino County, California. If you are on the Los Angeles side of the mountain, on the other side is the Mojave Desert.

There is plenty of hiking available, which affords wonderful views.

Supposedly, from this view above, you can see the ocean, which is about 50-60 miles away. However, when I was there it was too hazy. But there is actually a house for sale on the mountain that actually advertises "Ocean View" in the listing, because on the one or two days a year when it is not too hazy, you can actually catch a glimpse of the ocean while in your mountain home 5,000 feet up and 60 miles away.

Many of the tops of the large cone bristle pine trees were sheared off---the wood of this type of tree is very brittle, and the tops get sheared off from the howling winds.

We hiked up to a small waterfall, at about 6,300 feet elevation.

What struck me most, besides the views, was the extreme dryness. The waterfall was a trickle compared to its normal flow, and some of the housing developments have their water shut off every night in order for their tanks to refill. It is easy to see why the area catches fire, since a careless tourist can easily catch the mountain on fire.

Besides the noisy Harleys that constantly thunder up and down the mountain on weekends, visiting the lodge and bar there, the locals also complain of bears. With the extreme lack of water, and therefore food, the bears have learned that, since Thursday is garbage day, the humans who live in the mountain village put their garbage out Wednesday night. And food thrown away by humans is tasty to starving bears.

There is a nice ski resort that becomes active in the winter. The resort is the largest and steepest in Southern California, offering 26 runs spanning 3 mountains and 2,100 vertical feet. However, given the desert-like atmosphere during the summer, it is hard to imagine the mountains having any snow. But, an old postcard helps explain why the ski resort is still in business.

We also saw the house where some scenes from Commando were filmed.

I guess now I have to rewatch that movie!

Technorati Tags: culture, travel

How many of you are a little tired of all the really long, complex, rights-waiving, non-negotiated licensing agreements foisted upon us when we install software, buy products at Best Buy, or download songs from an online music service? My guess is that you really don't read those agreements, but if you did, you would see how silly these companies are getting.

However, the good folks over at reasonableagreement.org have the right idea. They have an anti-EULA that they suggest you put on your credit card slips when you sign them, or include with your warranty cards when you mail them back, or put them at the bottom of your emails.

So, while you can go to their site and see how this agreement can be customized for your particular use, here is a reasonable agreement for this webpage:

READ CAREFULLY. By reading this webpage you agree, on behalf of your employer, to release me from all obligations and waivers arising from any and all NON-NEGOTIATED agreements, licenses, terms-of-service, shrinkwrap, clickwrap, browsewrap, confidentiality, non-disclosure, non-compete and acceptable use policies (”BOGUS AGREEMENTS”) that I have entered into with your employer, its partners, licensors, agents and assigns, in perpetuity, without prejudice to my ongoing rights and privileges. You further represent that you have the authority to release me from any BOGUS AGREEMENTS on behalf of your employer.

Technorati Tags: culture, living

I guess now I have had the official California experience---last night we had a small earthquake:

The 4.5 preliminary magnitude quake was centered 4.1 miles north-northwest of the suburb of Chatsworth, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It was extremely shallow, at only 3 miles deep.

It happened a little before 1AM, and woke me up---the bed was shaking and at first I thought someone was in the room moving the bed around.

It is very disorienting to wake up to an earthquake.

Technorati Tags: living, travel

Be more than just the master of your own domain:

• Find exactly what you are looking for on the web
• Outbid everyone on eBay
• Share one WiFi connection with multiple computers
• Learn how to make your own blog and wiki

Your friends will be amazed!

Seriously, if you are looking to turbo-charge your online experience, then you should pick up the new book Rule the Web: How to Do Anything and Everything on the Internet---Better, Faster, Easier by Mark Frauenfelder.

I went to Mark's book signing in Santa Monica tonight, held at the Barnes and Noble in the 3rd Street Promenade. There, Mark entertained a room full of people with talk about the origins of BoingBoing, the future of the music industry, the future of the publishing industry, lots of examples from his book, and insight into how the book came about.

Mark is a really nice guy and has lots of insight into how to use the Internet and Web effectively to increase your productivity and, well, happiness.

