Kendall Giles

A month or so ago I found a little bird in my basement. I wasn't sure how he got in there --- maybe he came in when I had the outside door opened for a couple hours? I am not a biologist, so I don't know what type of bird it was, but if I had to make a guess, I would say some sort of nuthatch? He had brown stripes, and seemed just as happy sitting on the basement floor as he did hanging upside down on the cinder block wall. Very quick movements --- I couldn't see him in flight, but would just see him appear in a new location, much like the X-man Nightcrawler, teleporting from place to place. Oh, there he is. Oh, now he's gone.

Anyway, I felt really bad that this bird was trapped in my basement. So I put out water and food, and opened the door for hours at a time for several days in a row, hoping he would sense the open outside door and fly to freedom. I was in knots, worried the bird would die, trapped in my dark basement.

But after several days of Operation: Rescue the Little Bird, the stubborn bird was still there.

So, finally, in a fit of desperation, I opened the door to the outside and made a big production of stomping and waving my arms, shaking a broom like a Wild Thing, trying to scare the bird out the door. I was willing to be the angry monster, for a short time, if it meant the bird would survive.

But the little bird just looked at me, hopped from clothes line to rafter, then promptly left via the tiny unused dryer vent leading outside.

So then I felt bad that I had scared the bird, who knew what he was doing the whole time.

Weeks went by with no sign of the little bird in my basement, and me with guilt for being the big bully.

So tonight when I went down to do laundry I was happy to see the little bird again, teleporting to and fro in my basement. And this time I didn't stomp around or wave my arms, but quietly walked back upstairs.

Be sure to check out the forthcoming Richmond Noir, an anthology of original noir stories by Dean King, Laura Browder, Howard Owen, Yazmina Beverly, Tom De Haven, X.C. Atkins, Meagan Saunders, Anne Soffee, Clint McCowan, Conrad Persons, Clay Chapman, Pir Rothenberg, David Robbins, Hermine Pinson, and Dennis Danvers.

With a Foreward by Tom Robbins.

Edited by Andrew Blossom, Brian Castleberry, and Tom De Haven.

By the way, rumor has it that the tomb pictured above houses the Richmond vampire...

After being on a lot of travel lately, I was pleasantly startled as I walked out into my backyard last night to hear a chorus of frogs greet me in welcome:

frog talk, mp3, 32 seconds.

How many different critters can you hear?

Here's my new office at VCU:

Our cat had kittens, in a box. Here is a short video of her new babies.

It was a little icy in Richmond this morning.

One night a raccoon came to our window in Richmond, VA. Note the cat ears at the bottom of the pic and the raccoon hand against the window - it was quite the stare-down - neither party knew what to make of the other.

I'll be giving a talk this Wednesday titled "Knowledge Discovery with Iterative Denoising".

Abstract:

The tasks of proper data analysis and knowledge extraction in data are beset by multiple difficulties when the datasets are large and in high dimension. From a performance perspective, it can be prohibitively expensive to search in a high dimensional space. Also, complex datasets often have local relationships of interest, findings that might be missed with global searches. While some progress has been made with addressing Curse of Dimensionality issues, traditional data mining algorithms largely take a static approach to the data mining process---simply tabulating the outputs of a particular algorithm from a given input, leaving the user to start the process over again with new inputs if another run is desired. With this static approach, the user is prevented from interacting with the data mining algorithm as well as with the data.

Towards addressing these issues, we discuss our methodology, called Iterative Denoising, which is a statistical pattern recognition framework for analyzing complex datasets. An important realization of our methodology is that users may want to interact with visualized representations of their data. We not only provide to the users lower-dimensional-space representations to highlight (possibly) desired structures in the data, but we also allow the user to interact with the data through an explicit interaction step. For example, the user may wish to change the displayed geometry relationships between objects, say to reflect some metadata intelligence the user has received that is not reflected in the original data. We highlight these contributions with examples from the analysis of text data.

Logistics:

12PM, October 8, 2008, Computer Science Department, Virginia Commonwealth University

As noted in The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 27, Thomas Jefferson writes, after touring through the vineyards of France:

There are four crops of them more famous than all the rest. These are Chateau-Margau, Tour de Segur, Haut-brion, and de la Fite. They cost 3 livres bottle, old: But are so engaged before hand that it is impossible to get them.

