inthenews

Plotz steps in some Aggie Poo

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I was listening to the Slate Magazine Political Gabfest: The Never Alone edition as I do every week.  Their third topic (30:00) was the affirmative action case brought by Abigail Fisher against The University of Texas and race-based admissions policies being accepted by the Supreme Court.

At some point in to it (38:00) David Plotz supports the policy of automatic admission to the university by the top 10% of graduating high school students (in the state) as a nice alternative mechanism to obtaining diversity.  The truth of the matter is the 10% isn’t as automatic as it was in the 80s, and the 10% policy has been around for a long time – though I’m not sure if it predates affirmative action laws.

“The 10% idea, taking the top 10% of a class, is a really appealing one. … I presume that at Texas A&M, which is sort of second tier, maybe it’s the top 20% or something. …”

A a child of two UT alumni, and the 4th generation graduate of the UT, I laughed heartily at that one.  It’s been a few decades since I’ve had to deal with college admissions, but I recall their policies being relatively the same (I was accepted by both).  I can’t  wait to hear if John’s inbox filled up with letters from Aggies.

Then Plotz turns around and calls the top 10% of the class “ten percenters” which is generally a term for people who don’t put in more than 10% effort.  And it of course make Frank Black‘s voice stream through my brain singing about a slacker soda jerk:

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Drive Me Home, Car

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Wired Magazine had a very interesting article about the current activity in driving automation.  Written by Tom Vanderbilt, it reviews the large leaps that have been made in the field in the past decade.  It’s amazing that we really are so close, so much that it will be a legislative problem over the coming decade to catch up with the state of the technology.

On a week that my mother bought what she expects to be the last car she owns, not expecting to be allowed to drive (by me) after she’s 80, it looks like she might be able to buy a car that (mostly if not entirely) drives for her by that time.

Reading over the article, which is quite long, thorough, and awesome, I had several thoughts on the future of the technology and implications.

Stop n’ Go Traffic

I was reminded this week of an awesome example of the emergent nature of stop n’ go traffic in a non-bottleneck/accident environment.  A video of a circle of cars that begin equal spaced but because the nature of humans begins to undulate.

One would hope that the automation of driving would put an end to the annoying of such.  Prediction 1: I think it won’t (without legislative force or technical cooperation).  I suspect that the varying granulation of the differing softwares among cars, and also likely setting of comfortable follow distances will cause the same emergent fluctuation of speeds.  The best way to counter this, in my opinion, would be to recognize a stop n’ go situation and limit the allowed acceleration after a slow down.  Just a critical mass of cars taking that approach could cause the behavior to not manifest.

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Stanley Cady Lebel: Dead Man

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I’ve been doing some genealogy work lately and came upon the details of the death of my great grandfather.  I’d heard he’d been “stabbed” or “shot”, and sometimes it was “in a bar fight” and sometimes it was “about a woman” and Stanley Cady Lebelthat my grandfather was a teenager at the time and quit school to support the family.  Well, about half of that is true.  It was a few weeks after (grandfather) Jesse’s 16th birthday – not sure about the quitting school detail.

I was quite interested at the details they included in the articles, many that would not be today.  And the fact that justice seemed swift back then – though I don’t have an article about the trial.

Five word summary to story: Stabbed in Heart with Icepick.  And if that hooked you in enough, here are the articles I found.

Dallas Morning News – 15 Aug 1923

MAN STABBED TO DEATH WITH PICK

E. L. Noble Charged with Murder Following Death of Stanley Label

Stabley C. LeBel, 44 years old, 1616 McCoy street, a salesman, was fatally injured when he was stabbed in the heart with an ice pick during an affray at 9:30 o’clock Tuesday morning at Main and Jefferson streets, near the Dallas County courthouse. Dr. W. R. McAdams of the Emergency Hospital, who was called to the scene, found LeBel dead when he arrived.

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Houston NFL

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I’ve always enjoyed sports.  Participating and watching.  Drama can be found in every step (and yet TNT “We Know Drama” doesn’t show sports).  I, of course, grew up loving the Columbia Blue “Love ya Blue” Houston Oilers. As I’ve aged, and the number of hours in a day seems continually less available, many of my … Read more

Summertime Music

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I was listening to NPR’s All Songs Considered and it reminded me of a particular summer and the music that came with it.  In 1986 I was a sophomore in college and took a job at Mo Ranch.  Which is past Hunt, Texas – which you might otherwise think was the last thing on Earth if you were driving off the end.

We had 16 or so summer staff living in one large cabin.  I was working maintenance, groundskeeping, and life guard.  The schedule was: wake up, eat breakfast, labor harder than i ever have (leaving me at 165 lbs.), lunch, half the time: labor in the afternoon, the other half life guard, dinner, kill 6 hours before midnight and bed time.  We had no chaperones or house rules, we were all college kids able to patrol ourselves.  Yes, I could write a whole book about that summer, pre WWW, pre cell phone.  But for now, just the music.

I often spent time in a truck with one of the regular maintenance workers, i forget his name. [Edit: after chatting with a friend from that summer, we’ve decided: Richard.]  He also often spent time in the evenings at the low water crossings with us.  Almost every night included lots of beer, sometimes with a claw foot bath tub full of ice.  Usually with us hanging out in the water.  (We ran the water moccasins out the first week.)  Infrequently, I and one or two others would end up at his house.  He had a single cassette tape that had two albums on in, depending on mood it was on one side or the other.

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