And Mark was wearing a Scott eVest shirt like I was also wearing, so not only is he smart, but he's cool too.

Technorati Tags: book, culture, review, technology

If you are filled with the D.C. Beltway Blues, or are tired of all the big-city grime, crime, and lack-of-time, then a trip to the Marriott Ranch might be just the escape you need.

About 45 miles outside the beltway, Marriott Ranch is a working cattle ranch in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, in Hume, Virginia. The ranch has about 4,200 acres, and, in addition to cattle, has a bed and breakfast called the Inn at Fairfield Farm. You can also go horseback riding, hiking, off-road jeeping, and fishing. In addition to people wanting to get back to nature, the site is also a popular destination for company retreats and weddings. Around the ranch there are vineyards and wineries, fishing, rafting, canoeing, Civil War Trails, the Shenandoah National Park, and the Skyline Drive.

We went on a guided trail ride and had a great time. We have been to other destinations for trail rides, but this one was much better---the horses were healthy and well-kept, and the trail ride was more relaxed and natural than some other rides I have been on.

My horse was not too thrilled with having his picture taken.

Saddle-up!

Here's one happy camper.

Here we are, heading out.

This is an active cattle ranch, so sometimes you see some of the other residents.

Great scenery too!

And an old timey saloon is a great place for a picnic after a hard day's ride.

They also offer other rides in addition to the basic trail ride: you can go on overnight rides, mountain rides, cattle drives, and even learn how to be a cowpoke.

Technorati Tags: culture, living, review, travel, virginia

At the moment, the biggest star in Los Angeles is David Beckham.

Technorati Tags: culture, travel

I mentioned here earlier about how a reconstructed Viking ship was going to trace historic routes in order to test theories on Viking navigation. Nearly 1,000 years after the original sank of the coast of Denmark, and after a trip of about 1,000 miles, the Sea Stallion pulled into Dublin.

From the Reuters news article on the arrival of the Viking ship in Dublin:

"You have come here on a voyage of discovery," said Dublin's Lord Mayor Paddy Bourke as the vessel and its volunteer crew of men and women docked.

Crafted from the wood of 300 oak trees, the 30-metre (100-foot) long, 4-metre wide Sea Stallion is the world's largest reconstructed Viking vessel, its builders say.

Technorati Tags: culture, travel

I have been asked to give two tutorial lectures at this fall's Mathematics of Knowledge and Search Engines workshop series at the Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics, which is a part of UCLA.

I just found out about this (me presenting), so it looks like I'll be busy preparing the talks from now until then. When I find out more information I will post it here.

Here is an overview of the workshop series:

The rise of the search engine as a major tool for searches on the internet has spawned a large and growing industry that has changed modern commerce, education, and the study of scientific, financial, and social data bases. The underpinnings of these search engines are mathematical algorithms which are well adapted to large and rapid computations, mainly from linear algebra. While the impact of this industry has been enormous, there is a parallel development in the applications of these methods to other related problems concerning the extraction of knowledge from large databases. This long program at IPAM will be devoted to new mathematics and methodologies of knowledge engines: the mathematical procedures used to extract knowledge from large databases. While this includes topics related to search engines it is mainly devoted to the more general problem of finding features in a database or using defined features to search within a database. It is expected that this program will be of interest to a large number of scientific fields, including pure and applied mathematics, statistics, bioinformatics, and engineering.

In addition to the tutorial sessions, the rest of the workshops are as follows:

• Dynamic Searches and Knowledge Building
• Numerical Tools and Fast Algorithms for Massive Data Mining, Search Engines and Applications
• Social Data Mining and Knowledge Building
• Search and Knowledge Building for Biological Datasets

Technorati Tags: academia, income, job, science, technology, travel, work

A Pell is essentially a striking dummy that is used for weapons training. Pells have been used for hundreds of years both in Western Arts as well as Eastern Arts. They can be used indoors or outdoors, can be mounted or left free-swinging, and used with a variety of weapons. The purpose is not to swing as hard as you can, but to refine your technique and control - developing a solid foundation of basics is very important if you want to progress in your abilities.

I'll certainly let you know when I get there.