Jefferson brought back his knowledge and love of wine to America to try to "elevate the tastes" of America by instilling in them a love of fine wine.

Some of these efforts can be seen by visiting Jefferson's main estate, Monticello, near Charlottesville, Virginia:

Larger but very similar to his summer retreat, Poplar Forest, Monticello is where, among other pursuits, Jefferson cultivated and promoted his love of wine---trying to establish the Virginia region as a center of wine-making in the Americas.

Here is a portion of the vineyard at Monticello:

Though the Europeans have had many hundreds if not thousands of years to develop hardy and tasty grape varieties suitable for wine-making, Jefferson had to start mostly from scratch in Virginia. But while initial efforts were frustrated by a harsh climate and ruthless insects, today Virginia boasts some 108 wineries, producing great wines.

If you are in the Virginia area, you may be interested in taking a wine tour through Monticello. The "Jefferson and Wine Tour" gives information on Jefferson and his wine-making efforts, even allowing for some unique access to Monticello not available on the standard Monticello tour package. The tour ends with a wine-tasting, hosted by Barboursville Vineyards---an award-winning Virginia winery located on the grounds of the former estate house designed by Jefferson for Governor James Barbour.

Cheers.

It is clear to most that the politicians of today are no where near the caliber of our Founding Fathers, and we have been reminded of this fact quite frequently during this campaign season. For example, even John F. Kennedy knew where to tip his hat: in 1962 the former President was entertaining forty-nine Nobel Prize winners at the White House, where he said,

"I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent and of human knowledge that has ever been gathered together at the White House---with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone."

If you find yourself needing a reminder of those who helped forge our nation, or want to gain some small insight into their lives, one suggestion is to visit their former homes---even the homes of Jefferson himself, perhaps.

While many know of Jefferson's main retreat in Charlottesville, Virginia, called Monticello, fewer know of his summer home about 90 miles South in Forest, Virginia, called Poplar Forest.

Jefferson, also an architect especially excelling in the Palladian style, designed Poplar Forest to be his private retreat to get away from the constant interruptions and visitors at Monticello, and work began on the home in 1805. Jefferson wrote of his home in 1812:

"When finished, it will be the best dwelling house in the state, except that of Monticello; perhaps preferable to that, as more proportioned to the faculties of a private citizen."

Visitors to the home today can see the progress being made in restoring the house and grounds to what they would have been like in Jefferson's time.

So if all the hot air in Washington gets you down, you may want to consider retreating to Poplar Forest, as Jefferson did, for some contemplation and rejuvenation.

There are a number of tools that have become available recently that overlay population features on top of geographic maps (thanks NumbersGuy). The data is from government surveys, crime logs, census logs, etc., and have been available for a very long time. However, by adding the geographic component and a web interface, the data is suddenly much more accessible and useful, especially to the individual.

For example, are you going to buy a new home and want to check out neighborhoods for various factors, such as crime, income, education opportunities, neighborhood walkability, etc.? Or are you interested in checking out your current neighborhood? Do you want to open a business and so want to target specific markets?

Below are a number of online tools that you may help you answer these questions:

• SpotCrime: shows crime statistics for a given address
• PolicyMap: shows census, real estate analysis, crime, mortgage origination, education, income, demographic, job, energy, and other statistics
• Walk Score: rates a given address on its walkability - a measure of the quality of life around a given address when walking
• Criminal Searches: search a given neighborhood or even people for crimes and offences.

As the first of several examples, here is an image of the distribution of household incomes around VCU in the year 2000, using the PolicyMap service. The free version unfortunately only gives access to old data (e.g., year 2000 for incomes), and the resolution is a little course (does not give block-by-block resolution), but you still can see overall trends. In the figure, the regions shaded with the darker colors indicate higher median household incomes.