In the meantime, here is a picture of a pell I made:

It is a modification of the Tire Man #1 found in the Pell FAQ. My design is free-swinging, allowing for dynamic training interaction. A variety of weapons can be used by the little guy - he is wielding a basic bamboo shinai in the picture. Also, he has two arms, so he can wield single or double-handed weapons. And, he has two legs, for leg strikes.

For the head, I have used an American football helmet. If you will be doing light strikes with shinai, as with kendo, then you can substitute a kendo men helmet or even a baseball helmet. But if you are practicing other sword/weapon arts and use strikes with more intent, then you may find the football helmet more durable. Of course, feel free to substitute a knight's helm if you have some spares around...(-:

A variety of weapons can be used against him - shinai, fukoro shinai, bokken, waster, steel sword blunt, dagger, bo, quarterstaff, spear, etc. The only caution would be the fact that the rubber in the tire may mark your wooden/bamboo weapons, so take note. You can strike him while he is still or you can swing him for a more dynamic effect.

In the picture he is outside, but he can be moved indoors and mounted on a heavy punching bag stand or mounted on a more static base (and not left swinging). You may also want to add another rope to your swinging pell because sometimes he can turn in circles, making it hard to interface with.

Finally, here are some pell links that may be of interest:

• Big Blue
  
• Bob
  
• Pell FAQ
  
• The Ubiquitous Pell
  
• Hanging Cross Pell E.g.
  
• Bayonet Pell E.g.
  

If you thought this article was interesting or useful, please help it be more visible to others by clicking on "digg it" below:

Technorati Tags: defense, fitness, martial arts

Just look at the labels or the bottled water ads: deep, pristine pools of spring water; majestic alpine peaks; healthy, active people gulping down icy bottled water between biking in the park and a trip to the yoga studio.

While the shiny labels on bottled water make us think we are doing the right thing by buying and drinking it, this story lists 5 reasons not to drink bottled water:

• Bottled water costs more than gasoline
• Is regulated by the FDA less than tap water
• The containers are plastic: 80% are thrown away each year, entering oceans and filling garbage dumps
• More bottled water means less improvement to the public water supply
• Fosters the corporatization of the water supply

Also, many investigations have shown that expensive bottled water is often little more than regular tap water with a fancy label.

While it is unfortunate that probably most people think bottled water is somehow better for them than plain tap water, as a valid reason for drinking bottled water I can see that bottled water might be useful when traveling to different towns, since you would not be accustomed to the bacteria strains present in the local tap water systems. Some also like bottled water when exercising.

As a resolution to the dilemma, I have found that buying a reusable bottle, such as the Colored Lexan Wide Mouth Bottle (32 oz.) - Nalgene Water Bottle, and re-filling it with filtered water or tap water, seems to be a reasonable compromise between not being wasteful with all the plastic throw-away yet having water convenient when exercising or traveling.

The bottles pictured above have a wide-mouth, making it easy to add sports-powders or ice cubes to the bottle, and the lexan material means that the bottle will last for many years of rugged use. Note that the bottles comes in a variety of colors, and there are also narrow-mouth versions.

Technorati Tags: living, science, technology, travel

It's because of views like this that I love Virginia.

Technorati Tags: virginia

As Generosity and Hospitality are two important virtues, I could not help but watch as a little friend came into our home late one night, hungry. I had suspected he had visited before, otherwise our cats were eating too much and the house elves were causing too much mischief.

After eating his fill, two bowls of cat food, he slipped back into the shadows, off on some adventure, no doubt.

Technorati Tags: virginia

It is easier than ever for anyone in the world to get a good education. Many top universities are placing their course content online, for free. There are also other educational resources put online by universities and organizations (like podcasts from NASA).

For many of the courses, not only do you get the syllabus for the course, but lecture notes, assignments, and sometimes even audio and video of the lectures!

Popsci.com recently posted a survey of many of the online resources, and I have included some below, including one that popsci missed.

• UC Berkeley Webcasts
• MIT OpenCourseWare
• Stanford Center for Professional Development
• University of Illinois' NetMath
• NASA Podcasts
• AstronomyCast
• Quirks and Quarks
• The Naked Scientists
• Harvard Extension School

So now it is easier to realize your dream, learn something new, or chart a new career. Best of all, you do not even have to get off your couch to take a class, since everything is online. Why wait until tomorrow to learn that language, write that book, solve that problem, or write that code?