The image below, from SpotCrime, shows the various crimes that were reported and logged by police from March 4, 2008 to May 4, 2008 around VCU. The different icons indicate different types of crimes, such as assaults, thefts, arson, arrests, robbery, burglary, vandalism, etc. While the number of crimes over just a two month period might seem high, VCU is an urban university in the middle of a low-income part of town (see previous median income image) with a dense population, so some amount of crime is unfortunately probably to be expected without better enforcement and more security.

Finally, on the bright side, VCU does appear to be a neighborhood that is quite walkable, as seen in the following graphic, where WalkScore gives VCU a walkability score of 88 out of 100, where 100 is the best walkability score you can get. Each icon represents a grocery store, restaurant, coffee shop, bar, movie theatre, school, park, library, bookstore, fitness center, drug store, etc., that are good to have within walking distance - the more of these establishments there are, the higher the walkability score.

If you want a fun day trip, don't mind being overwhelmed by cute, and want to get up close and personal with a camel or perhaps an ostrich, then you should consider a visit to the Virginia Safari Park, located off Interstate 81, just south of Lexington and northwest of Lynchburg --- right beside Natural Bridge.

They have a variety of land mammals and birds, such as llamas, giraffes, pot-bellied pigs, bison, emus, elk, zebras, camels, and some endangered African animals.

You can either drive through the three-mile trail or you can ride in a wagon, pulled by a tractor. As you drive along, the animals will come up to the car and you can feed them special food from plastic buckets. We bought four buckets of food for $10, and that was about the right amount for the three-mile trip.

Some of the critters will be happy to relieve you of your bucket if you aren't careful:

You also have to be careful that you don't get an additional passenger in your car:

In addition to the safari trail, they also have a giraffe feeding station, a kangaroo walk-about, a lorikeet landing, primates, tigers, warthogs, an aviary, and a petting area.

So it was a nice day trip up in the beautiful Virginia mountains, where the buffalo do roam and the antelope do play. Camels too.

Stephen Hawking in A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes recounts the following exchange:

A well-known scientist (some say it was Bertrand Russell) once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the center of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy. At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: "What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise." The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, "What is the tortoise standing on?" "You're very clever, young man, very clever," said the old lady. "But it's turtles all the way down!"

So, "turtles all the way down" refers to a belief about how the universe is constructed--our world rests on the back of a turtle, which rests on the back of a second turtle, which rests on the back of a third, etc.---and more generally refers to an infinite regression type of situation or problem or argument.

The turtle stacking nexus must be somewhere in Virginia, because so far this summer I've had to relocate seven turtles, going the wrong way on busy streets or otherwise getting themselves into trouble.

First, there was this turtle, then that turtle, then the following quick succession of honorable turtles:

Here's Turtle Three:

Turtles Four and Five:

Turtle Six:

Turtle Seven:

So how many turtles support the world on their backs?

Well, at least seven.

Human's have it pretty good. Unlike, say, the koala, which only has to consider which eucalyptus tree to climb in order to have yet another meal of eucalyptus leaves, humans are omnivores, able to make a meal from a variety of plants, animals, and fungi. This has, in part, allowed humans to live in all parts of the world - from the humid tropics of the jungle, to the dry, sandy deserts of the middle east, to the cold, unforgiving quiet of the frozen tundra.

But this ease of making a meal, no matter what the environment, has turned what was once a survival advantage for our species, when humans first struggled to spread across the globe tens of thousands of years ago, into a bit of a disadvantage in an industrialized world over-populated with people and, ironically, with too much of the wrong kind of food. Overpopulation and the need to feed so many mouths has led to the industrialization of food production, transforming small family farms into large monocultures of genetically-modified cornfields and acre-sized metal sheds of captive, steroid and antibiotic-injected cows. We might have once thought this scaling up of food production to be a good thing, but is it?

But why stop asking questions there? Just where does that McDonald's meal come from, really? Why does the U.S. grow so much corn? Why do the factory farms plant thousands of acres of corn, and only corn? And with so much corn, why does the government subsidize the factory farms to grow more of it? Is "corn-fed beef" a delicacy, or a perorative? How is Whole Foods, at the same time, different from and just like the modern factory farm? Why might Joel Salatin's Polyface Farm, in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley, represent the best farm in the U.S.?

Why indeed. And you might be surprised at the answers to each of the above questions.

So if you have ever wondered about the food you unpackage from its plastic shrink wrap and plop into the microwave, if you have ever considered the moral hazard of eating meat - or corn, and if you have ever wanted to gather wild mushrooms, then you might want to read The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan.

With an admirable investigative tenacity and a gift for telling a good story, Michael details how our food is grown, produced, cooked, and eaten by examining the life story behind four meals - one bought from a fast food chain, one made from items bought in an organic store, one made from foods grown and raised on a sustainable farm, and one made from foods foraged from the wild. In reading about Michael's adventures, you will discover what it takes to get the food on your table to your table, and you will likely never think about corn the same again.

Modern humans have lost the connection to the land and the food it provides. Overweight, overpopulated, and increasingly unhealthy, Michael's look into what we eat and how it was made is perhaps the just desserts.

Actually, a terrapin. Undertook a massive relocation effort to save this little guy from a subdivision of cars, lawn mowers, and dogs. He seemed to like his new country digs.

So, there was this turtle, going the wrong way on a busy street. Naturally, having swerved to miss him, I pulled off the road, ran through traffic, and rescued him.

I put him in the floorboard of the car and drove home. We have a small pond, so he was quite happy to get out of the car and into the water!

Yesterday was a little busier than normal. In the morning I gave a research talk, "Text analysis with Iterative Denoising," at the spring meeting of the International Biometric Society, Eastern North American Region.

The conference was in Arlington, Virginia and my hotel was overlooking the Reagan National Airport. In the photo below (taken on a cloudy morning), you can see some of the airport structures, and just above the horizon you can see a plane taking off.

Immediately after presenting I rushed to Baltimore for a research meeting. I was interested to see some of the changes to campus since the last time I was there. This building below, just south of Garland Hall, is completely new, and serves as the university's new visitor center. That whole area used to be a gravel parking lot where I parked when on campus. Below the field is a new 600 car underground parking garage.

After my meeting, it was back to Richmond, and grading papers and preparing lectures awaited my return.

Technorati Tags: academia, living, virginia

Richmond regularly tops lists of high-crime cities, and just a few weeks into my new job there, I was "reacquainted" with this unfortunate aspect.

While walking to my car late one night from the office on campus, sick with the flu and carrying a couple bags of books, it seems that I was selected as the target of a gang initiation, whereby the candidate inductee must start a fight with the victim. Luckily I kept my cool during the incident and all ended OK, but it was not a pleasant experience, and it was a good reminder that, when in the real world, all is not milk and honey.

Thinking now of practical self-defense options, here is a movie made in about 2002 by a Western martial arts group who got together at Frogmore Grange, Coventry, England. Participants enjoyed tea and crumpets before the days' activities of walking stick fighting, pugilism, and jiujitsu, followed by a three-course meal in a Victorian dining room:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGiTAtJI_uU

Self-defense laws being what they are, especially on university campuses, certain self-defense options are precluded from consideration. However, the cane or walking stick certainly seems viable. Here is a transcription of a self-defence article from 1901:

"Self-defence with a Walking-stick: The Different Methods of Defending Oneself with a Walking-Stick or Umbrella when Attacked under Unequal Conditions"

Self-defense with a cane is a component of Bartitsu, the martial art made popular in the Sherlock Holmes stories. Other resources for this line of self-defense and training include:

• The Bartitsu Society
• canes at woodenswords
• Defense Dans La Rue
• Bartitsu Wikipedia entry

Be safe, and be prepared!

Technorati Tags: culture, defense, fitness, martial arts, security, virginia

Here is a link to my new homepage at VCU

Technorati Tags: academia, virginia

I've been on walkabout since June, and have finally returned. Now I know a little what Bilbo & c. felt like after finally coming back to the Shire. And just in time too, for the trees are turning their fall colors -- here's looking down my driveway:

Technorati Tags: living, travel, virginia

Congratulations to Virginia Tech - in the latest DARPA autonomous robotic vehicle challenge, which required autonomous vehicles to navigate sixty miles in an urban environment, do three-point turns, park, follow the rules of the road, etc., Virginia Tech's vehicle won third place.