Technorati Tags: academia, living

Certainly, movie versions of Beowulf have been done before. But, in general, past movie versions have been rather bad. I am hoping quality will triumph with this fall's movie release of Beowulf.

Beowulf, of course, is one of the oldest pieces of literature in the English language, and one of the noblest and heroic stories in the world. Beowulf, the young hero of the Geats, battles the monster Grendel, who is terrorizing Heorot in Denmark. After defeating Grendel, Beowulf then must fight Grendel's mother. Beowulf then becomes King, when he is called upon to fight a terrible dragon. He kills the dragon, but is mortally wounded, and is then buried in a barrow.

The upcoming movie version will be released on November 16, 2007, in conventional theatres AND in 3D! Even better---the script was written by Roger Avary and Neil Gaiman.

Roger Avary is a well-known director, producer, and screenwriter, especially known for Pulp Fiction.

Neil Gaiman, of course, is the very talented author of, among other works, The Sandman comic series, American Gods, and Stardust (which was made into a movie that is currently (August, 2007) in theatres).

The film has a strong cast, with Angelina Jolie as Grendel's mother, Anthony Hopkins as King Hrothgar, Ray Winstone as Beowulf, along with John Malkovich, Brendan Gleeson, Dominic Keating, Alison Lohman, and Robin Wright Penn. Initial reviews from screenings at Comic-Con 2007 and other viewings have been very positive. I still haven't understood quite how Angelina Jolie was cast as Grendel's mother, but I guess we will all see how well that decision worked in November. Anyway, Neil says he was blown away after seeing portions of the actual film, and that the newest film making techniques were used to produce one of the oldest stories in the English language.

You can see trailers, author interviews, and a plot summary on the movieweb site, and you will soon be able to collect Beowulf action figures.

It only takes one look around at the state of the world today to see that we are in dire need of heroes in our society. Strength, courage, honor, and noble deeds have been missing from the news for quite a while now. The time is right for Beowulf to return. Let's hope Roger and Neil do him justice.

Technorati Tags: book, culture

So I happened upon this herd of cows. As they saw me approaching, they wondered if I had some sweets with me.

But I didn't, so they bolted.

Except for the bull, who wasn't happy that I scared everyone away, and that I didn't have any sweets.

Technorati Tags: living, virginia

Matthew Gabriele at Modern Medieval highlights an interesting point about Virginia Tech killer Seung-Hui Cho---that Cho seems to have been strongly motivated by the Christian tradition.

Says Matthew, about Cho's Christian influence:

He likely thought himself, like Mark David Uhl, like those in Battlecry, like Paul Hill, like the Lord's Resistance Army, like the crusaders, to be a "soldier of Christ." Normative Christianity may not condone such action but perhaps it's time to stop burying our head in the sand, pretending that such ideas aren't still out there.

A summary article in the Roanoke Times offers support for this view:

During one session, Giovanni described having once eaten turtle soup. Students shared experiences of consuming other unusual animal fare. Cho's poem the next week lashed Giovanni and the class.

"He told us we were going to hell," said Marciniak-McGuire.

During Cho's short, tortured life, he knew that territory well.

Also, it sounds like much of Cho's writings, his manifesto, and videos evoke Christian God and Jesus themes, as Matthew discusses in this expanded version of a Roanoke Times article.

A Google search on "warriors for christ" returned about 18,000 hits. Cho could have been trying to implement this mixed Christian message, with tragic and deadly consequences.

Hopefully the upcoming report from the Virginia Tech Review Panel will shed some light on the mysteries of the Cho's massacre, but it is likely that many questions will remain unanswered.

My previous entries on this incident are "Black Monday at Virginia Tech" and "Virginia Tech: the face of a killer".

Technorati Tags: academia, culture, spirit

Here is a pic from a visit to the new National Museum of the American Indian (to the left of the U.S. Capitol Building) in Washington D.C. It is on the National Mall, next to the National Air and Space Museum.

The museum was worth going to see.

Technorati Tags: culture