The DARPA Urban Challenge is an autonomous vehicle research and development program with the goal of developing technology that will keep warfighters off the battlefield and out of harm's way. The Urban Challenge features autonomous ground vehicles maneuvering in a mock city environment, executing simulated military supply missions while merging into moving traffic, navigating traffic circles, negotiating busy intersections, and avoiding obstacles.

Appropriately - their robot vehicle was named Odin.

Read more about the team and the contest on their blog or the team website.

Technorati Tags: academia, science, technology, virginia

There will be an an event held at Virginia Tech titled "Bellerophon to Beowulf to Batman: The Image of the Hero", Wednesday, November 7, 2007, 7-9pm, in 113 McBryde Hall. Free and open to the public.

Motivating questions include: What is a hero? Has "heroism" changed? Does Buffy have anything to do with Beowulf?

It sounds like undergraduates will be presenting some of their research, followed by a faculty roundtable, including:

* Terry Papillon (Classics & Honors Program) - ancient world 
* Karen Swenson (English) - Norse sagas 
* Charlene Eska (English) - King Arthur 
* Stephen Prince (Communication) - modern pop culture 
* Kaye Graham (English) - Harry Potter and children's literature 
* LtCol. William Stringer (Corps of Cadets) - modern military 

Technorati Tags: academia, culture, living, virginia

Curled up behind the bookcase, it looked like one of our kittens. But the snout and tail gave it away!

Technorati Tags: living, virginia

The full report of the Virginia Tech Review Panel regarding the massacre of students and faculty members by Seung Hui Cho has been released.

On April 16, 2007, Seung Hui Cho killed 32 students and faculty, wounded 17, and shot himself. While clearly the fault lies with Cho, an independent investigation was conducted to see if there were any lessons that we could learn so that these tragedies might be prevented in the future.

This BBC article gives a good summary of the results of the report, but some findings seem to be that:

• Cho's parents did not make clear to the university his mental health problems
• Virginia Tech and state health workers did not intervene effectively to take corrective action when repeated evidence of Cho's problems were exhibited
• There was a critical failure of the emergency communication process by the university and campus police
• Virginia's mental health laws are flawed and mental health services are inadequate
• emergency medical care was very effective

Washington Post columnist Marc Fisher asked a very reasonable and pointed question regarding privacy laws that do more harm than good:

Here's what I don't get. In the hundreds of interviews the panel conducted, why didn't they ask all those people whose job it is to care for students one question: How would you have handled Cho if you had let your conscience, not privacy laws, guide you?

It also seems unfortunate that Cho's high school, which recognized his mental health problems and intervened to give him special assistance, tutoring, and programs so that he could graduate high school, did not tell Virginia Tech about Cho's situation. As quoted in this article about Cho's early childhood:

"What the admissions staff at Virginia Tech did not see were the special accommodations that propped up Cho and his grades," including private sessions with teachers that spared him public speaking...

Strangely, the report did not talk about religion.

Hopefully the report's findings will be heeded by universities, governments, and mental health workers, to help prevent something like that from happening again. But we all should not forget what happened on that tragic day.

Technorati Tags: academia, culture, 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

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

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.

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

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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

News reports indicate that Jerry Falwell died today.

Leading US conservative evangelist Rev Jerry Falwell has died in hospital in Virginia after being found unconscious in his office, his assistants said.

Aug. 11, 1933: Jerry Lamon Falwell is born in Lynchburg, Va.

June 1956: Shortly after graduating from Baptist Bible College in 
Springfield, Mo., Falwell becomes pastor of the new Thomas Road Baptist 
Church of Lynchburg, Va.

April 12, 1958: Falwell marries Macel Pate.

1967: Falwell creates the Lynchburg Christian Academy, a fully 
accredited Christian day school offering K-12 education.

1971: Falwell founds Liberty University.

1972: The SEC files charges of "fraud and deceit" against Falwell's 
church for the issuance of $6.5 million in uninsured bonds. The 
organization wins its case in 1973, but Liberty University files for bankruptcy and 
reorganizes, losing millions in church investors' money.

June 1979: Falwell organizes the Moral Majority, a political lobbyist 
group tasked with bringing Christianity to the forefront of the 
Republican Party platform. The group considers itself the force that 
elected Ronald Reagan to the presidency.

1981: Penthouse publishes a Falwell interview given to freelance 
reporters and Falwell files a $10 million lawsuit against the 
magazine, stating that the interview was sold without his consent. The 
case is dismissed.

1983: Falwell sues Hustler for featuring a parody of him in an 
advertisement. Although the jury denied compensation for his claims of 
libel and invasion of privacy, they awarded him damages for "emotional 
distress." Hustler founder Larry Flynt appealed the decision, and in 
1988 the Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of the magazine.

1987: Televangelist Jim Bakker passes control of his PTL Ministry to 
Falwell after a series of financial and adultery scandals, most notably 
Bakker's conviction for fraud that sends him to prison for five years. 
Within months, PTL files for bankruptcy. Falwell and the PTL board of 
directors resign.

1989: Having helped the Republican Party win three presidential 
elections, Falwell officially disbands the Moral Majority, saying, 
"Our mission is accomplished."

1995: Falwell begins publishing the National Liberty Journal.

Sept. 2001: Falwell comes under fire after he blames gays, abortionists, 
the ACLU, and other groups for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. He 
publicly apologizes for his remarks.

2003: Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore loses his seat on 
the bench for refusing to remove a monument to the Ten Commandments from 
the courthouse grounds. Falwell defends Moore's actions, comparing him 
to Martin Luther King Jr.

2004: Falwell founds the Moral Majority Coalition, a "21st century 
resurrection of the Moral Majority" and pledges to lead the organization 
for a minimum of four years.

2006: Relations between Falwell and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) warm after 
McCain speaks at Liberty University. During a campaign speech for the 
2000 presidential election urging the country to return to social 
moderation, McCain referred to Falwell (and others) as "agents of 
intolerance."

May 15, 2007: Falwell dies in Lynchburg, Va.

Technorati Tags: culture, lynchburg, religion, virginia

This year marks the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown. Though Europeans had visited this land long before, Jamestown, settled in 1607, was the first permanent English settlement in the Americas. Many festivities and events are taking place this year. This weekend, for example, sees a replica of the boat that settler John Smith used to explore the Chesapeake Bay set sail on a 121-day journey to retrace his voyage. This past Friday saw Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II return to Virginia, revisiting Richmond, Jamestown, and William & Mary.



Just in case you are wondering, that's the Queen, on the right, and Former Supreme Court Justice and current W&M Chancellor Sandra Day O'Connor on the left, at W&M.

Technorati Tags: academia, culture, living, virginia

If you ever wanted to give up your 9-5 job, if you ever wanted to stop working for someone else, or if you ever wanted to live more of your life now, rather than wait until retirement, then you might consider reading Timothy Ferriss' new book The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich.

Technorati Tags: academia, book, income, job, work

The killer of yesterday's massacre at Virginia Tech has been identified as Cho Seung-hui, 23, a native of South Korea and in the US as a resident alien.

Evidently he was an English major at Tech. A former classmate commented on a playwriting class with Cho:

When we read Cho's plays, it was like something out of a nightmare. The plays had really twisted, macabre violence that used weapons I wouldn't have even thought of. Before Cho got to class that day, we students were talking to each other with serious worry about whether he could be a school shooter. I was even thinking of scenarios of what I would do in case he did come in with a gun, I was that freaked out about him. When the students gave reviews of his play in class, we were very careful with our words in case he decided to snap. Even the professor didn't pressure him to give closing comments.

After hearing about the mass shootings, I sent one of my friends a Facebook message asking him if he knew anything about Seung Cho and if he could have been involved. He replied: "dude that's EXACTLY what I was thinking! No, I haven't heard anything, but seriously, that was the first thing I thought when I heard he was Asian."

Technorati Tags: academia, living, virginia

News reports are still coming in, but it looks as though today's shooting spree at Virginia Tech, in Blacksburg, Virginia, may be one of the largest mass shootings in U.S. history. The death toll is up to 30 students and faculty killed. From University President Charles Steger:

The university was struck today with a tragedy of monumental proportions. There were two shootings on campus. In each case, there were fatalities. The university is shocked and horrified that this would befall our campus. I want to extend my deepest, sincerest and most profound sympathies to the families of these victims which include students.

Technorati Tags: academia, defense, security, virginia

Technorati Tags: academia, culture, defense, guns, living, security, virginia

Virginia has a lot of things going for it: four distinct seasons, diverse climates and countryside, thriving economic centers, strong colleges and universities, and rich and interesting historic sites and museums.

However, now Virginia has another feather in its cap. A new Forbes survey of all 50 states ranks Virginia as the Best State for Business:

Four hundred years after Captain John Smith established the first permanent English colony in Jamestown, the Commonwealth of Virginia is leading the way once again. Virginia grabbed the top spot in Forbes.com's first ever Top States for Business thanks to its strong economic growth, low business costs and excellent quality of life.

In fact, Virginia dominated the rankings in each of the six examined categories: business costs, economic climate, growth prospects, labor, quality of life, and regulatory environment.

As for institutions of higher education:

One of Virginia's strongest attributes is its two highly ranked institutions of higher education. The University of Virginia and College of William and Mary spit out up to 5,000 graduates a year, many of whom stay in-state. They help contribute to Virginia's college attainment rate of 34% which is the seventh highest in the country. Life sciences businesses have popped up in and around Charlottesville because of UVA's highly rated medical school.

In addition to UVA and the College of William and Mary, Virginia also boasts the well-known Virginia Tech university, the growing George Mason university, Virginia Commonwealth University (the largest university in the state), and a College that Changes Lives, Lynchburg College.

Technorati Tags: academia, income, job, living, lynchburg, virginia

I spend a great deal of time both in Richmond and in Baltimore, so it is natural that I have an affinity for Edgar Allan Poe. One of the world's greatest writers, Poe's works cross a variety of genres and styles.

Richmond sports an Edgar Allan Poe museum, and it is worth a visit. There is even an annual Young Writer's Conference held there.

I made an audio recording of "Edgar Allan Poe: An Appreciation", by W. H. R. While the language used in the appreciation's writing is somewhat stilted due to its age, it does serve as a brief introduction to Poe and some of his works.

Listen to Edgar Allan Poe: An Appreciation (.MP3, 14.7MB).

I've issued this recording under the Creative Commons License. While you can click the link below to investigate the details, basically you can listen to it and copy it as you like - you just can't use it commercially or derive works from it.

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So I go down to feed the cats last night, and here's what I see:

Wait a minute! That's not a cat:

What do you do when a guest won't leave?!

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There are not a lot of options for classical fencing in Virginia. However, I am just finishing up a beginner's class at Salle Green, in Richmond, and it has been a good class. While I would prefer longer sessions, the one-hour class, once a week, for eight weeks in the beginner's course is probably just right for those new to fencing and martial arts.

If you are at all interested in fencing (classical or sport), or western martial arts, or just want something to do that is a little more sophisticated than basketball or listening to your iPod, then you should come out to Salle Green.

Technorati Tags: fitness, martial arts, virginia

The Thomas B. Fordham Institute released a comprehensive review of U.S. state science standards, the first since 2000. State science class standards lay out the course work and expectations for students in each grade - from kindergarten through high school.

For Virginians, the report gave some good news, as Virginia received an 'A', which shows that Virginia is serious about teaching science and educating their public school students. Other states that received 'A' grades are: California, South Carolina, Massachusetts, Indiana, New York, and New Mexico.

However, the report had more bad news than good, especially for other states and for the U.S. as a whole. Though the majority of states have reworked, often from scratch, their science standards since 2000, they have little to show for it. Also, it seems that the No Child Left Behind law has actually hindered quality education and has directed attention away from science. More bad news: there are more 'F' states than 'A' states. States that received an 'F' grade include: Alabama, Oregon, Hawaii, Montana, Nebraska, Wyoming, New Hampshire, Idaho, Texas, Wisconsin, Alaska, and Kansas. Of these, Kansas in particular it appears has actually worked very hard over the last several years to hurt public school education (witness the shenanigans of the previous School Board that was recently voted out), and their 'hard work' is reflected in their grade - amazingly, but not surprisingly, Kansas did the worst of any state with an 'F-'.

I find it very troublesome that so many states do such a poor job in educating children and with so much money wasted. On the other hand, I am sure that other countries, such as India and China, are very happy that the U.S. is not serious about science education - since those countries do seem to invest in quality education, future science and technology jobs will likely be filled quite readily by their workers if folks in the U.S. are not up to the task.

Technorati Tags: academia, culture, science, virginia

This past weekend my wife and I took the Basic Rider Course, offered by the Motorcycle Safety Foundation, which is sponsored by the U.S. manufacturers and distributors of BMW, Ducati, Harley-Davidson, Honda, Kawasaki, KTM, Piaggio/Vespa, Suzuki, Vengeance, Victory, and Yamaha motorocyles.

If you are thinking about riding, or currently ride, I would recommend this course. It is over three days, and contains knowledge as well as skills portions. But the emphasis is on skills - especially learning to ride effectively and safely.

The instructors were very experienced riders and knew what they were talking about. Since the class is aimed at new riders, we started out just learning how to get on the bike properly, but by the end of the course we were doing figure 8's and hard stops while in a curve.

It was a very challenging course and not everyone made it through (my wife and I did). But I would rather someone fail the course than fail out on the street. Motorcycling is not for everyone, and it is better to learn in a safe and structured environment (on someone else's bike :-) than on your own.

But even if you don't ride, I would recommend the course because it would help people who only drive cars appreciate the need to watch out for motorcyles and their riders.

If you want more information, check out www.msf-usa.org.

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This storm left its mark on Richmond.

The historic district in downtown Richmond was almost washed out as the storms washed away buildings, cars, and people. Some 120 roads remain closed, today, two days after the storm hit. Many do not have water or power. Many cannot get back to their apartments and lofts, especially in the Shockoe Bottom area, which remains under 12 feet of water.

My gravel driveway was washed out, but luckily the house is OK.

Unfortunately, Hurricane Frances is on its way...

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Winery in Virginia has come a long way since the early colonists struggled to replicate the wines they produced and loved in Europe. It was much harder here, since the Virginia climate has harsh winters, hot summers, and plentiful rains that cause a host of problems for tender grape vines.

But the struggles of the good people of Virginia paid off, as today Virginia produces world-class wines: they have cultured vine hybrids that are rugged enough to thrive in the climate, have experimented with the soil types and elevations to know which terrains and locations are most suitable for plantings, and through many years of experience and support of fellow Vintners have developed the know-how to produce wines that everyone can love. There are more than 80 wineries scattered across the state, in scenic settings run by good, friendly people.

I think Thomas Jefferson would be proud.

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Unlike my last cicada song entry, here is a short sample of just one cicada - up close and personal. I tend to pick up wayward ones who have missed the trees and found themselves on the sidewalk or parking lot - not a strategic spot for a cicada. So twixt the sidewalk and the tree, we stopped by the microphone, one cidada and I.

There is a brief period of silence at the beginning - my little friend decided to crawl away from the mic, so it took some time to retrieve him. Little did he know the tape was rolling when he decided to take a break - performers are like that sometimes.

Technorati Tags: living, virginia

In the Northern parts of Virginia and in Maryland in general the 17-year cicadas are in full force. While the talking heads on the local tv stations caution people about the cicadas flying into your hair and other hysteria-mongering (as is usual for tv-type news), they are in actuality a miracle to behold.

I've taken a simple sound recording of them just to show how awesome they are - I simply opened my window in Falls Church, Virginia (where I work) and held out a microphone (actually I didn't even clear the window because of the screen, but you get the idea). In the mp3 clip (about 1.2MB) you can hear normal outdoors-in-the-city sounds, such as cars passing on the road or birds chirping. But if you listen closely you will hear a definite background hum, kind of like the sound of an original Star Trek phaser firing constantly. This hum is the sound of thousands of cicadas way up in the trees trying to attract a mate so that they can breed, die, and let the 17-year cycle start anew. The audio might have been better had I actually gone outside the window, perhaps climbing to the top of a tree, but I think from the sample you can get the idea.

Technorati Tags: living, virginia